The week in New York technology, read and picked by hand. No algorithm, nothing in here because someone paid for it.
Tuesday · · 5 minute read
Alice raises $140 million for AI model testing and monitoring
Alice raised $140 million in a funding round led by Apax Digital on August 25, 2026. This financing brings Alice’s total funding to $280 million. The AI trust, safety, and security company is approaching $100 million in annual recurring revenue. Its AI business has grown over 500% in the past two years.
Alice focuses on identifying and preventing adversarial behaviour across AI systems. Before models are released, Alice works with labs including Anthropic, Google, and Cohere to simulate malicious prompts. Once models are in production, Alice helps enterprises add specific protections and monitor inputs and outputs. The company plans to use the new capital to advance its AI platform for model testing, defence, and monitoring. It will also expand the team supporting Rabbit Hole, its dataset of adversarial content, and grow its go-to-market organisation. Noam Schwartz, CEO and Co-Founder of Alice, stated, "There are infinite ways to break an AI, and you can’t defend against something you’ve never seen."
Reported by StrictlyVC, 2026-08-26
RQD raises $74 million for clearing and custody infrastructure
New York startup RQD secured $74 million in funding. The company provides clearing and custody infrastructure for broker-dealers, advisers, and foreign financial institutions trading U.S. securities. Bain Capital Tech Opportunities led the round, with ABN AMRO Clearing Bank and Nyca Partners also participating.
Reported by StrictlyVC, 2026-08-28
Cityblock raises $116m Series E, acquires Homeward Health
Cityblock continues its mission to radically improve the health of marginalized communities. The company pairs clinical compassion and community support with advanced technology. This approach delivers care designed to be high touch, high trust, and high tech. Cityblock aims to help members navigate every part of their health journey, offering visits in neighborhoods or through home calls.
A team of doctors, nurses, counselors, and technologists works to
Reported by Tech:NYC, 2026-08-24
"Zombie" space companies persist despite objective failures
Sir Peter Beck observes that numerous "zombie" space companies continue to secure funding despite clear failures. He attributes this to the space industry’s excitement, which makes corroborating claims difficult. "Even large, reputable firms can be poor at diligence in this sector," said Sir Peter Beck.
Reported by Molly O’Shea, 2026-08-28
Patrick Collison discusses lean startup doctrine at Startup School
Patrick Collison, speaking at Startup School 2026, suggested that the lean startup doctrine of finding a tiny niche and iterating is reaching its limits. He clarified that the assumption that learning cheaply requires thinking small needs updating, noting Stripe was built for almost two years before its public launch.
Reported by Product Market Fit, 2026-08-25
MTA to pilot virtual OMNY cards in phones and schools
The MTA plans to begin testing a "virtual" reloadable OMNY card later this year. This option will allow New Yorkers to keep their OMNY cards on their smartphones. The city also plans to pilot virtual OMNY cards for students at seven schools this fall. This follows previous delays, as the agency had initially aimed for a rollout in the third quarter of 2025.
Reported by Tech:NYC, 2026-08-24
NYC Mayor launches 15-member business advisory council
On Thursday, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the formation of a 15-member business advisory council. The council includes leaders such as Chobani CEO Hamdi Ulukaya, New York Liberty CEO Keia Clarke, and Etsy CEO Kruti Patel Goyal. These 15 business leaders will meet quarterly with the mayor and Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su. Their purpose is to advise on the city’s economy.
The mayor has previously faced criticisms from business leaders including
Reported by Tech:NYC, 2026-08-27
NYC Parks deploys 24-person rapid-response "Renew Crew"
On August 24, 2026, Mayor Zohran Mamdani launched the "Renew Crew" initiative. This team comprises 24 painters, electricians, plumbers, and other workers. Their mandate is to complete emergency repairs at city parks, playgrounds, and recreation centres within three weeks. Initial tasks include fixing broken water fountains, patching asphalt on basketball courts, and powerwashing dirty
Reported by Tech:NYC, 2026-08-24
New York surpasses Bay Area as largest US tech talent market
New York Metro has surpassed the San Francisco Bay Area to become the largest tech talent market in the U.S. This finding was released on August 18, 2026, in the Scoring Tech Talent 2026 report by CBRE. The report provides a comprehensive analysis of labour market conditions, costs, and quality for highly skilled tech workers across North America. New York Metro also maintained its position among the top six tech talent markets overall.
The CBRE report ranks markets using 13 metrics, with tech talent concentration carrying the highest weight. Despite New York’s overall lead, the San Francisco Bay Area continues to attract 80% of U.S. AI venture funding since 2020 and houses one-sixth of U.S. AI-specialty talent. Remote job postings in the Bay Area fell to 7% by April 2026, as AI companies largely require full-time, in-person work. The Bay Area was also identified as a net tech graduate market, meaning it lost jobs.
Reported by Tech:NYC, 2026-08-24
New York is second-largest AI talent market, adds 20,000 specialists
New York Metro became the largest tech talent market, surpassing the San Francisco Bay Area in total workforce size. This finding comes from the CBRE "Scoring Tech Talent 2026" report. The report identifies New York Metro as one of the largest U.S. AI-specialty talent clusters. Across the U.S. and Canada, the number of AI-skilled tech talent workers
Reported by Tech:NYC, 2026-08-24
Census Bureau survey finds AI saves workers hours on the job
A recent Census Bureau survey found that over half of U.S. workers have used AI for at least one common work task. Among those who use AI weekly, 31% reported saving one to two hours, while 30% saved three hours or more.
Reported by Tech:NYC, 2026-08-26
Granola’s growth playbook detailed in deep dive
Granola achieved a $1.5B valuation in three years. This was accomplished using strategies such as a stealth year, a "no-bot" approach, a 12.5x cost collapse, and an MCP pivot. A deep dive analysis covers ten levers from its growth playbook.
Reported by The VC Corner, 2026-08-27
Jeff Dean’s 1% rule for AI founders
Google’s Chief Scientist Jeff Dean advises AI founders against building solutions for problems where general models already achieve 20% success. Dean predicts that general models will catch up to this performance level within six to twelve months.
Reported by Product Market Fit, 2026-08-27
Editor’s note
Seeing the stats around Tech Talent in the Capital is no surprise. we are working with San Francisco and NY clientele most weeks and New York has certainly closed the gap on investment and interest to setup in the capital.
It’s interesting when chatting with founders about reasons for their location choices,the ability to travel around the City and the ease of connecting face to face was often cited as a pro for New York.
In a world where tech enables us to always be connected it’s ironic to think physical transport is benefiting NY over the Bay.
