As artificial intelligence sweeps through the financial services industry, startups are preparing to help banks with mitigating the potential risks of applying AI to their workflows.
Five AI and cybersecurity startups looking to expand into the enterprise space have successfully graduated from
The five startups in Ascent’s 2025 cohort spent six months working alongside BNY teams to test their solutions against challenges in AI governance, cyber-defense, market intelligence and operational risk.
The five graduating startups are AI security provider
The Ascent Program is a structured proof-of-concept program built by BNY to help early-stage companies validate their solutions in real-world financial services environments.
The program, led by BNY’s Strategic Partnerships, Investments and Innovation (SPIN) team, provides emerging tech startups with access to direct mentorship, POC frameworks, and personalized feedback as they prepare to break into enterprise markets.
“We are thrilled to support some of the most innovative companies shaping the future of financial technology,” said Marianna Lopert-Schaye, global head of SPIN at BNY. “The Ascent Program is uniquely positioned to help these companies validate and scale their ideas with real institutional input while helping BNY future-proof our infrastructure and advance safe, responsible innovation.”
Lopert-Schaye described BNY’s Ascent program to American Banker as “a white-glove pilot and concept program” providing structure and support for early-stage startups looking to serve large businesses.
Startups in the Ascent Program cohort are selected based on technological maturity, the vision of the teams behind the startups and whether the startup builds a product or solution BNY is actively looking for.
Managing the risks of implementing AI at an enterprise level was top of mind for BNY when selecting this year’s cohort, Lopert-Schaye said.
“Accelerating AI adoption and agentic use cases in enterprise is going to require a meaningful investment in the infrastructure layer so that when we work with models and we’re building agents, we know that they’re built within a framework and an environment that we feel is secure,” she said. “Most of the companies that are doing the most cutting-edge building in this space have been founded in 2023 onwards. Some of these newer players have the expertise and the agility to build capabilities that could be really meaningful in solving some of the risks that we are concerned about.”
Reality Defender is the only startup that has received an investment from BNY so far, but the bank is “in the early innings of conversations” about the potential for commercial partnerships with the other startups, according to Lopert-Schaye.
“It’s very much on a case-by-case basis,” she said. “This was a very strong cohort and we’re excited about what they’re doing.”
The bank’s investment into fintech startups extends across multiple programs. In addition to the Ascent Program, BNY’s SPIN team hosted