Tech:NYC Digest: August 17

Tech:NYC Digest: August 17

August 17, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes

Thursday, August 17, 2023

In today’s digest, anticipating the late summer COVID wave, lessons to learn for NYC’s congestion pricing plan, and Carta explains the VC trends worth paying attention to before the end of the year.

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  • The average COVID-19 hospitalization rate nationwide rose about 17% between June and July, per the latest available CDC data. (Axios)

    • With little testing happening these days, hospitalization rates are now one of the best benchmarks for estimating broader viral spread. 

    • The COVID-19 hospitalization rate in New York is up 10.4%from June to July 2023.

  • TikTok is now banned on NYC government-owned devices. (New York Times) 

    • The city’s Cyber Command determined the app “posed a security threat to the city’s technical networks.” NYC now joins over two dozen states and numerous federal agencies in banning TikTok from government-owned devices.

In other reading:

  • 3 global cities have had congestion pricing for decades. What can they teach NYC? (Gothamist)

  • Broadway Week returns with terrific two-for-one tickets details, including from this year’s Tony Award for Best Musical, Kimberly Akimbo (TimeOut New York) 

  • This massive, free salsa party is about to take over the High Line (Gothamist)

New founders are (for good reason!) paying much closer attention to VC trends as dealflow and larger market shifts continue to ebb and flow. That’s especially true for the startups at the earliest stages of building their companies — and pounding the pavement for pre-seed financing.

What’s new: A new quarterly report from cap table and equity management provider Carta found “legacy venture ecosystems” dominated the pre-seed stage. Get their new State of Pre-Seed Report here.

  • The report found that, of the 2,103 companies that raised some form of pre-seed financing in H1 2023, over half are headquartered either in New York or California.

But don’t count the seed and Series A activity out: Those cycles have also proven resilient in New York, according to Carta's data.

  • We noted that, at the end of Q1, New York led the country — yes, even ahead of San Francisco — in volume of seed and Series A deals for the first time ever.

  • In Q1 2023, the median level of cash raised for a Series A company in New York was $8.7 million, compared to $7.3 million in Silicon Valley. It’s the first instance NYC has overtaken the Bay Area on this metric since the beginning of the pandemic.

  • The same trend was true of valuation — in Q1 2023, median pre-money valuations for Series A companies in New York was $48 million, compared to $42 million in Silicon Valley.

Dig deeper

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  • Caden, a NYC-based data intelligence company, raised $15 million in Series A funding. Nava Ventures led the round and was joined by AME Cloud Ventures, Streamlined Ventures, Montage Ventures, Industry Ventures, 1707 Capital, AAF Management, and others.

  • Global Illumination, a NYC-based startup that builds creative tools and digital experiences, was acquired by OpenAI. It is OpenAI’s first acquisition; financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

  • Highlight, a NYC-based product testing platform, raised $18 million in Series A funding. Acre Venture Partners and HearstLab co-led the round.

  • August 21: In-person: Mapping for Equity: A New Way NYC’s Public Amenities, with Council Member Jennifer Gutiérrez, North Brooklyn Parks Alliance, and BetaNYC. Register here.

  • August 22: Virtual: #notapitch: Unofficial Feedback on Your Idea/Prototype from a VC, with Brooklyn Bridge Ventures partner Charlie O’Donnell. Register here.

  • August 23: In-person: How to Leverage AI to Grow Your Software Company, with Merge CTO Gil Feig, Replit growth engineer Gian Segato, MongoDB lead vector search product manager Benjamin Flast, and Ansa investor Josh Chin. Hosted by Ansa Capital. Register here.

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