Tech:NYC Digest: August 24

Tech:NYC Digest: August 24

August 24, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes

Thursday, August 24, 2023

In today’s digest, the COVID outlook for the holiday weekend, what to know about mandatory composting, and how itselectric plans to make EV adoption even more accessible in NYC.  

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  • Not to be a bearer of bad news, but … the city is experiencing a COVID spike, with nearly 700 cases recorded in mid-August. Here’s what to know about the latest in NYC.

  • You should probably avoid Coney Island Beach this weekend. (Gothamist)

    • The beach is closed to swimmers due to contamination from sewage and storm runoff. The conditions are especially risky for children, elderly people, and those who are pregnant or have chronic illness, the city said.

  • Red Hook and East NY Kids Are Learning to Fly Drones at a New, Free Digital Literacy Camp (BK Reader)

    • The AT&T Summer Soaring Project, run by AT&T and Good Shepherd Services launched the program for 35 elementary and middle school students in East New York and Red Hook in an effort to help address the diversity gap in the tech industry.

  • Gov. Kathy Hocul is calling on the White House and other federal officials to provide more formal federal assistance to the influx of asylum seekers seeking shelter in New York. Her main request: A federal order making it easier for asylum-seekers to receive immediate authorization to legally work. (Gothamist)

In other reading:

  • Mandatory Composting Is Coming to Brooklyn: What You Need to Know (New York Times)

  • Who’s going to the Queens Carnival in Far Rockaway this weekend? (Qns.com)

  • Eater. Resy. Blackbird? (Grub Street)

For apartment dwellers in urban cities like New York, one of the barriers to getting an electric car is that it’s often a hassle to charge it without a garage of your own. That’s where itselectric comes in, writes Fast Company.

  • The company, which was the Sustainability winner of Fast Company’s 2023 Innovation by Design Awards, is accelerating the installation of curbside EV chargers on NYC streets.

Doing something different: Public chargers usually involve a long permitting process and complex utility work that can take months, but itselectric partners with adjacent building owners to share extra power, so the connection can be set up quickly and at a lower cost.

  • “Cities urgently need to get public EV charging to drivers who don’t have access to off-street parking,” says CEO Nathan King. “The problem that we’re trying to solve is a problem of speed and scale.”

The big picture: NYC has quickly emerged as a national leader on EV innovation — alongside itselectric, Revel, Circuit, Stak Mobility, Gravity, and many Tech:NYC member startups are at the forefront of solutions that make EV adoption more accessible.  

In other reading:

  • Why most managers don’t want to come back to the office full-time (Fast Company)

  • Sorry, But LinkedIn Is Cool Now (Bloomberg)

  • Checking Email? You’re Probably Not Breathing (New York Times)

  • DICE, a Brooklyn and London-based music ticketing platform, raised $65 million in funding. MUSIC and LionTree co-led the round and were joined by Structural Capital, Ahdritz Capital, Exor Ventures, and Mirabaud Lifestyle Fund.

  • Hugging Face, a NYC-based platform for developing AI models, raised $235 million in Series D funding. Salesforce Ventures led the round and was joined by Sound Ventures, Google, Amazon, Nvidia, Intel, AMD, Qualcomm, and IBM.

  • Novig, a NYC-based sports betting exchange, raised $6.4 million in seed funding. Lux Capital led the round and was joined by Y Combinator, Paul Graham, Soma Capital, and others.

  • Wand.app, a Brooklyn-based AI-powered creative tool for artists, raised $4.2 million in seed funding. O’Shaughnessy Ventures led the round and was joined by Long Journey, Notation Capital, Betaworks, Charge Venture, and others.

  • August 24: In-person: Strengthening the Responsible Tech Ecosystem to Tackle Hard Problems, with Cornell Tech head of public interest technology studio Lyel Resner, Silicon Harlem chief of staff Claire Liu Yang, and others. Hosted by All Tech is Human and Betaworks. Register here.

  • September 12: In-person: Entrepreneurs Roundtable, with Eniac Ventures co-founder and general partner Hadley Harris. Hosted by ERA. Register here.

  • September 13: In-person: The Founder’s Guide to Product Market Fit, with Innovatemap principal Katie Lukes. Hosted by Innovatemap and Industrious. Register here.

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