Tech:NYC Digest: December 7

Tech:NYC Digest: December 7

December 07, 2022 • Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes

Wednesday, December 7, 2022

In today’s digest, the safety precautions that will stick around for this winter, how to actually enjoy the holidays this year, and how BK-XL is walking the walk on supporting underrepresented NYC founders.

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  • NYC’s Pandemic Response Lab, a mass-testing lab set up during the first year of the pandemic, will close at the end of the month, due to the more widespread availability of at-home tests and a reduction in business. The lab, run by a robotics company, processed more than 10 million COVID tests, with quick turnaround times. (Bloomberg)

  • Americans are entering the holidays for the first time in two years with COVID firmly in the back of their minds, according to the latest installment of the Axios/Ipsos Coronavirus Index. (Axios) 

    • While 7 in 10 respondents believe the virus no longer disrupts their daily lives, almost the same proportions believe that government should continue funding prevention measures and monitoring transmission levels.

  • The LGBTQ+ bar Julius', the site of a “sip-in” protest three years before the Stonewall riots, will officially go down in NYC history after the Landmarks Preservation Commission granted it official city landmark status this week. (Gothamist)

In other reading:

  • Secrets of the New York Christmas Tree Trade (Curbed)

  • Experts Weigh in On How to Actually Enjoy the Holidays (New York Times)

  • A Fierce Pizza War Has Come to An End in NYC (Eater NY)

New York’s tech sector has a larger talent pool of persons of color than every other big uS marketplace.

  • Tech:NYC’s most recent Innovation Indicators data shows that Black and Hispanic workers make up 21% of the city's tech workforce, more than twice the percentages of the other two leading US tech hubs (Boston and San Francisco Bay Area) combined. 

However, despite some notable progress, the needle hasn’t sufficiently moved forward for the BIPOC-founded startups and small business entrepreneurs who rely on early-stage investments. (New York Times)

What’s new: This week, BK-XL, an early-stage accelerator focused on businesses founded by people of color in Brooklyn, started accepting applications for its inaugural cohort.

  • The program, designed by the Social Justice Fund and early-stage VC firm Visible Hands, runs for ten weeks and is offering up to $500,000 per selected company.

  • Among the other perks: Office space at Industry City and mentorship from investors and operators from Blue Pool Capital, BSE Global, the Brooklyn Nets, Barclays Center, and more.

Businesses with Black or Latinx founders only raised 2.4% of the nation's venture capital funds from 2015 to 2020, according to Crunchbase. And the percentage of Black company owners in NYC is just 3.5%. (Gothamist)

  • “Capital is one of the biggest impediments to wealth-building, particularly for BIPOC entrepreneurs,” Clara Wu Tsai, the Brooklyn Nets co-owner behind the program, told the Associated Press. “We thought that investing in this segment was how we could create wealth, not only for the entrepreneurs, but also through all the different jobs that they are going to create.”

In other reading: 

This week is CSEd Week, an annual call to action to inspire students about computer science, advocate for equity, and celebrate CS heroes. In NYC, students are engaging in CS activities during an "Hour of Code." The next big CS event in NYC: the CS Fair, hosted by Gotham Gives, a foundation led by investor Fred Wilson. The Fair is returning as a fully in-person event on April 25, 2023 at the Fort Washington Avenue Armory. Companies interested in sponsorship or participation opportunities should contact Jennifer Klopp here. 

  • Runway ML, a New York-based creation suite for content editing, raised $50 million in Series C funding. Felicis Ventures led the round and was joined by Madrona Ventures, Amplify Partners, Coatue, Compound, and Lux Capital. (Forbes)

  • Setpoint, a NYC and Austin-based infrastructure platform for real estate transactions, raised $43 million in Series A funding. Andreessen Horowitz led the round and was joined by Fifth Wall, 645 Ventures, NextView Ventures, LiveOak Venture Partners, Vesta Ventures, ATX Venture Partners, Capital Factory, and others. (TechCrunch)

CIV:LAB, a grantmaking network for climate initiatives, is seeking is seeking NYC-based tech and community leaders to serve on the NYC Advisory Committee and/or help review and score applications for its Climate Fund I. Learn more about the advisory committee and reviewer roles, and apply by Dec. 9 here.The David Prize, a no-string attached $200,000 prize for five New Yorkers creating a better, brighter future in the five boroughs, is accepting applications and nominations for its next cohort. Learn more and apply by Dec. 12 here. The New York City Economic Development Corporation is accepting applications for its 2023 Founder Fellowship. A signature program of the Venture Access NYC initiative, the program works with five NYC operators — Chloe Capital, Company Ventures, Newlab, the Tech Incubator at Queens College, and Visible Hands — to support 100 diverse-led startup teams. Learn more and apply by Dec. 16 here.BX-XL, an early-stage startup accelerator program run by the Social Justice Fund and Visible Hands to support BIPOC founders, is accepting applications for its inaugural cohort. Selected founders will receive investments of up to $500,000, mentorship, company-building support, and more. Learn more and apply by Jan. 20 here.The Social Science Research Council is accepting applications for its Just Tech Fellowship. The program is open to cross-disciplinary researchers and practitioners to imagine and create more just, equitable, and representative technological futures. Selected fellows receive two-year awards of $100,000 annually, as well as seed funding for work on other collaborative projects. Learn more and apply by Jan. 30 here.

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