Tech:NYC Digest: December 7

Tech:NYC Digest: December 7

December 07, 2021 • Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes

Tuesday, December 7, 2021

Happy Tuesday, where sunset already happened over half an hour ago. 😫 In today’s digest, Omicron continues to spread in New York, what the variant means for holiday parties and travel, and the largest survey of working parents uncovers their workplace needs.

Was this digest forwarded to you? Subscribe here.

By the numbers:

  • New positive cases statewide: 6,078

    • New positive cases, NYC: 2,050

  • NYC Positivity Rate: 2.3 percent

  • Statewide Vaccine Progress:

    • Percentage of adults (18+) with at least one dose: 91.7 percent

    • Percentage of total population with at least one dose: 79.3 percent

Today in COVID:

  • New York State health officials confirmed four more cases of the Omicron variant, bringing the state total to 12. While health officials are still working to learn more about the new variant, the local cases appear to be mild. (CBS New York)

  • Case counts are rising much more rapidly in upstate New York than in the city, causing concern. (New York Times)

    • Average positivity rates in Mohawk Valley, Western New York, and the Finger Lakes are all hovering above ten percent.

    • Elective surgeries and other procedures will be halted at 32 hospitals in New York that have less than 10 percent staffed bed capacity. (NY State of Politics)

  • As the world worries the Omicron coronavirus variant may cause a surge of cases and weaken vaccines, drug developers have some encouraging news: Two new COVID-19 pills are coming soon, and are expected to work against all versions of the virus. (New York Times)

  • Most Americans aren't willing to make big changes in their behavior in response to risk from the Omicron variant, like avoiding indoor dining or canceling their holiday travel plans, according to a new Axios-Ipsos poll. (Axios)

In other reading:

  • The Other Kind of Party Favor That Goes Up Your Nose (The Cut)

  • New York Makes the Movies and the Movies Make New York (New York Magazine)

  • Christmas Tree Questions? Ask the Mayor of Rockefeller Center. (New York Times)

In the competition to attract talent — especially as many companies prepare to move forward with new flexible work plans — there’s one group employers should focus on: working parents.

That advice comes from Maven, a NYC-founded women’s and family health startup (and Tech:NYC member!), which partnered with Great Place to Work to release the largest-ever study of parents at work.

  • The survey polled more than 500,000 working parents across 1,700 companies to get a first-hand account of what it will take to retain that talent.

Among the key findings:

  • Around 10 million US mothers were not actively working in January 2021 — 1.4 million more than January of last year.

  • One in four working parents reported suffering from burnout, and 64 percent of them are considering a career change, including leaving their jobs altogether.

  • Younger parents are particularly affected: parents and parents-to-be between ages 26 and 34 are 200 percent more likely to experience burnout.

But the study identified some key “Best Workplace for Parents” trends that indicated those benefits extended to all employees:

  • Companies that had supportive benefits for parents — such as childcare subsidies, fertility benefits, and adoption support programs — saw a 30 percent advantage in the ability to both retain and sustain talent over those that don’t.

The report estimates up to 4.8 million cases of employee burnout are preventable if the “Best Workplaces” practices were more widespread.

Dig deeper: On Thursday, Maven founder and CEO Kate Ryder will share more insights from the data with Great Place to Work VP of data science and innovation Marcus Erb. Join them at 12:30pm ET by registering here.

  • ButterflyMX, a New York City-based access control technology for housing properties, raised $50 million in Series D funding. JMI Equity led the round and was joined by Volition Capital, Egis Capital, and RiverPark Ventures. (Newswire)

  • Fable, a New York City-based motion design platform for creators, raised $15 million in Series A funding. Redpoint Ventures led the round and was joined by Collaborative Fund, SIP Global Partners, Harrison Metal, Third Kind Venture Capital, and LightShed Ventures. (Newswire)

  • Kasada, a New York City-based bot mitigation startup, raised $23 million in Series C funding. StepStone Group led the round and was joined by insiders Ten Eleven Ventures, Main Sequence Ventures, Reinventure, Our Innovation Fund, and Turnbull & Partners. (VentureBeat)

  • Universe, a Brooklyn-based website and online store building app, raised $30 million in Series B funding. Addition led the round and was joined by Google Ventures, Javelin Venture Partners, and Box Group. (Newswire)

  • YipitData, a New York City-based alternative data analytics and market research firm, raised $475 million in Series E funding. Carlyle led the round. (Newswire)

  • December 8: Virtual: Carta Equity Summit, with goop founder Gwyneth Paltrow,  23andMe co-founder Anne Wojcicki, Tia co-founder Carolyn Witte, Union Square Ventures general partner Rebecca Kaden, and dozens more. Register here.

  • December 9: Virtual: Building in the Open, with Cockroach Labs CEO Spencer Kimball, Solo.io CEO Idit Levine, Timescale CEO Ajay Kulkarni, and others. Hosted by Work-Bench. Register here.

  • December 9: In-person and virtual: Innovations in Tech Education and Workforce Programming and Policy, with Union Square Ventures partner Fred Wilson, Hunter College president Jennifer Raab, Google NYC Tech Site Lead Aparna Pappu, and others. Register here.

  • December 10: Virtual: Making New York the Crypto Capital, with New York State Senator Diane Savino, eToro USA CEO Lule Demissie, Genesis CEO Michael Moro, and others. Hosted by City & State. Register here.

Any feedback or suggestions of things to add? Get in touch here. Was this digest forwarded to you? Sign up to receive it directly here.