Tech:NYC Digest: January 12

Tech:NYC Digest: January 12

January 12, 2022 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

Wednesday, January 12, 2022

In today’s digest, case counts plateau in NYC, BinaxNOW most effective at-home antigen tests, and the pandemic-fueled rise of e-commerce. 

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By the numbers: 

  • New positive cases statewide: 58,770 

    • New positive cases, NYC: 31,183 

  • NYC Positivity Rate: 19.4 percent (-0.7 percent)

  • NYC Hospitalizations: 6,523 (+80)

  • Statewide Vaccine Progress: 

    • Percentage of adults (18+) with at least one dose: 95.0 percent

    • Percentage of total population with at least one dose: 85.6 percent 

Today’s latest: 

  • In her latest briefing, Gov. Hochul noted optimistically that while daily numbers remain high in New York, case counts have begun to plateau. However, cases continue to rise upstate. (New York Times)

  • New York will no longer require local health departments to conduct contact tracing for positive COVID-19 cases, citing the backlog of new Omicron reporting in recent weeks. The state Dept. of Health will launch new websites today listing this policy along with guidance on how to properly quarantine. (The Hill)

  • The White House will distribute millions of free coronavirus tests to schools across the country to try to keep classrooms open. (New York Times)

    • Millions of rapid antigen tests will be made available each month, the administration said, but states will have to apply for them. Once such requests are made, the CDC will work to deliver the first shipments as early as this month.

  • A new study indicates the widely-used BinaxNOW at-home antigen tests are successful at detecting most new Omicron infections, although like all rapid antigen tests, they are less sensitive than PCR tests. (New York Times)

In other reading:

  • Why Cloth Masks Might Not Be Enough as Omicron Spreads (Wall Street Journal)

  • 5 reasons you should not deliberately catch Omicron to 'get it over with' (CNN)

  • How to Get Through an Omicron Winter (New York Times)

  • 22 NYC Restaurants Offering Cozy, Heated Outdoor Dining (Eater NY)

COVID-19 has dramatically changed how consumers and businesses behave. Through the sprint of panic buying, the rise of the “homebody economy,” and a strong shift towards contactless shopping, the shopping trends that have defined the pandemic are likely to outlast it.

The latest analysis of Google search trends provides a picture of consumers’ “new normal,” and the startups building products for them. (Axios)

  • The future of flexible work makes it wise to invest in home offices for the long-term, meaning purchases of computer accessories and office supplies will continue.

  • Direct-to-consumer beauty, self-care, and wellness products have also become more mainstream.

  • And of course, demand for tequila and sweatpants will never go away.

E-commerce was all but forced onto consumers due to COVID-19, and even more traditional brands will shift to DTC in 2022. (Forbes)

  • According to Edgemesh CEO Jake Loveless, the pandemic has also been the nudge many DTC companies needed to expand into adjacent categories to serve more consumers.

That’s a positive sign for venture capital firms and startups that closed record numbers of deals in 2021 and are betting on the staying power of e-commerce. Some other consumer trends are:

  • Fast delivery will become the norm: consumers now expect quick home delivery for everything from lunch to new furniture, and advantages like that will be even more important in a more crowded market.

  • Privacy rules will shift how brands reach customers: DTC companies will invest more in personalization and zero-party data tools to avoid unexpected external shifts that could impact their revenue.

  • Pandemic fixes are here to stay: Touchless, cashierless, and mobile-enabled checkout will become more widespread even beyond the pandemic. 

What to look out for: Even more startups will continue popping up to build solutions that adapt to these changes — services like Wizard, a “conversational commerce” platform that lets a shopper text a brand about products, and Fast, which enables the purchase of items anywhere on the internet with no accounts or logins required.

In other reading: 

  • Text-to-shop and robot cashiers: why shopping will be way less annoying this year (Fast Company)

  • No emergency savings? New workplace benefits aim to help (CNBC)

  • How to make your home office a more pleasant place to work (Vox Media)

  • Bolster, a New York City-based marketplace for on-demand executive talent, raised $11 million in Series B funding. Foundry led the round and was joined by Capital Factory and Alumni Ventures, as well as existing investors Silicon Valley Bank, High Alpha, Union Square Ventures, and Costanoa Venture Capital. (Bolster)

  • CAIS, a New York City-based alternative investment platform for financial advisors, raised $225 million in funding. Apollo Global Management and Motive Partners co-led the round and were joined by Franklin Templeton. (Wall Street Journal)

  • Pagaya, a New York City and Tel Aviv-based AI-powered financial lending platform, raised $350 Million in a PIPE deal ahead of its planned SPAC merger. Investors included Tiger Global, Whale Rock, GIC, Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan, and G Squared. (Bloomberg)

Open Data Week 2022, a festival organized by BetaNYC and the NYC Mayor’s Office of Data Analytics, is seeking proposals from technologists and other NYC tech community members interested in presenting at the festival. Proposals can be for virtual or in-person events, with particular interest in those that use/related to publicly available data. Learn more and submit your idea by Jan. 12 here.CityCoins is accepting applications for its 2022 Accelerator Track. The three-month program provides product development, industry mentors, and funding opportunities to teams interested in using crypto to solve public problems in cities. Learn more and apply by Jan. 31 here.NextView is accepting applications for its Everyday Economy Accelerator program. The program is seeking consumer and SaaS B2B startups at the pre-seed and seed stage, offering $400K access to NextView’s investor, operators, and extended advisor network. Learn more and apply by Feb. 14 here.The Founder Institute is accepting applications for its New York Virtual 2022 Cohort. The program focuses on helping tech or tech-enabled businesses at the idea and pre-seed stages interested in the institute's FI Core accelerator. Learn more and apply by the early admissions deadline on Feb. 20 here.

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