Tech:NYC Digest: January 6

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Thursday, January 6, 2022

In today’s digest, fewer New Yorkers going to ICU despite rise in cases, tips for where to get at-home testing kits, and how M&A fits into HR.

• ❄️ NYC’s first snowfall of the season is expected tomorrow, bringing as much as five inches throughout the day. Plan accordingly and stay safe!   

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By the numbers: 

• New positive cases statewide: 84,202

  • New positive cases, NYC: 46,158

• NYC Positivity Rate: 22.4 percent

• Statewide Vaccine Progress: 

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

  • Percentage of total population with at least one dose: 84.8 percent

Today’s latest: 

• One point of optimism: Fewer New York residents are seeing the worst outcomes of COVID-19 in its latest surge compared with earlier waves. At the state’s largest hospital network, fully vaccinated patients requiring hospitalization are staying for an average of four days, compared with almost two weeks for unvaccinated patients, and ICU admissions are about 10 percent of recent patients, compared to 25-35 percent in previous surges. (Wall Street Journal)

• The CDC has endorsed booster shots of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 12 to 17, citing rising infections in teens and young adults. Any American older than 12 who is five months past a second dose of the vaccine can now get the booster. (New York Times)

• Starting next week, Americans struggling to get tested at public sites or other providers will be able to have the cost of rapid at-home tests reimbursed by their insurers, according to Pres. Biden. (New York Times)

• And if you’re still on the hunt for more at-home test kits, here’s a good rundown of the various sources to try.

  • Our tip: Don’t start with the public hospital system — it has paused its online portal to request at-home tests — or large pharmacies, which are often sold out. Instead, try smaller neighborhood pharmacies and NYC startup providers like Capsule (which offers a same-day test delivery service in NYC), as well as Ro, LetsGetChecked, and Vault (all of which offer quick antigen or PCR test delivery).

  • Also give product tracking site NowInStock a try — it has an entire section dedicated to COVID test kits.

• It’s been one year since the riots at the Capitol attempting to overthrow a free and fair election. Pres. Biden delivered a speech today condemning the event and those who still feed into it. Here are five takeaways from his remarks.

In other reading:

• Should I Just Get Omicron Over With? (The Atlantic)

• Should you add a throat swab to your at-home COVID test? Experts disagree. (Washington Post)

• Don’t feel ashamed for getting COVID (Washington Post)

2021 was defined by the double whammy of the “Great Resignation” and the great competition for talent. All indications suggest 2022 will be no different.

One way executives hope to win the talent game: buying other companies.

A new KPMG report found a third of executives surveyed want to use mergers and acquisitions as a strategy to acquire talent in 2022.

• “We’re all experiencing this shortage of job seekers,” Philip J. Isom, global head of M&A at KPMG, told Axios. Companies that might have tried to grow organically in different times are instead looking into acquiring other firms as a quicker solution to their recruitment problems, he says.

2021 was a record-breaking year for M&A, and 2022 is poised to continue that trend. 

But just because companies absorb new talent doesn’t mean they’ll retain them.

• More attractive incentive packages are now a must-have to retain top talent post-M&A. Keeping with all the other workplace trends of the pandemic, those packages will now have to extend beyond higher pay and include more robust health care, workplace flexibility, and bespoke benefits options.

Get the full KPMG report here.

In other reading:

• 2022 will be a great reckoning for corporate purpose (Fast Company)

• This company just decided to give employees a 4-day workweek permanently (CNBC)

• How Zoom is making hybrid meetings less awkward (Protocol)

• Livepeer, a New York City-based decentralized video streaming platform, raised $20 million in Series B extension funding. Alan Howard and Tiger Global co-led the round and were joined by insiders Digital Currency Group, Northzone, and Warburg Serres. (Businesswire)

• Petal, a New York City-based credit card startup for underserved consumers, raised $140 million in Series D funding. Tarsadia Investments led the round and was joined by Valar Ventures, CUNA Mutual, Encore Bank, Volery Capital Partners, Gopher Asset Management, RiverPark Ventures, Afore Capital, and Gaingels. (TechCrunch)

• ReadyWorks, a New York-based based IT infrastructure management platform, raised $8 million in Series A funding. Credit Suisse’s NEXT Investors led the round. (FinSMEs)

​​The Black New Venture Competition is accepting applications for its 2022 program. Early-stage Black founders will have access to capital, mentors, and advisors, as well as a chance to pitch to a group of angel investors awarding up to $275,000 in prize money. Learn more and apply by Jan. 9 here.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.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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