Tech:NYC Digest: July 14

Tech:NYC Digest: July 14

July 14, 2021 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

Wednesday, July 14, 2021

In today’s digest, New York families begin receiving child tax credit payments tomorrow, NYC startups are grabbing record venture capital dollars six months into the year, and the annual Running of the Goats welcomed NYC’s greatest park clean-up crew to Riverside Park today.

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A new child tax credit arrives tomorrow for tens of millions of eligible families. The new monthly payments were approved under the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan signed into law in March to provide families with supplemental funds each month through the end of 2021. (CNN)

In New York, an estimated 87 percent of families with children in New York will receive to the tune of $7 billion in total payments beginning on July 15. (USA Today)

  • Eligible families will receive $300 monthly for each child under the age of six or $250 monthly for children between the ages of six and 17. 

  • Older children — age 18 and full-time college students aged 19 to 24 — also qualify for up to $500.

  • The IRS uses prior-year tax returns to determine eligible households, and those families will automatically begin receiving the payments with no further action required. Those who added a baby or child in 2021 will need to go here and sign up for the credit.

Payment will be disbursed in monthly allocations through 2021, with the remainder provided as a lump sum in 2022 tax returns. Beyond that, the Biden administration wants to extend the program through 2025 under the proposed American Families Plan, which also includes expanded pre-kindergarten and free college tuition, but the plan has yet to reach a final deal with Congress. (The Hill)

Already the payments are being lauded as the largest anti-poverty measure in decades, with experts estimating they will successfully cut child poverty in half. (New York Times)

In other reading:

  • Dreading a return to your commute? These tips might make it less terrible. (Washington Post)

  • The kids were safe the whole time: why we should rethink COVID safety protocols for children — and everyone else. (New York Magazine)

  • A COVID test as easy as breathing (New York Times)

  • Remember last year’s 7pm cheer? Some New Yorkers are still at it (Wall Street Journal)

Now more than halfway through 2021, it’s clear that investors think New York startups are a bet worth making. City startups have raised a record $22 billion in venture capital in the past six months — to put that in perspective, a total of $18 billion was invested in all of 2020. (Crain’s New York)

  • Between March and June, $11.2 billion was invested across about 400 deals — up 20 percent from the same period last year.

Plenty of that investment is going to early-stage firms in NYC, but a bigger share than ever is going to later-stage startups, and the tally of NYC-based unicorns is sharply rising. There have been some three dozen megadeals — $100 million or more — for local startups so far this year.

  • Tech:NYC members ActionIQ, CLEAR, Industrious, Noom, Oscar Health, Ro, Squarespace, and Via are all on the list of New York companies that have closed nine-figure checks recently.

Jonathan Lehr, co-founder and general partner of the firm Work-Bench, pointed out that the bigger, larger deals don't come at the expense of newer, smaller companies. Rather, the pot is growing.

  • “We are a decade into New York’s emergence as a tech hub,” Lehr said. “If we were still seeing early-stage investing as the predominant financing, that would mean the companies here are not growing and maturating.”

This trend continues nationally. (Axios) According to CB Insights, startups have raised $292.4 billion globally so far this year, on track to beat the $302.6 billion raised throughout 2020. The number of $100+ million rounds has climbed to 751 in 2021 year-to-date, already beating the 665 mega rounds raised last year. (CNBC)

  • Impact, a partnership management platform for brands, raised $150 million at a $1.5 billion valuation. Qatar Investment Authority led, and was joined by Providence Public. (TechCrunch)

  • Morty, an online mortgage marketplace, raised $25 million in Series B funding. March Capital led, and was joined by Rethink Impact and insiders Thrive Capital, Lerer Hippeau, Prudence Holdings, FJ Labs, and MetaProp. (Forbes)

  • July 15: Virtual: The Future of VC in Portfolio Allocation, with 500 Startups CEO Christine Tsai, SoftBank Opportunity Fund managing partner Shu Nyatta, and others. Hosted by Reuters. Register here.

  • July 15: Virtual: How to Reach Hypergrowth, with UiPath founder and CEO Daniel Dines and Limitless Technologies co-founder and COO Megan Neale. Hosted by Work-Bench. Register here.

  • July 16: Virtual: 5G and America’s Digital Future, with Acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, Qualcomm president and CEO Cristiano Amon, and others. Hosted by Axios. Register here.

  • July 19: Virtual: The Empowered Employee Era, with Zoom chief people officer Lynne Oldham, Earthseed founder Ifeoma Ozoma, Hodgestar Scientific Computing founder Jack Poulson, and others. Hosted by Protocol. Register here.

  • July 22: Virtual: How AI Technology Affects Hiring, with RippleMatch chief of staff Troy LeClaire, Fetcher CEO Andres Banks, and Ordergroove SVP of People Karen Weeks. Hosted by NYCETC and Hot Bread Kitchen. Register here.

The next great race is on in New York City, and no, Eric Adams is not the one to bleat. The annual Running of the Goats took place in Riverside Park today with an added twist. This year, community members are being asked to submit their Ranked Choice Goats and pick a favorite voracious four legger by the end of the summer. 

Thankfully, the herd will be less crowded than the Democratic mayoral primary, with just five to rank. Those five — Skittles, Buckles, Chalupa, Mellemar, and Ms. Bo Beep — are staying in the park after today to help staff by chowing down various invasive species. 

Be sure to

sometime this summer, and keep an eye on Riverside Park’s

as they roll out their RCV platforms.

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