Tech:NYC Digest: July 22

Tech:NYC Digest: July 22

July 22, 2021 • Estimated Reading Time: 11 minutes

Thursday, July 22, 2021

In today’s digest, New York grapples with rising cases amid unequal vaccination rates, a new survey sheds light on what it's like to be a tech worker today, and how New York shapes up on the latest Fittest Cities list.

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Concern has been mounting over rising positivity rates in NYC, and today was no different. Today, the seven-day average positivity rate hit two percent, according to city data.

  • For reference, on this day last year, it was just 1.2 percent. On the first day of this month, it was 0.69 percent.

Just weeks ago, New York’s epidemic seemed largely over: Enthusiasm for the vaccine was high and positivity rates were plummeting. But now experts are warning that the Delta variant may cause another spike. 

  • “We do see a small third wave coming,” said Dr. Ronald Scott Braithwaite, a professor at NYU Grossman School of Medicine who has been modeling New York City’s epidemic for city officials. He predicts a total of about 900 deaths in the next wave.

So what happened? Experts say the city isn’t doing enough to curb this new surge of cases. (New York Times) Of course, the Delta variant is largely to blame, accounting for 75 percent of all new cases in the city. (Nationwide, it makes up 83 percent of all cases, according to the CDC).

While NYC has reached the 70 percent vaccination threshold for adult residents, that progress remains deeply uneven across boroughs and neighborhoods.

  • Almost 100 percent of adults in Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen, and Tribeca in Manhattan, as well as Flushing in Queens, now have at least one dose of the vaccine.

  • Neighborhoods like Canarsie and Brownsville in Brooklyn, Far Rockaway in Queens, and Wakefield in the Bronx, predominantly lower-income neighborhoods of color, have among the lowest rates. Less than 50 percent of adults there have at least one dose.

The numbers aren’t great for the city’s workforce either:

  • Only about 60 percent of NYC public hospital staff are vaccinated, prompting Mayor de Basio this week to implement a new mandate for those workers to get vaccinated or submit to weekly COVID-19 tests. (New York Times)

  • Just 43 percent of the NYPD have been vaccinated. (NBC New York)

  • And the most recent MTA data showed just over 40 percent of transit workers had at least one dose. (THE CITY)

We also have a long way to go with younger New Yorkers, and Mayor de Blasio said there will be more focus on vaccinating those ages 12 to 18 ahead of schools reopening in September. (Children under 12 are still ineligible for the vaccine.)

While the city finds new ways to push the vaccine to those populations, some public health officials are suggesting a return to mask mandates. 

  • Council Member Mark Levine, Chair of the Health Committee, is pushing the move; former Surgeon General Jerome Adams argued we need them in areas where cases are rising; and Dr. Leana Wen said we should require them wherever vaccinated and unvaccinated people are gathering. White House officials are also discussing it, but the CDC director suggested it was unlikely they would reverse course.

Other cities are charging ahead with some of those ideas: Los Angeles County has reinstituted indoor mask mandates, even for vaccinated people, and San Francisco announced it will require all city employees to get the jab.

When it comes to NYC, there are no plans for similar mandates or changes to school reopening plans in the fall — for now. 

In related reading:

  • Two Ways to Think About the New Mask Debate (The Atlantic)

  • More Variants Are Coming, and the U.S. Isn’t Ready to Track Them (Bloomberg)

  • You got a coronavirus vaccine. But you still became infected. How did that happen? (Washington Post)

The post-pandemic workplace is going to be all about new ways of working, new tools, new skills, new regulations — and newly empowered employees. 

For its new Tech Employee Survey, Protocol partnered with Morning Consult on a deep dive into how tech employees feel about work. Here are some key findings:

Returning to work: Regardless of position, salary, or gender, three out of four tech industry workers say it's important for their company to allow them to work remotely indefinitely.

  • However, two-thirds of tech industry workers prefer working in a traditional office over a coworking space, when choosing between the two.

  • They also want free food and snacks, plus drinks on tap, to stick around as office amenities.

Diversity, equity and inclusion: There is relatively widespread agreement among the tech industry on DEI — 87 percent of tech workers think that their respective companies take it seriously. That positivity declines among Black and Latinx respondents, dropping to 83 percent and 81 percent, respectively.

  • When workers feel their companies don’t take it seriously, 71 percent say it's important to discuss politics and other social issues at work, and 72 percent say they're comfortable doing so.

Advancement: Four in five respondents agree their company provides many opportunities for career advancement and that the path to promotion is clear, although women are less likely than men to agree on both counts.

  • Across demographics, 83 percent of workers agree that their employer should pay for upskilling.

In related reading:

  • The pandemic drove women out of the workforce. Will they come back? (Politico)

  • Companies that make people return to the office will lose employees (Vox)

  • Clearview AI, a New York-based provider of facial recognition tech to law enforcement, raised $30 million in Series B funding, despite ongoing investigations for privacy violations and other legal troubles. (New York Times)

  • Fero Labs, a New York City-based machine learning software maker, raised $9 million in Series A funding. Innovation Endeavors led the round and was joined by investors including Deutsche Invest VC. (PR Newswire)

  • Kaltura, a New York-based video SaaS company, raised $150 million in its IPO. It priced at $10 (vs. $11–$13 original range), for a $1.24 billion market cap. It had raised over $160 million from firms like .406 Ventures, Nexus India, Avalon Ventures, Intel Capital, and Sapphire Ventures. (Investment U)

  • Lucata, a New York City-based provider of graph analytics and machine learning, raised $11.9 million in Series B funding. Investors included Notre Dame, Middleburg Capital Development, Blu Ventures, Hunt Holdings, Maulick Capital, the former CEO of SGI, and Varian Capital. (GlobeNewswire)

  • Obé Fitness, a New York City-based digital fitness platform, raised $15 million in Series A funding. CAVU Venture Partners led the round and was joined by investors including Athleta, Samsung Next, Tiffany Haddish, Wheelhouse Entertainment, WW International, Cassius Ventures, Ludlow Ventures, Harris Blitzer Sports Entertainment, and BDMI. (TechCrunch)

  • Thesis, a New York City-based crypto startup, raised $21 million in Series A funding. Investors include ParaFi Capital, Nascent, Fenbushi Capital, Polychain Capital, and Draper Associates. (The Block)

  • US Mobile, a New York City-based mobile virtual network operator, raised $11.5 million in Series A funding. Volition Capital led the round. (Wall Street Journal)

  • Vincent, a New York City-based online investment search company, raised $6 million. Investors included Jason Calacanis of LAUNCH, Joe Lonsdale of 8VC, and Barry Silbert of Digital Currency Group. (TechCrunch)

  • VTEX, a New York-based provider of e-commerce solutions for retailers and brands, raised $361 million in its IPO. It priced at $19 (above $15–$17 range), for a $3.56 billion market cap, and had raised around $377 million from firms like SoftBank, Tiger Global, Lone Pine Capital, Constellation, and Endeavour Catalyst. (Bloomberg)

  • YOOBIC, a New York City-based digital workplace for frontline teams, raised $50 million in Series C funding. Highland Europe led the round and was joined by investors including Felix Capital, Insight Partners, and BNF Capital. (TechCrunch)

The 2021 American Fitness Index from the College of Sports Medicine came out this week, ranking the 100 largest cities based on residential fitness and health habits. At #21, New York didn’t do too flabby! The city ranked first in the number of residents who rely on public transit to get to work (55.8 percent), and 70.6 percent of New Yorkers reported exercising in the last 30 days. 

Maybe time to renew that gym membership, and next year, we’ll break into the top 20?

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