Tech:NYC Digest: June 9

Tech:NYC Digest: June 9

June 09, 2022 • Estimated Reading Time: 10 minutes

Thursday, June 9, 2022 

In today’s digest, young children can remove their masks as vaccine nears, the NYPL wants you to have your own library, and why new startups are clamoring for WeWork space in the new hybrid world.

Was this digest forwarded to you? Subscribe here. 

By the numbers:  

  • New positive cases statewide: 6,357

    • New positive cases, NYC: 3,544 

  • NYC Positivity Rate: 4.9 percent (no change)

  • Statewide Vaccine Progress:

    • New Yorkers with at least one dose: 90.7 percent 

    • New Yorkers who are fully vaccinated: 77.5 percent   

In today’s latest: 

  • NYC will lift its mask mandate for children under five next week as COVID-19 cases continue to decline. Masks will become optional for toddlers in schools and daycare settings starting Monday. (NY1)

    • The move comes as the city’s Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan announced NYC is past the peak of the most recent wave. He said COVID-19 cases have fallen by 26 percent in the five boroughs since May 23, “giving us confidence that we have passed the peak and we are heading into a safer environment.” (NBC New York)

  • The White House is preparing to ship millions of vaccine doses for young kids as early as next weekend, should the FDA and CDC give the greenlight on both Pfizer and Moderna’s shots for children ages six months to five years. (New York Times)

  • A new state law says any New York voter who applied for an absentee ballot but then decided to vote in person will be given an affidavit ballot instead of being permitted to vote on a machine, reversing a pandemic-era accommodation for those who didn’t feel safe going to the polls in person. Learn more about the new rule here.

  • The New York Public Library announced a new initiative to give away 500,000 books for free to kids, teens, and families at all of its branch locations in an effort to help New Yorkers build their at-home libraries. (Time Out NY)

In other reading:

  • Can I Trust My Rapid Covid-19 Test if It Says I’m Negative? (Wall Street Journal)

  • Is NFT Art Any Good? (The Verge)

  • Now There’s a Sriracha Shortage and Chili-Heads Are Up in Arms (Bloomberg)

When the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic peaked in New York, many of the city’s startups downsized their office spaces — or let go of them altogether. But now those companies are experimenting with new workplace strategies to see what sticks, and they’re flocking to co-working spaces as their testing grounds. (New York Times)

  • The majority of WeWork locations now have wait lists and daily desk bookings fill up quickly, as more startups opt for flexible spaces where they can sign shorter leases or drop in to common spaces as necessary.

We spoke today to Lauren Fritts, WeWork’s chief corporate affairs and marketing officer, who noted that office activity in tech hubs like New York and San Francisco reflects a broader shift as workplaces are being fundamentally rethought:

  • "For emerging companies, leveraging space with WeWork affords not only greater flexibility across space, time and cost, but more intentional opportunities for collaboration and connection that is proving so crucial for growth in a more hybrid world,” she said.

The Beans, a software startup providing personalized cash flow services, moved its office into a WeWork location last May, a time when small startups were clamoring for easy ways for employees to be together again.

  • “Things were still really uncertain as far as what our trajectory was, and the plan is to close significant capital and to grow,” said founder and CEO Melissa Pancoast. “We need the flexibility of being able to be in a different space than we could have afforded right in the middle of the pandemic.” 

Co-working spaces that take care of office logistics have been attractive to emerging founders who started new companies since the pandemic began.

  • Earlier this year, WeWork launched its Growth Campus NYC initiative, an effort subsidizing $25 million of office space across a dozen locations in the five boroughs. 

  • The program, which has its main core at WeWork Gotham Center in Queens, has seen more than 500 early-stage companies apply in NYC. Based on that demand, the program has already been expanded to four additional cities: Washington DC, Los Angeles, Boston, and Chicago.

If your company can take advantage of the WeWork Growth Campus program, learn more and apply here.

In other reading:

  • The Five Most Dreaded Words at the Office: ‘Let’s Start a Google Doc’ (Wall Street Journal)

  • A Full Return to the Office? Does ‘Never’ Work for You? (New York Times)

  • The Power of the Lunch Break — and Why So Many of Us Are Bad at Taking One (Wall Street Journal)

  • Entropy, a Brooklyn-based crypto custody platform, raised $25 million in seed funding. Andreessen Horowitz led the round and was joined by Dragonfly Capital, Ethereal Ventures, Variant, Coinbase Ventures, Robot Ventures, Inflection, the Komerabi Fund, and other angels. (The Block)

  • Ever/Body, a NYC-based cosmetic dermatology and medical spa startup, raised $55.5 million in Series C funding. Addition led the round and was joined by Tiger Global, ACME Capital, Declaration Capital, Fifth Wall Ventures, and Imaginary Ventures. (Fortune)

  • Fruitful, a NYC-based financial planning startup, raised $8 million in seed funding and $25 million in Series A funding. 8VC led the Series A and was joined by Lux Capital, Founders Fund, Elad Gil, and other individual investors. (TechCrunch)

  • Nava Benefits, a NYC-based employee benefits brokerage, raised $40 million in Series B funding. Thrive Capital led the round and was joined by Avid Ventures, Quiet Capital, Sound Ventures, GV, K5 Ventures, and Homebrew. (Newswire)

  • Overalls, a NYC-based insurance benefits company, raised $4.6 million in funding. RPM Ventures led the round and was joined by Frontier Ventures, former NFL player Jerod Mayo, and others. (Businesswire)

  • Skolem Technologies, a NYC-based asset management and execution services provider, raised $20 million in Series A funding. Galaxy Digital led the round and was joined by Point72 Ventures, Jump Crypto, Fenwick and West, Morpheus Ventures, and Dragonfly Capital. (Businesswire)

  • Summer, a NYC-based financing startup for second homes, raised $13.4 million in seed funding. QED Investors and Lightspeed Venture Partners co-led the round and were joined by 1Sharpe Ventures and Firstminute Capital. (Businesswire)

  • June 14: Virtual: Crypto and the Investing Space, with Archetype venture partner Katherine Wu, Commodity Futures Trading Commissioner commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero, and others. Hosted by Axios. Register here.

  • June 16: In-person: Cornell Tech Fest, with Tech:NYC director of Tech Year NYC Bethany Crystal, Lunchbox CEO Nabeel Alamgir, Primary VC principal Sam Toole, and others. Hosted by Cornell Tech. Enter code “technycmem” in the “Admin Use Only” field for 50 percent off tickets. Register here.

  • June 20 – 23: In-person: NFT.NYC 2022, with Snark.art cofounder Andy Alekhin, Slow Ventures partner Clay Robbins, Offchain Labs co-founder Ed Felten, and others. Hosted by NFT.NYC. 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.