Tech:NYC Digest: March 25

Tech:NYC Digest: March 25

March 25, 2022 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

Friday, March 25, 2022  

In today’s digest, labor unions consider a new round of litigation over vaccine mandates, where to find Girl Scout cookies this weekend, and how Microsoft is closing the cybersecurity skills gap.

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By the numbers:  

  • New positive cases statewide: 3,327  

    • New positive cases, NYC: 1,427

  • NYC Positivity Rate: 1.6 percent (+0.2 percent)

  • NYC Hospitalizations: 268 (-17)

  • Statewide Vaccine Progress: 

    • New Yorkers with at least one dose: 89.5 percent

    • New Yorkers who are fully vaccinated: 76.1 percent

In today’s latest:

  • In recent weeks, COVID-19 positivity rates have ticked upward in New York City. But case rates among students have surpassed those of the city at large, raising concerns among some parents that the school mask mandate may have been lifted prematurely. (New York Times)

    • Manhattan is driving the current increase in cases, and only 33 percent of New Yorkers ages 18 to 34 have received a booster shot. You can see the data for your ZIP code here.

    • And one reminder: NYC offers free, same-day home delivery of paxlovid, the antiviral pill treatment for COVID-19. Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine confirmed supply is good, so if you test positive, ask your doctor about how to get a delivery set up. See more details here.

  • Following the Mayor’s announcement yesterday that athletes and performers would be exempt from vaccine mandates, some labor unions whose members were terminated over mandate issues are considering taking legal action. (New York Daily News)

    • The Broadway League and the Metropolitan Opera said their current COVID protocols requiring proof of vaccination and masks will remain in place for cast, crew, and audience members despite the exemption. (New York Post)

  • And in case you haven’t already stocked up on Samoas and Do-si-dos, Girl Scouts will be setting up shop in 54 locations across the city before sales close on April 3. Here’s a map showing where to find them. 

In other reading:

  • Get Ready for a Wave of Missed Infections (The Atlantic)

  • Seated NYC is an app now tracking NYC’s favorite foods and recovery data (amNY)

  • Need a Drink? Get in Line (New York Times)

Last year, Microsoft announced a campaign with over 125 community colleges to help train and grow the cybersecurity workforce by 250,000 people by 2025.

  • Research from Cybersecurity Ventures predicts that by then, there will be 3.5 million cybersecurity jobs open globally.

Now, Microsoft has made plans to get ahead of that demand by expanding the campaign to an additional 23 countries, including Canada, Brazil, India, and the UK.

  • These countries were chosen because they “have an elevated cyberthreat risk, coupled with a significant gap in their cybersecurity workforces both in terms of the number of professionals employed in cybersecurity vs. the demand, as well as a lack of diversity,” said Kate Behncken, the head of Microsoft Philanthropies.

The global picture echoes the demand here in New York: Last year, research conducted by Tech:NYC and Accenture found a majority of large employers in the city planned to increase the number of tech hires by as much as 20 percent. The top technical area they were looking to scale up: cybersecurity.

As with the US campaign, diversity will be a key metric to track success: On average, only 17 percent of the cybersecurity workforce is female.

  • Microsoft is partnering with several nonprofits, schools, and governments to offer free training programs on cybersecurity and computer science more broadly to close the skills gap among underserved job seekers.

In other reading:

  • Datagen, a NYC and Tel Aviv-based computer vision startup, raised $50 million in Series B funding. Scale Venture Partnership led the round and was joined by insiders TLV Partners, Spider Capital, Viola Growth, and individuals. (TechCrunch)

  • Firstbase, an NYC and Scotland-based remote infrastructure for teams provider, raised $50 million in Series B funding. Kleiner Perkins led the round and was joined by Andreessen Horowitz, Alpaca VC, and Forum Ventures. (TechCrunch)

  • LexCheck, a NYC-based AI-powered contact negotiation platform, raised $5 million in extended seed funding. Ulu Ventures led the round and was joined by Kli Capital and Howard Morgan. (FinSMEs)

  • Radish Health, a NYC-based concierge healthcare platform for municipal governments and midsized businesses, raised $4m in seed funding. Tusk Venture Partners led the round and was joined by MaC VC, GFC and The Fund. (Crain’s New York)

  • March 30: In-person: Real Estate Innovation Done Right, with Upward Labs CEO Shana Schlossberg, ClearAir.ai co-founder Michael Petgrave, Saya founder Sanjay Poojraym and others. Hosted by the Williamsburg Hotel. Register here.

  • March 31: Virtual: The Future of NYC: Charting an Equitable Recovery for All, with Federal Reserve Bank of New York president and CEO John C. Williams, BlocPower founder and CEO Donnel Baird, Regional Plan Association president and CEO Tom Wright, and more. Hosted by the New York Fed. Register here.

  • April 5: Virtual: What’s Next Summit 2022, with Bolt CEO Ryan Breslow, Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield, Accenture CEO Julie Sweet, and others. Hosted by Axios. Register here.

  • April 6: Virtual: Data Science Day 2022, with White House Director of Science and Technology Policy Alondra Nelson and IBM Research AI vice president Sriram Raghavan. Hosted by the Data Science Institute at Columbia University. Register here.

  • April 7: In-person: New York Product Conference, with Squarespace VP of product Natalie Gibralter, 1stdibs chief product officer Xiaodi Zhang, Noom VP of product Raj Krishnan, and others. Hosted by Product Collective. Use code TechNYC to save 20 percent off any pass by registering here.

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