Tech:NYC Digest: March 28

Tech:NYC Digest: March 28

March 28, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes

Tuesday, March 28, 2023

In today’s digest, the second life of SVB, composting goes citywide, and Pier 57 reopens with Google’s love letter to NYC.

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  • First Citizens has agreed to buy the commercial banking business of Silicon Valley Bank, including all of its deposits. (New York Times)

    • First Citizens has reopened all SVB branches under its own banner, but the bank said it wouldn’t acquire any of the SVB parent company’s assets, which means SVB Capital and SVB Securities are still up for sale.

  • NYC’s effort to operate the nation’s largest curbside composting program kicked off this week in Queens, with plans to expand the program to the other four boroughs by the end of next year. (Gothamist)

  • And now that ice skating season is over, Wollman Rink in Central Park will turn into 14 pickleball courts through October. (New York Times)

In other reading:

Google’s origin story in NYC starts with a single employee working out of an Upper West Side coffee shop. Fast forward 20 years: Today, it has a campus for more than 12,000 Googlers that call NYC home.

What’s new: Pier 57 is being reopened by Google this week as a public community destination in the heart of its iconic NYC campus. Learn more about the reimagined Pier 57 here.

  • The pier once served as a cruise terminal and transit despot, and despite being listed on the National Register of Historic Places, has sat vacant for the last 20 years.

Google’s investment transformed what it calls a “engineering marvel” into a public space that is quintessentially New York:

  • The pier’s Market 57 is a food hall and incubator for emerging women and BIPOC chefs that showcases why NYC is a diverse culinary mecca;

  • A partnership with Hudson River Trust Park created “The Living Room,” an indoor extension of the park for New Yorkers to enjoy year-round;

  • And new community classroom space is already being activated by The Coding Space and other local organizations, all bookable to the public here.

Our take: Tech:NYC is (of course) all in on supporting the city’s tech sector, but to an equal degree, we define our mandate by our sector’s support of New York — and New Yorkers — more broadly. Pier 57 is the newest example of that vision in action.  

In other reading:

  • CrossX, a NYC-based crypto trading venue, raised $6.35 million in seed funding. Participating investors include Two Sigma, Flow Traders, Wintermute Ventures, and Nomura's Laser Digital.

  • Daimon Labs, a NYC-based large language model chatbot developer, raised $1.5 million in pre-seed funding. LDV Capital led the round and was joined by Data Community Fund, Myelin VC, and other angels.

  • Hex, a NYC and San Francisco-based collaborative data science platform, raised $28 million in funding. Sequoia led the round and was joined by a16z, Amplify Partners, and Snowflake.

  • Janus Health, a Brooklyn-based revenue cycle management company, raised $45 million in growth funding. Enhanced Healthcare Partners led the round.

  • Turnkey, a NYC-based private key infrastructure for crypto developers, raised $7.5 million in seed funding. Sequoia Capital, Variant, and Coinbase Ventures co-led the round.

  • March 29: In-person: From -1 to 1 in NYC, with Ramp CEO Eric Glyman and South Park Commons partner Aditya Agarwal. Register here.

  • April 3: In-person: The Business Case for Second Chance Employment, with Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg, JPMorgan Chase EVP of human resources Robin Leopold, Justice Through Code founder Aedan Macdonald, and others. Hosted by the Business Roundtable and Columbia Business School. Register here.

  • April 4: In-person: How to Execute a Powerful Content Marketing Strategy, with Pandium founder Cristina Flaschen, Sharmar Brands CEO Nik Sharma, Thingtesting head of content Natalie Sportelli, and Adore Me head of strategy Ranjan Roy. Hosted by Stacklist and Betaworks. Register here.

  • April 4: In-person: Make it in Brooklyn Female Founders Pitch Contest, with Female Founders Fund principal Adriana Samaniego, NYCEDC EVP Faye Penn, HearstLab venture associate Eastin Rossell, and others. Register here.

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