Tech:NYC Digest: March 3

March 03, 2023 • Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes

Friday, March 3, 2023

We’re back with another “Friday Five” roundup of our top stories in New York tech this week.

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To Tap Federal Funds, Chip Makers Will Need to Provide Child Care (New York Times)

Affordable child care has become a key workplace issue, and the pandemic shone a bright light on how central it is to hiring and retaining talent. The US child care industry itself hasn’t fully rebounded, and there remains a lot of need — in New York, for example, where Micron announced a historic $100 billion investment to build a new chips plant, the need for slots in child care facilities is nearly three times the size of actual care capacity in the region.

Cloud security startup Wiz, now valued at $10B, raised $300M (TechCrunch)

The Series D round, backed by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Greenoaks, and Index Ventures, makes the NYC-based company the world’s largest cybersecurity unicorn. It’s certainly the largest venture round we’ve seen in a long time, especially during a period when megaround deals have been rare … until this week. In addition to Wiz, three other New York startups — Headway, BlocPower, and Kindbody — also closed more than $100 million each in new funding this week.

The World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2023 (Fast Company)

We're thrilled that this list always has great Tech:NYC representation, and this year is no different. Congrats to many of our member companies, including Airbnb, Microsoft, Ramp, CityBlock Health, and Maven, among others!

Can Central Park’s Drives Become More Peaceful? (New York Times)

Yes, they can. About six miles of road inside the park have been off limits to cars since 2018, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t clogged with traffic. Pedestrians, runners, bicyclists, horse-drawn carriages, pedicabs — they’re all using the same drives, and a new study is being undertaken as a first step for planners to redesign the space for today's needs and ensure they can all use the park without getting in each other's way.

Pop Up Grocer plants permanent roots in Greenwich Village (Time Out New York)

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