Tech:NYC Digest: November 15

Tech:NYC Digest: November 15

November 15, 2022 • Estimated Reading Time: 7 minutes

Tuesday, November 15, 2022

In today’s digest, NYC’s plan to scale support for underrepresented founders, making sense of the midterms, and we release new data on the economic impact of NYC’s tech sector (spoiler: it’s pretty massive).

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  • Mayor Eric Adams announced steps to broaden the pool of eligible people for a rental subsidy program that could help them stay in their homes or afford new apartments. (Gothamist)

  • A new program will expand the city's Venture Access NYC pilot to provide 100 tech founders from underrepresented backgrounds with access to funding, mentorship, and and other industry resources. (Crain’s New York Business)

  • New York is set to receive more than $3.3 million in federal aid to boost clean air programs and monitoring. The money is coming from the EPA and draws on both federal pandemic relief funding as well as money approved this summer meant to curtail the effects of climate change. (Spectrum News)

  • Higher COVID-19 vaccination rates among US children could prevent thousands of pediatric hospitalizations and millions of missed school days, according to new analysis from the Commonwealth Fund and the Yale School of Public Health. (CNN)

  • An iconic sign of Christmas has arrived in NYC: an 82-foot Norway spruce was hoisted into place by crane at Rockefeller Plaza. The Christmas tree will be officially lit on Nov. 30. (NPR) 

In other reading:

  • Making sense of the midterms: What voters are trying to tell Albany and Washington (Gothamist)

  • The 10 Coolest Artifacts in NYC’s new Museum of Broadway (Smithsonian Magazine)

  • A Sealed-Up Midtown Arcade Opens Backs Up to the City (Curbed)

Today Tech:NYC, alongside our partners at the Association for a Better New York (ABNY) and Google, released a new report measuring the impact of NYC’s tech ecosystem.

What’s new: 369,000 people were employed by the tech sector in 2021, representing 7% of the city’s entire workforce.

  • The sector also added 1.2 multiplier jobs for every one tech job, generating 440,000 additional jobs and $291 billion in economic output, or 28% of NYC’s total economic output — twice as much as the same number in 2013.

The report also surfaces new borough- and neighborhood-specific insights on where tech jobs are growing and where tech workers are living. (THE CITY)

  • Brooklyn has seen particular tech jobs growth over the past decade (up 42%), largely spurred by investments in the Brooklyn Navy Yard and Brooklyn Tech Triangle.

  • While jobs growth was slower in the other outer boroughs, the report found roughly one-third of NYC tech workers now live in Queens, the Bronx, and Staten Island.

There’s still much more work to be done in cultivating a more diverse workforce:

  • According to the report, while NYC tech has seen increases in nonwhite and female representation, it’s not yet reflective of the city’s overall population. Black and Latino/a New Yorkers represent more than half of the city’s population — and 35% of the workforce — but New York’s tech ecosystem is 22% Black and Latino/a.

“We also know that more must be done to ensure that all New Yorkers are uplifted by this growth,” said Tech:NYC executive director Jason Myles Clark. “We look forward to continuing the ongoing work with our members and city stakeholders to strengthen and diversify the tech ecosystem, while cementing New York City’s reputation as a world-class tech hub.”

  • TVision, a NYC-based TV and CTV analytics platform, raised $16 million. iSpot led the round and was joined by insiders SIG Capital, Accomplice, and Golden Ventures. (Variety)

  • Zenlytic, a NYC-based business intelligence tool for commerce, raised $5.4 million in seed funding. Bain Capital Ventures led the round and was joined by Primary Venture Partners, Correlation Ventures, Company Ventures, Habitat Partners, and the Sequoia Scout Fund. (TechCrunch)

  • November 16: Virtual: Fintech Summit: Shaping the Future of Finance, with New York State Dept. of Financial Services superintendent Adrienne Harris, Plaid general counsel Meredith Fuchs, and others. Hosted by FTA. Register here.

  • November 18: In-person and virtual: 10th Annual Official New York Cyber Security Summit, featuring executives from Google, IBM Security, Darktrace, Hacware, and more. Use code TECHNYC22 for $100 off admission by registering here.

  • November 22: In-person and virtual: A fireside chat with Squire Technologies CEO Songe LaRon and Techstars managing director Gary Stewart. Hosted by Techstars and J.P. Morgan. Register here. 

  • November 22: Virtual: #notapitch: Unofficial Feedback on your Idea/Prototype from a VC, with Brooklyn Bridge Ventures partner Charlie O’Donnell. Register here.

  • November 29: In-person: AI Week: Generative AI’s Impact on the Future of Work, with Bloomberg Beta investors Amber Yang and Lori Berenberg. Hosted by Betaworks. Register here.

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