Tech:NYC Digest: November 30

Tech:NYC Digest: November 30

November 30, 2021 • Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes

Tuesday, November 30, 2021

In today’s digest, CDC recommends booster shots for all adults, NYC founders on the forefront of cybersecurity, and LivePerson CEO Rob LoCascio on leading a NYC-based tech company for over 25 years. 

  • And Happy #GivingTuesday, an initiative created in NYC which has become a global campaign for grassroots philanthropy. Learn about a couple of projects we’re supporting and how you can join at the bottom of today’s newsletter.

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By the numbers:

  • New positive cases statewide: 5,277

    • New positive cases, NYC: 1,283

  • NYC Positivity Rate: 1.8 percent

  • Statewide Vaccine Progress:

    • Percentage of adults (18+) with at least one dose: 90.8 percent  

    • Percentage of total population with at least one dose: 78.1 percent

Today’s latest:

There’s no major news out of New York today on the Omicron variant (fortunately!), but vaccine manufacturers are accelerating their efforts to confirm how effective current shots are against the new strain. (CNBC)

  • Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said the impact of Omicron on its vaccine remains to be seen, but Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel predicted there will be a “material drop” in the effectiveness of the current COVID-19 vaccines against Omicron — and cautioned it would likely take months for drugmakers to produce enough targeted doses against the emerging strain. (Financial Times)

In other news:

  • The CDC is now recommending all adults get a COVID-19 booster shot in light of the Omicron variant. The change represents a slight update from guidance released earlier this month encouraging boosters only for those over 50 or at higher risk. (Wall Street Journal)

  • Pfizer announced today it would apply for regulatory approval for a booster shot of its coronavirus vaccine for 16 and 17 year olds. If approved, it would be the first booster available to people under 18. (New York Times)

  • After years of stalled progress, NYC is opening its first overdose prevention centers. The two supervised injection sites will provide clean needles under the supervision of medical professionals and offer users the option to access addiction treatment and other services. (Gothamist)

You may know a friend or colleague who was the victim of a phishing or ransomware attack — you wouldn’t be the only one. Cybersecurity attacks have become more and more common through the pandemic, but so are the means to prevent them. For the latest edition of Tech:NYC’s Companies To Watch series, we spoke to a group of NYC cybersecurity startup founders about how to protect yourself and your business online.

Rob LoCascio remembers when LivePerson, the company he founded, went public — it happened right before the dot-com bubble burst in 2000, and its shares lost over 98 percent of their value.

  • “When your stock is that low, you’re no longer fearful of the public. We went through a massive restructuring ... and people said, ‘you can’t run a public company with forty people.’ ... But we did something extraordinary when most dot-coms were wiped out.”

LoCascio was committed to his company’s recovery: After growing up in a multigenerational family of entrepreneurs, LoCascio has become one of the longest-serving CEOs in any industry. He founded LivePerson in New York City in 1995, running one of the first companies focused on web-based B2C chat.

  • Some 25+ years later, LivePerson now works with more than 18,000 businesses that leverage its conversational AI products to deliver more personalized and efficient experiences to their own customers.

For the latest edition of our Cornell Tech @ Bloomberg speaker series, we sat down with LoCascio to discuss how he’s steered the company’s growth through those difficult early days, the 9/11 attacks, the 2008 financial crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic today. Tune in for his insights on:

  • Why the customer support call center has become obsolete;

  • What we can expect with labor and inventory shortages this holiday season;

  • What he’s doing to ensure AI contributes to increasing social equity;

  • and so much more!

  • Abacum, a New York City-based provider of software for tech finance teams, raised $25 million in Series A funding. Atomico led the round and was joined by Creandum, FJ Labs, and S16VC. (TechCrunch)

  • Algofi, a New York-based decentralized finance lending market and stablecoin protocol, raised $2.8 million in seed funding. Union Square Ventures, Arrington Capital, and Pillar VC co-led the round and were joined by investors including Y Combinator, Formulate Ventures, and Shine VC. (Finextra)

  • Differential Ventures, a New York City-based seed firm focused on B2B SaaS startups, raised $60 million for its second fund. (PRNewswire)

  • Pepper, a New York City-based ordering system for food distributors, raised $16 million in Series A funding. Index Ventures led the round and was joined by Greylock Partners, Imaginary Ventures, BoxGroup, and Moving Capital. (TechCrunch)

  • Via Transportation, a New York City-based public transport app, raised $130 million in new venture funding. Janus Henderson led the round and was joined by BlackRock, ION Crossover Partners, Koch Disruptive Technologies, and insider Exor. (TechCrunch)

  • December 6: Virtual: Crypto and Institutional Investors, with Anchorage co-founder and president Diogo Mónica, Paxos head of strategy Walter Hessert, and Canvas Ventures principal Grace Isford. Hosted by Protocol. Register here.

  • December 7: Virtual: 2022 Predictions in Tech: The Roaring 20s, with Tribeca Venture Partners partner Brian Hirsch, Eniac Ventures partner Hadley Harris, 645 Ventures partner Nnamdi Okike, and Work-Bench partner Jessica Lin. Hosted by Tribeca Venture Partners and Fenwick. Register here.

  • December 9: Virtual: Building in the Open, with Cockroach Labs CEO Spencer Kimball, Solo.io CEO Idit Levine, Timescale CEO Ajay Kulkarni, and others. Hosted by Work-Bench. Register here.

This #GivingTuesday, Tech:NYC is proud to be supporting two projects, and we welcome you to join us:

  • Today wraps up the final day of Silicon Valley Bank’s #TechGivesBack campaign. Join us in supporting a slate of great local nonprofit organizations, and your contribution will be matched 3:1. Give here.

  • This past weekend on Small Business Saturday, our friends at H/L Ventures launched Save Your City, a new website that makes it easy to directly support your own favorite neighborhood shops. Learn more here and give here.

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