Tech:NYC Digest: October 15

Tech:NYC Digest: October 15

October 15, 2021 • Estimated Reading Time: 9 minutes

Friday, October 15, 2021

In today’s digest, J&J becomes the last vaccine to get booster approval, NYC kindergarteners receive college savings starter accounts, and why the latest office reopening timelines may work out this time.

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By the numbers:

  • New positive cases statewide: 5,693 (+1,292)

    • New positive cases, NYC: 1,386 (+330)  

  • Statewide Fatalities: 30 (-10)

  • NYC Positivity Rate: 1.3 percent (no change)

  • Statewide Vaccine Progress:

    • Percentage of adults (18+) with at least one dose: 85.4 percent

    • Percentage of total population with at least one dose: 72.4 percent 

Today’s latest: 

  • A piece of positive news: Six million NYC residents — 85 percent — have now received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. 

    • Since the city’s “Key to NYC” vaccination mandates went into effect last month, the overall vaccination rate increased 9 percent, with a 13 percent increase among those 18-34 years of age. (NBC New York)

  • An FDA vaccine advisory committee unanimously voted to recommend authorizing booster shots of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine. (New York Times)

    • The recommendation endorses the additional dose two months after the original dose for higher-risk people, and after six months for most everyone else.

    • The vote marks the third and final recommendation for vaccines authorized in the US, following Moderna’s vote yesterday and Pfizer’s vote last month.

    • Here’s a snapshot of where things stand on boosters for the three vaccines in use.

  • Foreign visitors who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 will be able to resume travel to the US beginning Nov. 8. The move would relax a patchwork of restrictions and replace them with more uniform requirements for inbound air passengers. (CNN)

  • NYC is opening savings accounts for every public school kindergartener. Roughly 70,000 students are receiving $100 invested in state-run 529 savings accounts that will become available to students pursuing higher education after graduating high school. (New York Times)

  • After a pandemic-induced hiatus, the NY Cat and Dog Film Festivals are returning. The cat festival screens at noon on Saturday at the Village East and the dog festival arrives at the same theater on Oct. 24. (New York Times)

In other reading:

  • The Unvaccinated May Not Be Who You Think (New York Times)

  • Why aren’t airport lounges and restaurants in New York enforcing the city’s vaccine mandate? (The Points Guy)

  • Brooklyn’s Most BOO-Loved Halloween House is Back (Gothamist)

As COVID-19 infection rates fall again, workers are trickling back to the office at the highest rate since the pandemic began, and office usage looks poised to increase in the weeks ahead. (Wall Street Journal)

  • You might remember that earlier this summer, many employers expected the majority of their employees to be back at their desks by September. The Partnership for New York City’s survey expected a 62 percent return rate in Manhattan offices by now, and we’re actually hovering at half of that.

The Delta variant put a dent in that timeline, but infection rates are falling again — in part because more companies and local governments are mandating vaccinations — gradually easing workers’ concerns about working in close proximity with colleagues.

  • The rise in office occupancy has been particularly pronounced in New York, where usage increased to a pandemic high of 30 percent last week, up from 21 percent at the beginning of September. 

The takeaway: Rising office usage through the end of the year may indicate that companies with plans to fully reopen their offices in January 2022 mean it this time.

In other return-to-office updates:

  • Atlassian will reopen most of its US offices next month, including its NYC office. The software maker briefly reopened in June 2021, but has been closed since due to the Delta variant. (Protocol)

  • Citigroup has invited staff back to 21 of its offices across North America, and CFO Mark Mason said at those sites, 75 percent of employees have returned. (Bloomberg)

  • IBM employees must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by Dec. 8 or face an unpaid suspension. The policy stops short of firing unvaccinated employees, but those who decline to be vaccinated will not be paid after that date until they complete their vaccinations. (CNBC)

In other reading:

  • The Real Meaning of Freedom at Work (Wall Street Journal)

  • What happens when salary transparency is no longer taboo (Protocol)

  • This Zoom alternative makes video calls more informal—and maybe even wacky (Fast Company

  • Accenture CEO Julie Sweet: Lessons from onboarding over 100,000 employees during the pandemic (Fortune)

  • Alloy, a New York City-based telehealth company focused on the needs of women over 40, raised $3.3 million in seed funding. Kairos HQ and PACE Healthcare Capital participated in the round. (FinSMEs)

  • Clarifai, an AI workspace for developers, raised $60 million in Series C funding. NEA led the round and was joined by CPP Investments, NextEquity Partners, SineWave Ventures, Trousdale Capital, as well as insiders Menlo Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Lux Capital, LDV Capital, Corazon Capital, and the NYU Innovation Venture Fund. (TechCrunch)

  • Continuum, a New York City-based hiring and talent marketplace, raised $2.9 million in seed funding. Uncork Capital led the round and was joined by Day One Ventures and a group of individual investors. (TechCrunch)

  • EngFlow, a SaaS platform for large coding projects, raised $3.7 million in seed funding. Andreessen Horowitz led the round and was joined by firstminute Capital, Alchemist Accelerator, and various angels. (TechCrunch)

  • Smallhold, a Brooklyn-based specialty mushrooms producer, raised $25 million in Series A funding. Astanor Ventures led the round and was joined by Energy Impact Partners, Wheatsheaf Group, AlleyCorp, and Almanac Insights. (Forbes)

  • TradingView, a New York-based charting platform and social network for traders and investors, raised $298 million at a $3 billion valuation. The round was led by Tiger Global Management. (Bloomberg)

  • October 19: Virtual: Hard Truths on Technology, with Girls Who Code CEO Tarika Barrett and TechEquity Collaborative CEO Catherine Bracy. Hosted by Axios. Register here.

  • October 20: In-person: Cybertech NYC, with Congressman Ritchie Torres, former CIA director Gen. (Ret.) David Petraeus, US Dept. of Energy CIO Ann Dunkin, NYCEDC president and CEO Rachel Loeb, and others. Use special Tech:NYC code “fullnyc21a4” for a free “full event pass” ticket. Register here.

  • October 20: Virtual: Startup Marketing $0 to $100M+, with Snyk chief marketing and customer experience officer Jeff Yoshimura. Hosted by Work-Bench. Register here.

  • October 21: Virtual: The New Benefits Package, with Upwork chief people officer Zoe Harte, Paradigm IQ managing director Dr. Evelen Carter, and others. Hosted by Protocol. Register here.

  • October 22: Virtual: FutureProof Tech Summit, with Aclima CEO Davida Herzl, Twitter head of ethical AI Rumman Chowdhury, Lerer Hippeau investor Meagan Loyst, and more. Hosted by the Startups & Society Initiative. Register here.

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