Tech:NYC Digest: September 21

Tech:NYC Digest: September 21

September 21, 2021 • Estimated Reading Time: 11 minutes

Tuesday, September 21, 2021

In today’s digest, J&J shows booster benefits, mobile vax sites deployed for NYC school kids, and Google plans to purchase $2.1B of NYC office space, the biggest office transaction of the pandemic. 

  • Last call: tomorrow at 12:30pm ET, we’re hosting a virtual meeting with Proskauer to review the latest OSHA guidance on the federal mandate, the NY HERO Act, and what they both mean for your workplace’s reopening plans. The event is open to General Counsels and legal affairs leads at Tech:NYC member companies. If that’s you, reach out for details here.

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By the numbers:

  • New positive cases statewide: 5,242 (+1,810)

    • New positive cases, NYC: 1,631 (+362)

  • Statewide Fatalities: 41 (+9)

  • NYC Positivity Rate: 1.9 percent

  • Statewide Vaccine Progress:

    • Percentage of adults (18+) with at least one dose: 82.8 percent 

    • Percentage of total population with at least one dose: 70.1 percent

Today’s latest: 

  • The country’s COVID-19 deaths have surpassed the toll of the 1918 influenza pandemic, a milestone many experts say was avoidable after the arrival of vaccines. (Bloomberg)

    • The US has reported 675,446 deaths since the start of the pandemic, according to Johns Hopkins University data — more than the 675,000 that are estimated to have died a century earlier.

  • A second dose of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine substantially increases its protection against COVID-19. In a clinical trial, researchers found that two doses of the vaccine delivered 94 percent efficacy against mild to severe COVID-19, up from 74 percent with a single shot. Two shots showed 100 percent efficacy against severe disease, although that estimate had a wide range of uncertainty. (New York Times)

  • As part of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s “Vax to School” drive, New York will deploy 120 new mobile vaccination sites near schools and other high-hesitancy areas to target more kids ages 12 to 17. The mobile sites will operate for twelve weeks beginning tomorrow. (amNewYork)

  • Researchers from Princeton University and Stevens Institute of Technology say the New York City Board of Elections failed to protect the privacy of voters in the June primary, inadvertently allowing the lab to determine the votes of 378 New Yorkers in the mayoral primary. (New York Daily News) 

    • Those voters include the mayor’s son Dante de Blasio and a former New York City deputy mayor, Robert K. Steel.

  • Longer commute times and crowded apartments came with higher rates of COVID-19 transmission at the height of the pandemic in New York City, according to a recent study from Cornell University. (Gothamist)

In other reading:

  • Is There Room for E-Scooters in New York City? (Bloomberg)

  • Pfizer says its vaccine is safe for children 5 to 11. Will parents buy in? (New York Times)

  • Our Most Reliable Pandemic Number Is Losing Meaning (The Atlantic)

Google plans to buy a Manhattan office building for $2.1 billion, one of the clearest signals yet of Big Tech’s growing appetite for office space, even as these firms embrace hybrid work. (Wall Street Journal)

  • Google already leases the 1.3 million-square-foot waterfront building, a former freight station in the Hudson Square neighborhood dubbed St. John’s Terminal. 

Google and Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat said: “New York’s vitality, creativity and world-class talent are what keep us rooted here. It is why we’re announcing today that we are deepening our commitment to New York and intend to purchase the St. John’s Terminal in Manhattan,” the company said in a blog post. 

  • Mayor de Blasio praised Google during today’s press conference for “leading the way in our economic comeback,” stating that the deal “further asserts what we already know more and more: New York City is now one of the great tech capitals of the world.”

The deal is the biggest sale of a single US office building since the start of the pandemic — and is expected to open mid-2023.

  • Earlier this year, Google committed $250 million in capital investments in New York in 2021 and said it plans to grow its local workforce by about 3,000 over the next few years.

The new building adds to a growing trend among the city’s largest tech employers — Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon — to double down on their commitments to New York and its deep access to tech talent.

  • Amazon has continued to expand its corporate presence in Midtown, as well as in satellite workplaces across the five boroughs.

  • Facebook, which already has a large presence in New York, is exploring taking 300,000 square feet of additional space near Astor Place, building on its offices already there. (Bloomberg)

The deal is a positive sign for New York as it emerges from the pandemic even as major employers including Google have postponed their return-to-office dates. (CNBC) 

The takeaway: James Altucher et al. were dead wrong.

In other reading:

  • Google debuts Meet features, including ‘Companion mode’ (Venture Beat)

  • Why everybody’s hiring but nobody’s getting hired (Vox)

  • Superstar Cities Are (Probably) Immune From WFH (Bloomberg)

  • Blackbird.ai, a New York-based disinformation intelligence platform, raised $10 million in Series A funding. Dorilton Ventures led, and was joined by NetX, Generation Ventures, Trousdale Ventures, StartFast Ventures and Richard Clarke. (TechCrunch)

  • Boom Entertainment, a New York-based maker of sports gaming apps, raised $15 million in Series A funding. Sands Capital led the round and was joined by Bob Kraft, Jim Murrenn, Golden Nugget, Rush Street, TEGNA, and Defy Partners. (PR Newswire)

  • Intenseye, a New York-based  provider of video analytics for employee health and safety, raised $25 million in Series A funding. Insight Partners led the round and was joined by insiders Point Nine and Air Street Capital. (VentureBeat)

  • Lightricks, a New York and Israel-based creator of photo and video editing apps including Facetune2, raised $100 million in Series D funding (an additional $30 million was secondary) valuing it at $1.8 billion. Insight Partners and Hanaco Venture Capital led the round and were joined by investors including Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Clal Tech, Harel Insurance and Finance, and Greycroft. (TechCrunch)

  • Niio, a New York-based digital art platform, raised $15 million in Series A funding. Investors include L Catterton, Entree Capital, Pico Partners, and Saga VC. (TechCrunch)

  • Veracity, a New York-based personal care and wellness business using hormone testing, raised $5 million in seed funding. Global Founders Capital led the round and was joined by investors including L Catterton, Meridian Street Capital, Great Oaks, FAB Ventures, and Silas Capital.

  • September 22: Virtual: How to Revive NYC’s Economy, Spark Good Jobs, and Build a More Equitable City, with Glitch CEO Anil Dash, Per Scholas president and CEO Plinio Ayala, United Way of NYC president and CEO Sheena Wright, and more. Hosted by Center for an Urban Future. Register here.

  • September 30: Virtual: Decoding Product-Led Growth Success with GitLab product group manager Sarah Waldner, Figma product manager Katie Szeto, and Airtable product lead Kelly O’Shaughnessy. Hosted by Work-Bench. Register here.

  • September 30: Virtual: Q3 Female Founder Office Hours, for 1:1 meetings with early-stage female founders and Tribeca Ventures Partners’ investment team. Register here.

  • October 6 – 7: Virtual: Future Imperfect Summit 2021, with WNYC editor in chief Audrey Cooper, Partnership on AI head of AI and media integrity Claire Leibowicz, The Knowledge House CEO Jerelyn Rodriguez, and others. Hosted by NYC Media Lab. Register here.

  • October 6: Virtual: The Future of New York City, with Brooklyn Borough President (and Democratic nominee for Mayor) Eric Adams. Hosted by Savills. Register here.

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