NY Tech Meetup & New York Technology Council Merge
The Story
Two nonprofit organizations, NY Tech Meetup (NYTM) and the New York Technology Council (NYTECH), announced that they are merging to form the NY Tech Alliance.
Why this is important
The new organization will be the region’s largest group representing the technology community with over 60,000 members. Its mission is to represent, inspire, support, and help lead the New York technology community and ecosystem to create a better future for all. This will include initiatives surrounding diversity in tech, data privacy and security, the sharing economy and workforce development. [Xconomy]
New life-science incubator to open next year
The Story
Alexandria Real Estate Equities is building out 15,000-square-feet at its life science center on the East Side of Manhattan for medical and pharmaceutical startups.
Some background
The developer of the Alexandria Center for Life Science, a biotech campus on East 29th Street, is opening a 15,000-square-foot incubator for startups in the medical and pharmaceutical fields, dubbed Alexandria LaunchLabs. The incubator is aiming to help fill the shortage of such space in NYC, so that biotech startups can establish a foothold, raise funds and receive support to turn their technology, research or ideas into a business. [Crain’s New York]
Women-focused investing platform expands outside of NYC
The Story
Veteran finance executive Sallie Krawcheck is launching a digital investment platform for women.
A little background
The NYC-based company, Ellevest, expanded to Austin this week to help women become more financially empowered. Ellevest aims to close the gender investing gap and redefine investing for women with a practical, goals-based approach. The platform offers clients tailored investment portfolios, allows women to invest in multiple goals simultaneously and monitors their progress, alerting them if they fall off track for their goals. [PR Newswire]
WeWork is laying off seven percent of its employees
The Story
Shared workspace startup WeWork will shed seven percent of its staff and has instituted a temporary hiring freeze.
Reason behind the layoffs
WeWork claims that the planned cuts are part of a realignment, and that the hiring stop might be lifted as soon as next week. [Business Insider]
SundaySky raises $30 million Series D
Investors: Viola Private Equity, Carmel Ventures, Globespan Capital Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, Comcast Ventures and NTT DOCOMO Ventures.
SundaySky’s core product, SmartVideo, creates videos to greet new customers when they visit a brand’s website (specifically, when they look for information). The goal of these personalized videos is to change consumer behavior across the customer lifecycle and drive return on investment. The company plans on using the funding to scale global growth and expand its customer base as a leader in the personalized video engagement market. [Built In NYC]
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