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nycopendata · 6 years

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New York City Celebrates Open Data Week 2018

March 3 through March 10, more than 30 events for new yorkers to explore the use & power of NYC Open Data

NYC Open Data Week 2018 is a week-long celebration to raise awareness of the City’s public data. Through March 10, New Yorkers are invited to experience more than 30 events, exhibits, panels, and workshops across the city that explore how NYC Open Data is being leveraged by New Yorkers. Events include a data art exhibition, a demo of a new platform to identify risk to affordable housing in Brooklyn, a tour of a data exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York, workshops for student entrepreneurs on how to use open data to build their business, and more. The full schedule is available here. The City’s Open Data Portal, visited 75,000 times each month on average, allows New Yorkers to access nearly 2,000 free municipal datasets, ranging from 311 complaints to crime incidents by neighborhood to the location of every street tree in the city.

“A fair city is an open city. NYC Open Data puts the data we use to make decisions in government back in the hands of all New Yorkers. Every day, New Yorkers in all five boroughs use open data to improve their communities,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “Open Data Week is about highlighting those stories and giving all New Yorkers inspiration to make a difference.”

“The NYC Open Data Portal is a powerful tool that ensures transparency and fosters civic innovation within our City to help improve the quality of life for all New Yorkers,” said Samir Saini, Commissioner of the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications.

“While New York City has impressive open data stats to boast: nearly 2,000 published data assets and 20,000 visitors to the site per week on average - much of its value happens behind the scenes in making our government more data-driven,” said Emily W. Newman, Acting Director of the Mayor's Office of Operations. “Congratulations to the Mayor’s Office of Data Analytics and DoITT--they make it possible for NYC Open Data to engage dozens of City agencies and City-affiliated organizations. Open Data is transforming the way our City thinks about data-sharing and the power of analytics to drive change for New Yorkers.”

“Since committing to Open Data for All in 2015, we have dismissed the idea ‘If you build it they will come’ and taken efforts to engage more New Yorkers than ever in the data created by their City,” said Adrienne Schmoeker, Director of Civic Engagement & Strategy at the Mayor’s Office of Data Analytics. “We are thrilled to celebrate Open Data Week with all our partners who make transparent government possible.”

Highlights of Open Data Week include:

Brooklyn (March 2-10): Data Through Design: Art Exhibit at the Made in NY Media Center is a free exhibit in DUMBO, Brooklyn featuring eight artists selected in February 2018 exploring the insights and stories that emerge from public data.

Staten Island (Saturday, March 10): Our Stories: The Soul of Data is organized by First Star College of Staten Island (CSI) Academy with the Administration of Children’s Services; the free four-hour workshop will empower 20+ foster youth with the tools to find and use NYC Open Data.

Manhattan (Saturday March 10): Open Data L-Train Innovation Challenge is a day-long event organized by Forum for the Future, Collectively and Grand Central Tech calling designers and civic technologists for a day of problem-solving.

Brooklyn (Thursday, March 8): Identify Affordable Housing Risks with Data at Brooklyn Borough Hall will unveil a new web portal to host housing data from multiple sources, allowing organizations to share, validate, and bolster their findings and research to show trends and threats to affordable housing in Brooklyn. Hosted by Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and OpenGov.

In celebration of International Open Data Day on March 3, the City is launching the Open Data Project Gallery which shows 5 examples of how data has been used to address urban problems. This new feature was inspired by Open Data Week 2017, designed and prototyped by the NYC firm Fahrenheit 212 and developed by the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications Gov Lab & Studio. The City is also offering a chance for New Yorkers and international users to enter their own projects into the running for the following awards, which will be judged by a panel of experts from the City, WNYC, SAVI at the Pratt Institute, NYC Tech Alliance, and Technical.ly Brooklyn:

Mayor's Civics Award

Data Science Award

Open Data Award

Most Creative Award

NYC Innovator Award

The contest officially launches on March 3 and runs through May 1, see the Open Data Website for more details: nyc.gov/opendata.

“Data was born to be free, and NYC's Open Data program ensures it lives that way” said Miguel Gamiño, Jr., New York City Chief Technology Officer. “Democratization of data makes it possible for any entrepreneur and startup to access one of the most valuable ingredients for building technologies that serve the public and make technology work for all people.”

“TLC is proud to celebrate Open Data Week and the sixth anniversary of the City’s Open Data Law!” said TLC Commissioner Meera Joshi. “Since the law passed in 2012, there has been massive growth in the for-hire industries in NYC, and TLC has expanded data reporting requirements to understand the effects of this growth and to better regulate services, making much of this granular trip data available to the public. TLC goes beyond the law’s requirements and has identified new metrics that are most useful for the public in understanding how taxis, app-based services, and traditional for-hire services operate in NYC, allowing the public to see firsthand the growth and its effects, no matter a person’s technical skills with data.”

“With NYC Open Data Week, the City has created a unique opportunity for New Yorkers to step into the world of data,” said Gregg Bishop, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Small Business Services. “Not only is the City opening up data for all but, given the upward mobility that data careers offer, we’re providing free skills training and job connection to open up opportunity for New Yorkers in an increasingly tech-driven economy.”

“NYC Service is thrilled to engage our Youth Leadership Councils in Open Data Week,” said NYC Chief Service Officer Paula Gavin. “Community data is a foundation for civic engagement and the Open Data platform is an important tool that encourages our City's youth to better understand their neighborhoods in new ways, allowing them access to information that can be used to improve policy and practice in all five boroughs.”

“Our Open Data Law has given rise to a dazzling constellation of new apps, research projects, and even businesses aimed at improving New Yorkers’ lives through the creative use of public datasets,” said Manhattan Borough President Gale A. Brewer. “Happy Open Data Week to all the civic hackers out there building things with public data, and thank you to the Mayor’s Office of Data Analytics, DoITT, DoRIS, and the public servants at every city agency working to put government data to work for the people we serve.”

“I believe nearly every sector of our municipal government would be enhanced by a better utilization and activation of civic data, through real-time monitoring, enhanced public accountability, and dynamic agency response. My administration will continue to champion technological advances like these that improve the City’s ability to dig into the crevices of persistent challenges facing New Yorkers. I’m pleased that Brooklyn Borough Hall is part of Open Data Week, and I thank the Mayor’s Office of Data Analytics for organizing this important initiative,” said Brooklyn Borough President Eric L. Adams.

Council Member Peter Koo, Chair of the Committee on Technology said, “Open Data Week demonstrates NYC’s commitment to a transparent, accountable and less-cynical government that takes pride in giving people access to information. Today, accessible data is being used by everyone from students to professionals in an effort to influence policy and change in their communities, so it is with great excitement that we ask for this year’s participants to step up their game, and take full advantage of this tremendous opportunity to create new innovations with NYC’s data, and to create a better city for everyone.”

“New York City's Open Data policy puts us at the forefront of giving residents the information they need to make a difference,” said Council Member Ben Kallos. “Since its implementation, the Open Data Portal has bred countless new laws, apps, and other solutions to improve access to city services for all New Yorkers. Thank you to Mayor de Blasio for leading the way on Open Data for All and using Open Data Week to highlight new innovative ways of presenting public information to empower all New Yorkers.”

The City of New York passed the Open Data Law in 2012. Since then, every City agency has contributed datasets to the portal, with more being added every year. In 2015, Mayor de Blasio introduced Open Data for All, a vision to maximize New Yorkers’ engagement with City data. The Portal was subsequently relaunched in 2017 with a more user-friendly design allowing novices and experienced data researchers alike to find and use the valuable information it offers. Since relaunch, the Open Data Portal has seen record use, recording more than 75,000 average visitors per month. The Mayor’s Office of Data Analytics (MODA) and the City’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) partner to form the Open Data team.

Open Data Week was inspired, and is supported by, BetaNYC, a civic tech organization based in New York City. They are the organizers of two Open Data Week events, School of Data and Unlocking Open Data for Community Boards with the Manhattan Borough President’s Office.

“After 6 years and 7 additional laws, New York City has nearly 2,000 public data assets from more than 50 different municipal publishers - truly the world's greatest open data program. All worthwhile work takes time, energy and determination - while the road hasn't been easy it has been worth it! It is a pleasure to be a part of the NYC Open Data community and an honor to kick off the second NYC Open Data Week,” said Noel Hidalgo, Executive Director of BetaNYC. “The BetaNYC community is looking forward to an amazing week of storytelling and workshops. We are fortunate to have an Administration, Council, community groups, and individuals who are will to dive beyond the data points and collaborate to make this City work for all of us. The BetaNYC community looks forward to a fantastic Open Data Week. We hope to see all of you at NYC's community data conference.”

“Once again New York is leading the tech industry by demonstrating that open data serves the public interest and spurs innovation in both government and private endeavors,” said Andrew Rasiej, Chairman of the NY Tech Alliance and CEO of Civic Hall. “Now Six Years after New York City’s landmark open data law was passed Open Data Week confirms that both government and citizens are using information that makes government more effective and accountable to the citizens it serves.”

“Allowing New York's innovators access to the wealth of data collected by NYC agencies creates opportunities for startups, large companies, and technologists everywhere. It gives our entrepreneurs the chance to not only solve public-facing problems, but also the tools to build businesses that matter,” said Julie Samuels, Executive Director, Tech:NYC.

“Six years ago, New York City put a plan in motion to leverage its data as a strategic asset. We at Socrata have been fortunate to be part of that journey, helping to make that data not just open but also accessible and usable to all. New York City has created an ecosystem that fosters startups and economic activity around the city, makes the city government more accountable, supports a vibrant civic community, and improves the daily digital experience of New Yorkers. The success of their program is a blueprint that so many other cities are emulating,” said Kevin Merritt, CEO, Socrata.

“The Museum of the City of New York is thrilled to celebrate Open Data Week by offering curator led tours of our data driven interactive gallery exploring the future of New York City. The Future City Lab, part of our signature New York at Its Core exhibition and home to the world’s largest visual display of data about the city, is made possible only by New York City’s commitment to open data and embodies the idea that meeting the challenges of the future requires access to information in the present. We are thrilled to open our doors to all those who are as excited as we are about Open Data Week.” said Whitney Donhauser, Ronay Menschel Director of the Museum of the City of New York.

“New York City has set a gold standard for public access to data through initiatives like Open Data for All, the Open Data Portal, and Open Data Week. At Rentlogic, we support the administration's commitment to making data easy to understand, using it to improve the quality of life for all New Yorkers, and leveraging it to bring fairness and equity to our City's housing market,” said Rentlogic CEO, Yale Fox. “Choosing where to live is one of the biggest decisions a person makes, and we're proud that Rentlogic has brought transparency to a difficult process in a simple, user-friendly platform for the public good.”

“At Forum for the Future, we design open and collaborative strategies for a more sustainable world, and being part of New York City Open Data Week amplifies our ability to do this. Together with the Department of Transportation, Dell, Grand Central Tech, and other partners, we are organizing a hackathon that is bringing the public and private sectors together to collaborate around the L-train shutdown sustainability implications for the city. We are thrilled to be working with the Mayor’s Office of Data Analytics and other organizations that are committed to using and sharing open data to create positive impact. We are grateful for all of the work and support of the NYC Open Data Team to make our innovation challenge and NYC Open Data Week possible,” said Rodrigo Bautista, Principal Change Designer at Forum for the Future.

“Fahrenheit 212 is proud to have partnered with the City of New York and the Mayor’s Office of Data Analytics on NYC Open Data. As part of our commitment to using innovation for civic and social benefit, we consider NYC Open Data an invaluable resource and fuel for innovation to improve the lives of our neighbors, communities and local businesses. We share in the Mayor’s Office of Data Analytics’ goal to accelerate New York City’s innovation engine. Partnering with NYC Open Data has been a great way for us to contribute to that mission,” said Todd Rovak, CEO of Fahrenheit 212.

“Open data and open government are not a point-in-time event, but an ongoing process. In 2012 Local law 11 marked a huge milestone for open data in New York and served as a model for cities across the globe. Six years later, at a time when public trust in our democracy is as shaken as it’s ever been, today’s events offer a powerful renewal of New York’s ongoing commitment to transparent and accountable government. From efforts to ensure more robust oversight and compliance to initiatives to make sure data is not just available to some but useful to all, New York has demonstrated a willingness to work toward that future. There is more work to be done to show not just New Yorkers, but the entire globe a positive, more open vision of the future of American democracy. Let’s all hope the City of New York remains up to the task, and can serve as a model once more in the coming year,” said Stephen Larrick, Director of Open Cities, Sunlight Foundation.

“Data isn’t just data. It’s people’s lives, businesses, and homes; it’s the stories of who we are and how we live. Reboot is honored to partner with New York City, and committed to sharing the lessons from working with this pioneering administration with other cities in the US and around the globe. As we seek to research and design new ways to bring data to life for New Yorkers, we are thrilled to see NYC taking the bold next step of moving beyond opening data to solving problems and changing lives with data,” said Zack Brisson, Principal at Reboot.

“General Assembly is a proud supporter of New York City’s Open Data Week. Our instructors leverage NYC Open Data datasets in our data analytics and data science programs, and they have been an invaluable resource for our students who are hungry for real-life data they can use in their projects and portfolios," said Tom Ogletree, Director of Social Impact and External Affairs at General Assembly. "This is our second year participating in Open Data Week, and we are proud of the many initiatives General Assembly is working on with the City to promote access to technology training and tools for all New Yorkers.”

“We are excited to participate in the OpenData Week and showcase our use of OpenData across the Hunter College curriculum,” said Katherine St. John, professor of computer science at Hunter College. “We look forward to having attendees at our event explore and visualize NYC OpenData and all that it offers.”

“The Zahn Innovation Center at City College is thrilled to be part of Open Data Week. Our March 6th Summit in Harlem will feature both hands-on instruction on how to use NYC Open Data to tackle local problems, and will celebrate the diversity of tech founders here in NYC. We support the many ways in which the Mayor's Office is making technology innovation accessible through initiatives like Open Data!" said Lindsay Siegel, Executive Director of the Zahn Innovation Center at The City College of New York, City University of New York (CUNY).

“Open data represents opportunity. We are thankful for the ongoing dedication and effort from municipalities like New York for expanding the footprint of available open data. There is much more work to be done- and thanks to the efforts of visionary leaders who see beyond what is in place today to continue to expand the scope, breadth and ease of access to open data to serve all constituents. For companies like Vizalytics, who serve public and private sector clients in the US, Canada, Europe and Australia, open data is critical to our business model. When we first began our work in 2012, it was NYC Open Data that was foundational to our success, and we are grateful for being past NYC Big Apps winners, as well as working with NYC Mayor's Office of Tech and Innovation on neighborhoods.nyc,” said Aileen Gemma Smith, CEO Vizalytics Technology.

“Strategy and innovation consultancy Luminary Labs is hosting a panel discussion, “Correlate & Innovate: using non-traditional data sets for innovation,” at its office during Open Data Week. “From healthcare and finance to transportation and government, organizations are increasingly embracing open data in the pursuit of innovation,” said CEO Sara Holoubek of Luminary Labs. “Open Data Week creates a space and time for these important cross-sector conversations.”

“We applaud the City of New York’s continued efforts to increase not only access to data but also to educate users about data through enhancements such as the NYC Open Data Portal metadata screens and data dictionaries. This, along with endeavors like the NYC Planning Lab’s human-centered design approach, significantly increases the understanding and impact we and our community partners are able to achieve,” said Jessie Braden, Director of Pratt Institute’s Spatial Analysis and Visualization Initiative.

“New York City’s commitment to open data has promoted and fostered operational efficiency within and across agencies, but also more informed and engaged citizens,” said Jim Barry, Esri developer network program manager. “Much of this city’s open data has some location component to it, and on Monday, March 5, during NYC Open Data Week, Esri will be hosting a hands-on workshop, showing how to use "Insights for ArcGIS" to combine, analyze, and visualize NYC open data on maps and charts as actionable results.”

“We're proud of our partnership with the NYC Mayor’s Office of Data Analytics and New York City nonprofits where together we enable New Yorkers to put Open Data to good use in their communities. CARTO's community and grants programs empower open data users to analyze, visualize, and act on civic data in new ways,” said Tyler Bird, Community Lead at CARTO.

“We’re excited to have the Open Contracting Partnership engage as a part of Open Data Week and to begin exploring public contracting in New York City. We look forward to the opportunity to dig into NYC's open data infrastructure and explore ways to implement an open data contracting standard to give everyone a way to track spending from planning through to public contracts with companies and onto the delivery of services. Continuing to drive the values of NYC Open Data through to the contracting process will help businesses to access new opportunities and create a level playing field. It will help concerned New Yorkers follow public money and strengthen NYC’s open government efforts,” said Open Contracting Partnership's Executive Director, Gavin Hayman.

Most Open Data Week events are free of charge and open to the public. Visit

open-data.nyc for details and event schedules.

#NYC OpenData NYCOpenData

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ladystylestores · 4 years

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A Silicon Valley for everyone – TechCrunch

Editor’s note: Get this free weekly recap of TechCrunch news that any startup can use by email every Saturday morning (7am PT). Subscribe here.

Many in the tech industry saw the threat of the novel coronavirus early and reacted correctly. Fewer have seemed prepared for its aftereffects, like the outflow of talented employees from very pricey office real estate in expensive and troubled cities like San Francisco.

And few indeed have seemed prepared for the Black Lives Matter protests that have followed the death of George Floyd. This was maybe the easiest to see coming, though, given how visible the structural racism is in cities up and down the main corridors of Silicon Valley.

Today, the combination of politics, the pandemic and the protests feels almost like a market crash for the industry (except many revenues keep going up and to the right). Most every company is now fundamentally reconsidering where it will be located and who it will be hiring — no matter how well it is doing otherwise.

Some, like Google and Thumbtack, have been caught in the awkward position of scaling back diversity efforts as part of pandemic cuts right before making statements in support of the protesters, as Megan Rose Dickey covered on TechCrunch this week. But it is also the pandemic helping to create the focus, as Arlan Hamilton of Backstage Capital tells her:

It is like the world and the country has a front-row seat to what Black people have to witness, take in, and feel all the time. And it was before they were seeing some of it, but they were seeing it kind of protected by us. We were kind of shielding them from some of it… It’s like a VR headset that the country is forced to be in because of COVID. It’s just in their face.

This also putting new scrutiny on how tech is used in policing today. It is renewing questions around who gets to be a VC and who gets funding right when the industry is under new pressure to deliver. It is highlighting solutions that companies can make internally, like this list from BLCK VC on Extra Crunch.

As with police reforms currently in the national debate, some of the most promising solutions are local. Property tax reform, pro-housing activism and sustainable funding for homelessness services are direct ways for the tech industry to address the long history of discrimination where the modern tech industry began, Catherine Bracy of TechEquity writes for TechCrunch. These changes are also what many think would make the Bay Area a more livable place for everyone, including any startup and any tech employee at any tech company (see: How Burrowing Owls Lead To Vomiting Anarchists).

Something to think about as we move on to our next topic — the ongoing wave of tech departures from SF.

Where will VCs follow founders to now?

In this week’s staff survey, we revisit the remote-first dislocation of the tech industry’s core hubs. Danny Crichton observes some of the places that VCs have been leaving town for, and thinks it means bigger changes are underway:

“Are VCs leaving San Francisco? Based on everything I have heard: yes. They are leaving for Napa, leaving for Tahoe, and otherwise heading out to wherever gorgeous outdoor beauty exists in California. That bodes ill for San Francisco’s (and really, South Park’s) future as the oasis of VC.

But the centripetal forces are strong. VCs will congregate again somewhere else, because they continue to have that same need for market intelligence that they have always had. The new, new place might not be San Francisco, but I would be shocked just given the human migration pattern underway that it isn’t in some outlying part of the Bay Area.

And then he says this:

As for VCs — if the new central node is a bar in Napa and that’s the new “place to be” — that could be relatively more permanent. Yet ultimately, VCs follow the founders even if it takes time for them to recognize the new balance of power. It took years for most VCs to recognize that founders didn’t want to work in South Bay, but now nearly every venture firm of note has an office in San Francisco. Where the founders go, the VCs will follow. If that continues to be SF, its future as a startup hub will continue after a brief hiatus.

It’s true that another outlying farming community in the region once became a startup hub, but that one had a major research university next door, and at the time a lot of cheap housing if you were allowed access to it. But Napa cannot be the next Palo Alto because it is fully formed today as a glorified retirement community, Danny.

I’m already on the record for saying that college towns in general are going to become more prominent in the tech world, between ongoing funding for innovative tech work and ongoing desirability for anyone moving from the big cities. But I’m going to add a side bet that cities will come back into fashion with the sorts of startup founders that VCs would like to back. As Exhibit A, I’d like to present Jack Dorsey, who started a courier dispatch in Oakland in 2000, and studied fashion and massage therapy during the aftermath of the dot-com bubble. His success with Twitter a few years later in San Francisco inspired many founders to move as well.

Creative people like him are drawn to the big, creative environments that cities can offer, regardless of what the business establishment thinks. If the public and private sectors can learn from the many mistakes of recent decades (see last item) who knows, maybe we’ll see a more equal and resilient sort of boom emerge in tech’s current core.

Insurance provider Lemonade files for IPO with that refreshing common-stock flavor

There are probably some amazing puns to be made here but it has been a long week, and the numbers speak for themselves. Lemonade sells insurance to renters and homeowners online, and managed to reach a private valuation of $3.5 billion before filing to go public on Monday — with the common stockholders still comprising the majority of the cap table.

Danny crunched the numbers from the S-1 on Extra Crunch to generate the table, included, that illustrates this rather unusual breakdown. Usually, as you almost certainly know already, the investors own well over half by the time of a good liquidity event. “So what was the magic with Lemonade?” he ponders. “One piece of the puzzle is that company founder Daniel Schreiber was a multi-time operator, having previously built Powermat Technologies as the company’s president. The other piece is that Lemonade is built in the insurance market, which can be carefully modeled financially and gives investors a rare repeatable business model to evaluate.”

(Photo by Paul Hennessy/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Adapting enterprise product roadmaps to the pandemic

Our investor surveys for Extra Crunch this week covered the space industry’s startup opportunities, and looked at how enterprise investors are assessing the impact of the pandemic. Here’s Theresia Gouw of Acrew Capital, explaining how two of their portfolio companies have refocused in recent months:

A common theme we found when joining our founders for these strategy sessions was that many pulled forward and prioritized mid- to long-term projects where the product features might better fit the needs of their customers during these times. One such example in our portfolio is Petabyte’s (whose product is called Rhapsody) accelerated development of its software capabilities that enable veterinarians to provide telehealth services. Rhapsody has also incorporated key features that enable a contactless experience when telehealth isn’t sufficient. These include functionality that enables customers to check-in (virtual waiting room), sign documents, and make payments from the comfort and safety of their car when bringing their pet (the patient!) to the vet for an in-person check-up.

Another such example would be PredictHQ, which provides demand intelligence to enterprises in travel, hospitality, logistics, CPG, and retail, all sectors who saw significant change (either positive or negative) in the demand for their products and services. PredictHQ has the most robust global dataset on real-world events. Pandemics and all the ensuing restrictions and, then, loosening of restrictions fall within the category of real-world events. The company, which also has multiple global offices, was able to incorporate the dynamic COVID government responses on a hyperlocal basis, by geography, and equip its customers (e.g., Domino’s, Qantas, and First Data) with up to date insights that would help with demand planning and forecasting as well as understanding staffing needs.

Around TechCrunch

Extra Crunch Live: Join Superhuman CEO Rahul Vohra for a live Q&A on June 16 at 2pm EDT/11 AM PDT Join us for a live Q&A with Plaid CEO Zach Perret June 18 at 10 a.m. PDT/1 p.m. EDT Two weeks left to save on TC Early Stage passes Learn how to ‘nail it before you scale it’ with Floodgate’s Ann Miura-Ko at TC Early Stage SF How can startups reinvent real estate? Learn how at TechCrunch Disrupt Stand out from the crowd: Apply to TC Top Picks at Disrupt 2020

Across the Week

TechCrunch

Theaters are ready to reopen, but is America ready to go back to the movies? Edtech is surging, and parents have some notes When it comes to social media moderation, reach matters Zoom admits to shutting down activist accounts at the request of the Chinese government

Extra Crunch

TechCrunch’s top 10 picks from Techstars’ May virtual demo days Software’s meteoric rise: Have VCs gone too far? Recession-proof your software engineering career The complicated calculus of taking Facebook’s venture money The pace of startup layoffs may be slowing down

#EquityPod

From Alex:

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.

After a pretty busy week on the show we’re here with our regular Friday episode, which means lots of venture rounds and new venture capital funds to dig into. Thankfully we had our full contingent on hand: Danny “Well, you see” Crichton, Natasha “Talk to me post-pandemic” Mascarenhas, Alex “Very shouty” Wilhelm and, behind the scenes, Chris “The Dad” Gates.

Make sure to check out our IPO-focused Equity Shot from earlier this week if you haven’t yet, and let’s get into today’s topics:

Instacart raises $225 million. This round, not unexpected, values the on-demand grocery delivery startup at $13.7 billion — a huge sum, and one that should make it harder for the well-known company to sell itself to anyone but the public markets. Regardless, COVID-19 gave this company a huge updraft, and it capitalized on it.

Pando raises $8.5 million. We often cover rounds on Equity that are a little obvious. SaaS, that sort of thing. Pando is not that. Instead, it’s a company that wants to let small groups of individual pool their upside and allow for more equal outcomes in an economy that rewards outsized success.

Ethena raises $2 million. Anti-harassment software is about as much fun as the dentist today, but perhaps that doesn’t have to be the case. Natasha talked us through the company, and its pricing. I’m pretty bullish on Ethena, frankly. Homebrew, Village Global and GSV took part in the financing event.

Vendr raises $4 million. Vendr wants to help companies cut their SaaS bills, through its own SaaS-esque product. I tried to explain this, but may have butchered it a bit. It’s cool, I promise.

Facebook is getting into the CVC game. This should not be a surprise, but we were also not sure who was going to want Facebook money.

And, finally, Collab Capital is raising a $50 million fund to invest in Black founders. Per our reporting, the company is on track to close on $10 million in August. How fast the fund can close its full target is something we’re going to keep an eye on, considering it might get a lot harder a lot sooner.

And that is that; thanks for lending us your ears.

Equity drops every Friday at 6:00 am PT, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts.

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