ASKED & ANSWERED Councilwoman prioritizes mental health care
STAYING AFLOAT Arts groups find public, private funding to aid in their recovery PAGE 3
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MARCH 14, 2022
FORGING AHEAD The city’s life science industry stays the course amid recent waves of uncertainty BY SHUAN SIM
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ew York City’s burgeoning life science and biotech sector is flush with millions of dollars in government investment, but a new set of external forces has thrust a seemingly inevitable growth spurt into uncertainty and strife. The city has invested deeply in life science infrastructure, such as laboratory space and incubator programs, to compete with heavyweights such as Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts, and San Francisco’s Bay Area. In June then-Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the city would AMOUNT commit an additional $500 invested by the million to LifeSci NYC, a city to support joint initiative with the Ecothe life sciences nomic Development Corp., to bring the total investment to $1 billion. The investment paid off. The city now boasts at least 10 incubator programs, including BioLabs@NYULangone, a 50,000-square-foot facility in Hudson Square, and Johnson & Johnson’s JLabs, a 30,000-square-foot space in SoHo. The Alexandria Center for Life Science in Kips Bay, first opened in 2010, has completed two of its three
PHIL FOSTER
$1B
See SCIENCE on page 19
TECHNOLOGY
How startups are chasing workers in a hot tech labor market BY RYAN DEFFENBAUGH
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apchase, a fintech startup based in the Flatiron District, had a big 2021. The firm raised $280 million from investors in the summer and saw its headcount grow from 16 to more than 100. Fresh off an
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$80 million investment round announced last Thursday, Capchase has at least 40 more positions to fill in the coming months— something CEO and co-founder Miguel Fernandez knows won’t be easy. “The labor market is really tight,” said Fernandez, whose company connects startups
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with nondilutive financing. “Last year was a good year for tech companies, with a lot of money in the market at high valuations. When you have that valuation, you need to hire people to grow and prove that value.” It’s a challenge many tech leaders face. The Great Resignation, which saw 4.3 million
Americans leave their job in January, has hit the technology industry at a time when many firms are experiencing increased demand for their products and pressure from investors to continue growing. Venture capital investors See WORKERS on page 22
BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT
THE CLOSER
TECH FIRM’S NOVEL WAY OF SNAPPING PICTURES OF EARTH PAGE 23
Real estate broker moves into cannabis market PAGE 17 3/11/22 5:41 PM