2 Weeks To Go!- ASDCup Deadline.

When Workers Can Live Anywhere, Many Ask: Why Do I Live Here? | WSJ

Gillian Holdstein and Jarred Roth were both in California for business in March when the pandemic hit. So the New Yorkers decided to stay for good.

The couple chose to move to Sonoma about four weeks into quarantine at their friends’ house in the wine region. Ms. Holdstein’s employer, the e-commerce firm MikMak, let her open their first West Coast sales office from home. Mr. Roth is focused on a restaurant he is preparing to help open in the area…

NHS finds VR training boosts coronavirus frontline worker performance | Venture Beat

Virtual reality showed great potential for medical training well before the coronavirus pandemic, letting surgeons practice on digital patients while students experimented in virtual labs. As hospitals across the world rushed nurses and doctors into the fight against COVID-19, the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS) invited VR training company Virti to join its innovation accelerator program, commissioning a study to quantify VR’s value in educating hospitals’ frontline workers…

Startups Tortoise, Swiftmile are combining their tech to solve scooter chaos | TechCrunch

Sidewalk congestion is a major pain point for cities, and fully charged scooters for riders are no guarantee. Those are the two main selling points of micromobility docking startup Swiftmile  and remote-controlled scooter repositioning startup Tortoise, respectively. Today, Swiftmile and Tortoise announced a partnership to solve those problems…

Amazon deploys AI ‘distance assistants’ to notify warehouse workers if they get too close | The Verge

Amazon, which is currently being sued for allegedly failing to protect workers from COVID-19, has unveiled a new AI tool it says will help employees follow social distancing rules.

The company’s “Distance Assistant” combines a TV screen, depth sensors, and AI-enabled camera to track employees’ movements and give them feedback in real time. When workers come closer than six feet to one another, circles around their feet flash red on the TV, indicating to employees that they should move to a safe distance apart. The devices are self-contained, meaning they can be deployed quickly where needed and moved about..

25 Million Applications: The Scramble for N.Y.C. Affordable Housing | NY TIMES

For more than five years, William Sencion did the same task over and over. He signed onto the New York City’s housing lottery site and applied for one of the city’s highly coveted, below-market apartments. Each time, he got the same response: silence.

That was until late last year, when he was told that he might qualify for a one-bedroom unit in the Bronx. But first he had to prove his eligibility by printing a month’s worth of financial, banking and tax documents, along with a letter from his employer, and providing them in person to a marketing agent for the apartment…

Uber to Sell Software, Starting With Four-Van Transit Service | Bloomberg

Uber Technologies Inc. is getting into software. The company is making the technology that powers its ride-hailing business available to others, starting with public transit agencies.

California’s Marin County transportation providers are the first customers to buy access to Uber’s software in a deal the company announced Wednesday. The tie-up represents a potential new revenue stream for Uber at a time when the company could use it…

Whitethorn Digital receives $1.2m Opportunity Zone investment | Game Industry Biz

Whitethorn Digital has announced it has received $1.2 in funding from Erie Insurance’s Opportunity Zone Fund.

The Erie, Pennsylvania-based publisher will use the funding to purchase and refurbish a building in downtown Erie for use as an office, as well as expand the company from eight people to between 20 and 25 over the next three to five years…

EasyKnock Completes $20 Million Series B Funding | New York CityBizList

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–EasyKnock, the first institutionalized residential sale-leaseback company in the U.S, today announced a $20 million funding round co-led by Blumberg Capital and QED Investors, with contributions from FJ Labs, Correlation, Moderne, 7BC and Interplay.

COVID-19 Accelerates Digital Adoption in Real Estate: Proptech Ventures Report | Fintech News Switzerland

In a paper titled Proptech and the Corona Effect: Impact of COVID-19 on Digitalization Trends in the Real Estate Industry, the VC delves into the impact of the pandemic and resulting economic turmoil on the sector, and explores how the financing landscape for proptech startups and the market opportunities for their investors are expected to develop.

Berlin-based Homeday snaps up €40 million for its hybrid brokerage solutions | EU-Startups

Today Berlin-based Homeday, the brokerage firm financed by Project A, will receive a further €40 million. Axel Springer SE and Purplebricks are also investing and expanding their shares.

Homeday, founded in 2015, is one of the fastest growing nationwide brokerage companies in Germany. Homeday offers real estate sellers a full brokerage service with experienced local agents, with no commission charged. Buyers also pay less than usual on the market and therefore have more money at their disposal. Overall, the Homeday service saves all parties involved thousands of euros…