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• $2.25B: Alphabet-owned self-driving car company Waymo raised $2.25B. The mammoth funding round is the first time the Google spinout has taken external investment. Overall funding to autonomous vehicle companies dipped last year as skepticism mounted over the tech’s viability, but a host of corporations and well-funded startups — like Nuro and Pony.ai — are looking to push the tech forward. Clients can take a look at companies working in the space in our  Expert Collection.
   

• $200M: Chime raised another $200M, according to an SEC filing, adding to its $500M Series E round announced late last year. The California-based challenger bank was last valued at $5.8B. Total funding to fintech startups was $34.5B last year. Learn about the trends driving the space in our State Of Fintech report.

• 1 month: Researchers announced that the gene-editing technique CRISPR was used for the first time to edit DNA that was still inside a patient’s body. Doctors used the tool in an attempt to cure an inherited form of blindness — though it will take around a month to tell if the treatment is working. Learn more about how CRISPR works, and how it could transform healthcare and a host of other industries, in our explainer.  

• 2x: Honeywell announced that it will launch a new quantum computer — which it says will be 2x more powerful than any other of its kind — in around 3 months. As the first public customer for the device, JPMorgan intends to test quantum algorithms that could eventually be used for financial services. We discussed the increasing commercialization of quantum tech in our report on 14 tech trends to watch in 2020. 

• $210M: Health benefits platform Accolade filed to go public. The company raised over $210M in disclosed equity funding, and was included in our 2019 Digital Health 150 cohort and our 2020 Tech IPO Pipeline report. See more of our predictions here.  
   
• 20%: The UK government expects that up to 20% of the country’s workforce could be out of work at the same time, according to a coronavirus planning document it released. The projection comes as Italy announced that it would close its schools and universities for 2 weeks and an increasing number of cases are reported in the US. We look at how companies may use emerging tech to relieve pressure on global supply chains in this analysis.
   

• 5,000 jobs: India-based short-term accommodation startup Oyo said that it would cut 5,000 jobs as part of cost-reducing measures. The SoftBank-backed startup has raised over $1.6B in disclosed funding as it looks to go up against competitors like Airbnb. Clients can check out some of Oyo's competitors  here.

• 34x: Jack Welch, who led General Electric for 20 years, died at the age of 84. During his renowned tenure as CEO of the company, GE’s value rose 34x from $12B to $410B — though the company’s market cap has reduced in the decades since.

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Have a spare $7,800? That’ll buy you a week at Canyon Ranch, America’s “original wellness resort," where you can take spin classes, attend lectures on sexual health, receive an underwater massage in a hot tub, or get Botox.

One spender dropped a record $45,000 in a single day for spa services. But can you put a price tag on youth? Specifically, the youth that comes with being wrapped in an organic seaweed leaf cocoon? 

Jk — that’s the Botox (which’ll cost you up to $3,000, or more).