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And now, for this week in data, we've got footprints measuring 1.25 meters across, a $20M Covid-19 fund, and Airbnb's projected 54% drop in revenue. Check it out below.

$215M: Quantum computing startup PsiQuantum raised a $215M funding round. The company is developing a light-based approach that could allow for a practical quantum computer in the coming years. We discuss the quickly advancing commercialization of quantum tech in our 68-page 2020 Tech Trends To Watch report.

78 vaccines: Teams across the world are working on at least 78 vaccine candidates for Covid-19, with 5 candidates already in Phase 1 clinical testing, according to Nature. Despite the rapid progress, experts do not expect a vaccine to be ready for public distribution until next year. We look at how tech like AI is being used to speed up clinical trials in this report. 
 

-54%: Airbnb reportedly told investors that its revenue could decline by 54% this year. The company is facing challenges from big drops in travel brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic. The startup, which was previously planning to go public this year, separately announced $1B in debt and equity financing as it pivots its strategy toward longer-term rentals.
 

+2M users/day: The sudden rise in people working from home is driving swaths of users to try new services. Google said that its video chat service is gaining 2M users a day while its ed tech platform, Google Classroom, has doubled its user base within the last month to surpass 100M. Entertainment services are also gaining steam: streaming platform Disney+ reported that it had surpassed 50M subscribers — an almost 2x increase over the last 2 months. We discuss how the CEO of Slack, which has also seen recent usage surge, views changing customer behavior as a key part of innovation in this report. 

$1.5B: Customer communication platform Podium raised $125M in a round led by Y Combinator. The new financing values the startup at $1.5B, bringing the number of private companies last valued at $1B+ to a total of 464. 
 

$20M: Microsoft said that it would allocate $20M from its AI for Health fund, which was only launched in January, to finance efforts to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic. Alongside healthcare applications like  tracking outbreaks of infectious diseases, AI could also help develop treatments for a range of conditions. We discuss how AI-powered protein modeling could lead to more effective drugs in our AI Trends To Watch report. 

$1.2B: Online lending startup SoFi is set to acquire payments platform Galileo in a deal worth $1.2B. SoftBank-backed SoFi has raised over $2.5B in disclosed equity financing. Though some deals are still being struck, the economic conditions caused by the coronavirus have reshaped the fintech landscape. We look at how funding to fintech startups is being affected by the virus in this analysis.  
 

$100M: Apple is reportedly planning to buy California-based NextVR for $100M. The tech giant has been on an acquisitions spree recently, with the news of its latest purchase coming just days after it moved to acquire AI natural language processing startup Voysis and weather app Dark Sky. We discuss Apple’s potential VR ambitions — including a patent for working on the move — in this report. 

1.25 meters: Researchers reported that dinosaur footprints measuring 1.25m across were found 500m underground on a cave roof. The 168M-year-old footprints, which were buried and spun by natural geological processes, are thought to belong to a species of titanosaur — a group that includes some of largest animals known to have existed.
   

5B light years: Astronomers created an image of a black hole — sitting in a galaxy about 5B light years away — producing a gigantic stream of extremely high-energy particles. This type of black hole is known as a quasar, celestial objects that are among the brightest in the universe.

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A Hagerstown, Maryland winery is enlisting the help of a dog to deliver wine to curbside customers. 

Co-owner Lori Yata outfitted Soda Pup, the 11-year-old brindle boxer, with a “wine saddle bag” that allows the dog to carry up to 2 bottles of wine. Though he was a little hesitant with his first customer, the winery reports that Soda has been “getting quite good…as long as there are no bunnies, or geese, or other critters to distract him.”