--- title: "Digits: A $176m accident, ultra-thin trees, and umbrella vending machines - The Hustle" description: "Plus: 2021’s wild jackpot numbers, and Indian startups are on fire." image: https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1931630533-News-Brief_2022-01-03T003725.532Z.webp --- # Digits: A $176m accident, ultra-thin trees, and umbrella vending machines ![Jacob Cohen](https://thehustle.co/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/IMG_5670-1-modified-768x768.png?width=48&height=48&name=IMG_5670-1-modified-768x768.png) [Jacob Cohen](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/author/jacob-cohen) [Jacob Cohen Twitter profile ](https://twitter.com/ImJacobCohen) Published: January 03, 2022 Updated: October 11, 2023 *These trees are 1 atom thin! (Source: Technical University of Denmark / Phys.org)* ![Digits: A $176m accident, ultra-thin trees, and umbrella vending machines](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hs-fs/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1931630533-News-Brief_2022-01-03T003725.532Z.webp?width=595&height=400&name=1931630533-News-Brief_2022-01-03T003725.532Z.webp) **1)** Around 75k people and companies received a Christmas gift when Santander Bank accidentally deposited [**$176m**](https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/31/santander-accidentally-put-millions-into-random-accounts-on-christmas-day.html) into their accounts. Unfortunately, the gift was short-lived, and the bank — which recovered the funds — quickly devolved from Santa to Grinch. **2)** Speaking of… Usually, Christmas tree records have something to do with height or lights. This Christmas, though, researchers at the Technical University of Denmark used graphene to construct a Christmas “tree” 14 centimeters long — and [***1 atom***](https://phys.org/news/2021-12-world-thinnest-christmas-tree.html) thin. **3)** In 2021, 6 jackpots worth a combined [**$2B**](https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/30/powerball-top-prize-is-483-million-this-year-2-billion-was-won.html) were drawn for Powerball’s lottery. It’s important to remember, these prices reflect what you’d get as an annual payment made out over 29 years. Most winners chose a one-time, reduced payment option. What would you choose? **4)** Rentbrella — which, as you might expect, rents umbrellas — now operates 35 NYC umbrella kiosks holding [**3.5k umbrellas**](https://nypost.com/2022/01/01/startup-rentbrella-launches-umbrella-sharing-app-in-nyc/), with 100 kiosks planned for next year. The business model is interesting: If you return an umbrella within 24 hours, it’s completely free. **5)** Indian startups are on fire (the good kind). VC put into Indian companies jumped to [**~$39B**](https://techcrunch.com/2021/12/31/record-number-of-unicorns-and-ipos-indian-startups-raised-39-billion-in-2021/) in 2021 — far higher than the previous record of $14.6B in 2019 — and helped spawn 44 new Indian unicorns. Topics: [Business And Entrepreneurship](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/tag/business-and-entrepreneurship) [Holiday](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/tag/holiday) ## Follow us on social media prev next - ![Catch a fireworks show last night? Cherish it before the drones take over](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/549553385-httpsthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.comfinal_size-drones_20230705040829.webp) ### Catch a fireworks show last night? 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