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Good Morning,

Cathie's $ARKK won't stop dropping, gold was up (congrats Peter Schiff), Musk said the SEC is trying to shut him up, Ford's Mach-E won Consumer Reports' Top EV, Bullard said the Fed may need to hike rates even more, David Solomon took a victory lap for Goldman's performance, the CDC is expected to update mask guidance, and Sequoia raised a massive crypto fund.

As mentioned on the BSD podcast yesterday, we signed a new sponsorship deal with crypto exchange CoinFLEX. Check out the Benzinga piece about our partnership here 🤝

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

If you want to learn more about crypto trading strategies and the world of DeFi, check out our Foot Guns newsletter.

Markets

• Stocks fell yesterday as the Russia-Ukraine conflict had investors selling off “risk-on” assets 

  • The US Ambassador to the UN said that the conflict had reached a “crucial moment” and that Russia is moving toward “an imminent invasion,” while Joe Biden warned that the threat of Russia invading Ukraine is “very high”

  • The Dow dropped 600+ points for its worst day in 2022, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq also ended the day in the red

  • Cathie Wood's ARKK ETF was down 6%+ on the day

• Investors bid up safe-haven assets, with gold futures rising 1%+

• Weekly jobless claims came in at 248K vs 218K expected, up from last week

Earnings

• Walmart shares were up 2% Thursday after topping quarterly EPS and revenue estimates; CFO Brett Biggs said the discounter will keep prices competitive, even as costs of meat and other foods climb (CNBC)

• Palantir shares tanked 13%+ Thursday morning after posting an earnings report where they beat Q1 revenue but missed EPS estimates (CNBC)

• What we’re watching today: DraftKings

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• Litquidity and crypto derivatives exchange CoinFLEX ink $1.5M content sponsorship deal for BSD podcast (Benzinga)

• Tesla CEO Musk accuses SEC of calculated effort to ‘chill’ his right to free speech (CNBC)

• US says that Russia’s claims of Ukraine troop pullback are false (BBG)

• CEO David Solomon raises Goldman’s financial targets at conference after crushing goals set in 2020 (CNBC) 

• Small businesses still face $28B of unforgiven PPP loans (BBG)

• Bullard says Fed may need to raise rates above 2% to curb prices (BBG)​​

• Allianz takes $4.2B charge to cover hedge fund debacle (BBG)

• Blinken sees moment of peril in Ukraine, challenges Russia to commit that it won’t invade (WSJ)

• Judge orders Trump to testify in New York civil-fraud probe (WSJ)

• Regulators widen Activision Blizzard probes over workplace issues (WSJ)

• LVMH, other luxury brands raise prices, betting wealthy customers won’t mind (WSJ)

• Alibaba, Tencent E-commerce sites tagged by US for counterfeit sales (WSJ)

• Education Department forgives $415M in student debt for borrowers who attend for-profit schools (CNBC)

• CDC expected to update mask guidance as early as next week (CNBC)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Permian driller Colgate is said to be exploring a $5B sale (BBG)

• Canadian Pension fund CDPQ is buying a stake in Warburg Pincus-backed cybersecurity firm ESentire at a $1.2B valuation (BBG)

• Millennium Management and Point72 Asset Management are separately in talks to buy quant hedge fund Engineers Gate (BBG)

• Silver Lake agreed to buy a 5.7% stake in the commercial operations of New Zealand’s All Blacks rugby team for $133M (BBG)

• Jordan’s Capital Bank agreed to buy Societe Generale Bank Jordan (RT)

VC

• Thrive Capital closed its eighth fund with $3B: $2.5B for later-staged companies and $500M for early-stage startups (TC)

• Sequoia Capital launched a new ~$600M fund to invest exclusively in crypto startup tokens (DC)

• Sony Ventures Corporation raised $215M for its fourth fund, Sony Innovation Fund 3 (TC)

• Singapore’s Zilingo, a startup providing technology to apparel factories and merchants, is seeking to raise $150-$200M in its latest funding round (BBG)

• Corporate spend startup Fenbeitong raised a $140M Series C+ led by DST Global (BW)

• Vestigo Ventures raised $117.3M for its Fund II (PRN)

• Voltron Data, a startup helping build open source companies on Apache Arrow, raised $110M: an $88M Series A led by Walden Catalyst and a $22M seed round led by Blackrock and Walden Catalyst (TC)

• MindMaze, a digital neurotherapeutics startup, raised $105M in financing led by Concord Health Partners (BW)

• Indian social commerce startup DealShare raised a $45M round from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (TC)

• Convictional, an supplier enablement platform for retailers and distributors, raised a $40M Series B led by YC Continuity (PRN)

• Classiq, a quantum algorithm design platform, raised a $33M Series B from Hewlett Packard Pathfinder, Phoenix, and Samsung NEXT (BW)

• Ageras Group, a startup building an SME focused financial services platform, raised $34M in funding from Centripetal Capital, Saeid Esmaeilzadeh, Investcorp Technology Partners, and others (BW)

• Coast, a startup helping companies save on transportation costs, raised a $27.5M Series A led by Accel and Insight Partners (PRN)

• Spatial computing startup Talespin raised a $20M Series C led by SEEK Investments and Allomer Capital (PRN)

• Dutch, a telemedicine platform for pets, raised a $20M Series A led by Forerunner Ventures and Eclipse Ventures (TC)

• AKHAN, a startup creating lab-grown electronic-grade diamond material, raised $20M in financing from strategic financial partners (BW)

• Flow, a provider of private market software solutions, raised a $20M Series A led by SVB Financial Group (BW)

• On demand transit startup RideCo raised a $15.8M Series A led by Eclipse Ventures (TC)

• Cloud-native data mobility platform Arcion raised a $13M Series A led by Bessemer Venture Partners (BW)

• Goldcast, a B2B event marketer platform for hosting virtual / hybrid events, raised a $10M seed round led by Unusual Ventures (PRN)

• Multi-platform streamer Clix raised a $10M Series A from private investors (BW)

• PiLab Technology, a blockchain startup allowing developers to build DApps on top of multiple protocols, raised an $8.4M Series A led by Korea Investment Partners and STIC Ventures (PRN)

• Chronicled, the developer of the MediLedger Network, a blockchain network for the pharma supply chain, raised $8.3M from True Global Ventures (PRN)

• Actual, a startup visualizing companies’ ESG data in a ‘SimCity-like’ visualization, raised a $5M seed round from Buckley Ventures, Hyper, Wndrco, Sequoia Scout, and more (TC)

• Beem, a startup building an app to enable live streamed AR, raised a $4M seed round led by 5Lion, Ascension Ventures, Grouport Ventures, and more (TC)

• Earnipay, a Nigerian startup providing flexible salary access, raised a $4M seed round led by Canaan (TC)

• Freterium, a Moroccan freight-trucking software platform, raised a $4M seed round led by Partech (TC)

• On-demand screening platform for recruiters Qualifi raised a $2.5M seed round led by Rally Ventures (PRN)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Natural gas field explorer Antero Resources said it may repurchase up to $1B in stock starting next week as part of plan to return up to 50% of FCF over next few years (BBG)

SPAC

• Stablecoin provider Circle renegotiated deal terms with Concord Acquisition Corp to raise valuation to $9B (DECRYPT)

Debt

• Illinois lawmakers are considering a bipartisan proposal to authorize selling $1B of debt to pay for pension buyouts (BBG)

Crypto Corner

• Illinois looking to attract Bitcoin miners to the state with data center tax incentives (TBC)

• Super Bowl ads boosted crypto app downloads by 279%, led by Coinbase (TC)

• The FBI has established a Virtual Asset Exploitation Unit to focus on cryptocurrency-related cases (Decrypt)

Exec's Picks

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Big Swinging Decks Podcast

ICYMI: In yesterday's episode, Lit & Mark broke the news of their exclusive sponsorship with CoinFLEX!

The duo was joined by Mark Lamb, the CEO and Co-Founder of CoinFLEX, who chatted about his background and what led him to found the company.

Catch Big Swinging Decks on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

The Hiring Block

If you're looking to break into finance, lateral, or move out, check out our job board on Pallet, where we curate highly relevant roles for you. We've got 40+ jobs spanning IB, S&T, VC, tech, private equity, DeFi, crypto, CorpDev and more. We sift through all the noise on LinkedIn, Indeed, Monster, etc. so you don't have to.

Meme Cleanser

Advertise with us // Visit our merch store // Invest alongside Lit Ventures

Catch the latest episode of our Big Swinging Decks podcast on Spotify and Apple Music 🤝