Together with
Good Morning,
Goldman has lost over a dozen senior bankers this year, JPMorgan launched a $1.5T investment initiative, the government shutdown is hurting the economy, traders are bracing for a volatile earnings session, and leveraged ETFs were partly to blame for for Friday's crazy selloff.
My long-time 'intern' TJ officially launched Fundable, a startup intelligence platform for investors, founders, and everyone in between. This is an absolute game-changer for anyone remotely involved or interested in VC and startups, providing access to all VC deals in real-time. I highly recommend checking it out!
Litquidity network stays winning 💪
Let's dive in.
Before The Bell
As of 10/13/2025 market close.
Click here to learn more about the Litquidity portfolios and subscribe to the strategies on Autopilot.*
Markets
US stocks rebounded sharply from Friday's selloff on easing fears of a US-China fallout
S&P had its best day since May
Dow had its best day in a month to break a five-day losing streak
US rare earth stocks surged ~20% on US and China's trade dispute over critical minerals
US junk bonds posted their worst losses in six months
Risk premiums surged to 304 bps to a four-month high with yields touching 7%, the highest in over two months
Silver hit an ATH amid a historic short squeeze in London
Earnings
What we're watching this week:
Today: BlackRock, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Johnson & Johnson
Wednesday: Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Progressive, ASML
Thursday: Charles Schwab
Friday: State Street, American Express, Truist, Fifth Third Bank
Full calendar her
Prediction Markets
DC bars are now promoting 'unhappy hours' lmao.
Headline Roundup
Leveraged ETFs worsened Friday's selloff (BBG)
Government shutdown is hitting the economy (RT)
JPMorgan announced a $1.5T US investment initiative (AX)
Options traders brace for wildest earnings season since 2022 (BBG)
Most IPOs remain in limbo despite SEC's shutdown fix (BBG)
Banks poised for strong Q3 earnings despite flags on consumer health (WSJ)
Hedge funds shed US stocks for global industrials (RT)
Wall Street crams more autocallables into ETFs in race for yield (BBG)
Wall Street floats disaster debt breaks for EM (BBG)
Goldman Sachs has lost over a dozen senior bankers this year (RT)
Billionaire hedge fund manager stops US donations (FT)
Hong Kong's best known activist investor will shutter influential website (BBG)
Robinhood is open to deals to grow prediction markets business (RT)
OpenAI announced a partnership with Broadcom (RT)
Average US car prices hit a record high of $50k (BBG)
Polymarket is under scrutiny for apparent insider trades (BBG)
Hamas freed all remaining living Israeli hostages (BBG)
A Message from Fundable
The entire startup ecosystem, in real time, at your fingertips.
Everyday in SF brings a Lovable for this or Cursor for that. It's impossible to keep up. Clunky, expensive datasets and Twitter doomscrolling won't cut it.
That's why we built Fundable to bridge the information gap between VCs, founders, and operators at a fraction of the cost of enterprise data providers.
Fundable allows you to create custom deal alerts using natural language to track every VC-backed startup in real time, uncovering insights into any topic ranging from:
Startups developing multimodal foundational AI models (text-to-video, text-to-speech, etc.)
Funding rounds from top VCs like Benchmark, Thrive, and Greenoaks
And much more🤌
Access data on 80k startups, 55k investors, 130k funding rounds, and 10k sources in real-time:
Filter on 20+ variables such as companies, funds, industries, etc.
Personalize data for tailored research and manual analysis
…only with Fundable, the startup intelligence platform for investors, founders, and sales teams.
Deal Flow
M&A / Investments
Lottery operator Allwyn and Greece's OPAP agreed to merge in an $18.6B all-stock deal to create one of Europe's biggest gambling firms
Brookfield agreed to invest $5B in $25B-listed energy-storage company Bloom Energy
French media company Canal+ acquired a 94% stake in South Africa's MultiChoice Group at a $3.2B valuation
Brookfield agreed to acquire the remaining 26% stake it doesn't already own in Oaktree for $3B
$2.3B-listed dating app Grindr is in talks for a MBO
Blackstone is weighing an offer to acquire $2.2B-listed UK storage landlord Big Yellow Group
Gaming giant Genting made a $1.6B takeover bid to privatize its Malaysian unit Genting Malaysia
Infrastructure investor I Squared Capital is nearing a deal to acquire recycling platform Liberty Tire Recycling from Energy Capital Partners for $1.5B, including debt
UK supply chain infrastructure firm Tritax Big Box agreed to acquire UK logistics assets from Blackstone in a $1.3B cash-and-stock deal
Goldman Sachs agreed to acquire $7B AUM Industry Ventures in a $965M cash and stock deal
Heavy machinery giant Caterpillar agreed to acquire Australian mining software firm RPMGlobal for $730M
PE firm Warburg Pincus agreed to acquire German energy and utilities software firm PSI Software for over $811M
The German arm of accounting firm Baker Tilly is considering a stake sale
Chilean state-owned copper giant Codelco acquired a stake in I-Pulse, a US firm that uses electricity to shatter rocks
PE firm Carolwood will acquire motorcycle business Indian from specialty vehicle manufacturer Polaris
Top VC picks by Fundable
Govini, a software startup transforming defense acquisition, raised a $150M growth investment from Bain Capital
Prezent AI, an enterprise business presentation AI platform, raised $30M in funding led by Multiplier Capital, Greycroft, and Nomura Strategic Ventures
Resistant AI, a provider of AI models for financial crime and fraud prevention, raised a $25M Series B led by DTCP
Glide Identity, a digital identity security company, raised a $20M Series A led by Crosspoint Capital Partners
Irys, an insurtech startup building an AI-native OS, raised a $12.5M seed round led by Markd
Falcon Finance, a universal collateralization infrastructure, received a $10M investment from M2 Capital
HOOTL, an AI-first company building secure and scalable automation for insurance processing, raised a $6.5M Series A led by 5IR Funds
Quivo, an Austrian e-commerce logistics scaleup, raised $6M in funding from GWC
Access the complete VC deal flow here
IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades
Activist hedge fund Starboard Value built a stake in Keurig Dr Pepper amid its poorly received plan to acquire European coffee maker JDE Peet's for $18.4B
Blackstone picked Morgan Stanley and Barclays for an IPO of climate technologies firm Copeland, which could fetch a $14B valuation
Strava, the popular fitness tracking app last valued at $2.2B, plans to launch an IPO
French media company Canal+ is planning a South African secondary listing
SPAC / SPV
Chinese investment bank China Renaissance is seeking to raise $600M for a public vehicle to invest in a cryptocurrency; CZ's family office YZi Labs will be a major investor
House of Doge, the corporate arm of the Dogecoin Foundation, agreed to merge with Brag House Holdings
Debt
Bank of America is planning a $3B SRT linked to private market fund loans
Bankruptcy / Restructuring / Distressed
Fake meat food company Beyond Meat plunged 50% after announcing a debt-swap deal to reduce $800M of debt and dilute equity
Auto parts supplier First Brands' founder Patrick James stepped down as CEO for a turnaround expert to take charge
Fundraising / Secondaries
Tech-focused PE firm BV Investment Partners plans to raise $2B for its twelfth flagship fund
Jay Alix's new PE firm Tayeh Capital Group plans to raise a $400M-500M debut fund to back founder-led business services firms
Options traders brace for more volatility after record crypto crash
Bitcoin's fragile rebound follows $20B leverage wipeout
$130B crypto crash has traders fearing lasting damage
Citigroup will launch a crypto custody service as Wall Street embraces crypto
Crypto Sum Snapshot
Options traders brace for more volatility after record crypto crash
Bitcoin's fragile rebound follows $20B leverage wipeout
$130B crypto crash has traders fearing lasting damage
Citigroup will launch a crypto custody service as Wall Street embraces crypto
Crypto Sum compiles the most important stories on everything crypto. Read it here.
Exec’s Picks
Forbes published a profile on Polymarket founder Shayne Coplan who recently became the world's youngest self-made billionaire. Read it here.
Paul Krugman's latest essay explores what surging gold prices might mean. An insightful piece given everything's at ATHs.
Finance & Startup Recruiting 💼
Litney Partners
If you're a junior banker looking for your next career move, check out Litney Partners, a recruiting venture between Litquidity and Whitney Partners (the oldest purely financial services executive search and consulting firm), Litney Partners places talent at leading firms in PE, hedge funds, VC, growth, credit, IB, and fintech and is currently recruiting for some incredible roles. Head over to our website to drop your resume and we'd love to get in touch!
Next Play
If you're down bad, realizing finance isn't for you, and want to explore the world of startups (BizOps, chief of staff, strategic finance, etc.), fill out this form. Next Play will reach out to schedule a 1:1 video call if they think they can help as your own, personal startup matchmaker. They've grown their community to over 50k talented professionals and have deep relationships across the tech ecosystem.
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*DISCLAIMER: Investment advice provided by Autopilot Advisers, LLC ("Autopilot"), an SEC-registered investment adviser. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Investing carries risks, including loss of principal. As always, be smart out there. Litquidity is compensated to promote AutoPilot. Compensation details available upon request.