Good Morning,

Ackman sold his Domino's holdings, Japan is considering building next-gen nuclear plants, natural gas prices keep climbing, European IPOs and VC transactions slowed in 2022, the yuan hit a two-year low vs. the dollar, new home sales keep falling, and Biden is set to announce his student loan debt proposal today.

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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 slightly on Tuesday in a quiet day of trading

  • Oil rose after Saudi Arabia's energy minister said recent market volatility might push OPEC+ to curb production

  • Stocks in Asia mostly fell, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 down 1.2% and the Hang Seng in Hong Kong down 0.8%

• Investors are awaiting J Pow's speech at the Jackson Hole symposium on Friday for a sense of how the Fed plans to tackle inflation and manage interest rates

Earnings

• JD.com rose 3.4% after it beat Q2 top and bottom line expectations but posted its slowest YoY revenue growth on record, becoming China's latest victim of a Covid-induced economic slowdown (CNBC)

• Macy’s exceeded profit and revenue expectations but cut its full-year forecast due to inventory glut; its stock rose 3.8% on the day (WSJ)

• Nordstrom beat Q2 earnings and sales estimates but slashed its financial forecast for the full year, citing inventory glut and slowing demand; its shares fell ~13% in extended trading (CNBC)

• Intuit beat fiscal Q4 expectations for both profit and revenue, causing its stock to jump in after-hours trading (IBD)

• What we’re watching this week:

  • Today: Nvidia, Salesforce

  • Thursday: Peloton, TD Bank

• Full calendar here 

Headline Roundup

• Business activity in the US, Europe, and Japan fell in August, with US activity hitting its lowest level since May 2020 (WSJ)

• The White House projected a record $383B budget deficit decrease from its forecast in March thanks to rising revenue (RT)

• Japan to consider building next-gen nuclear plants (BBG)

• US natural gas prices reached a 14-year high this week (WSJ)

• New home sales fell 12.6% in July MoM and 29.6% YoY to a 6.5-year low (RT)

• China’s yuan dropped to a two-year low against the US dollar (WSJ)

• European VC transactions raised ~$57B in H1 2022, just 4% lower than in H1 2021 (BBG)

• Europe IPOs raised $6.4B in H1 2022, down 88% from H1 2021 (BBG)

• Biden will announce his student loan debt proposal today (WSJ)

• US will announce $3B in new military aid for Ukraine (RT)

• Twitter's ex-security head filed a whistleblower complaint alleging failure to protect sensitive user data (WSJ)

• Europe is facing its worst drought in 500 years (AZ)

• Tiger Management's founder Julian Robertson died at 90 (FT)

A Message From Alts

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Indian state-owned refinery Chennai Petroleum formed a JV with its parent company Indian Oil and others to build a 9 MMTPA refinery for ~$3.95B in South India (RT)

• PE firm Bain Capital is close to acquiring the microscope unit of Japanese optics firm Olympus for $2.2B+ (RT)

• Arte Moreno is looking to sell MLB team Los Angeles Angels, which currently touts a $2.2B valuation (CNBC)

• Bill Ackman sold his entire 5% $800M stake in Domino’s Pizza (BI)

• Swiss eye care firm Alcon will buy US-based Aerie Pharmaceuticals for ~$770M (BW)

• Cloud services provider DigitalOcean will acquire website-hosting firm Cloudways in a $350M all-cash deal (BBG)

• Indian conglomerate Adani Group acquired a 29.2% stake in local news media company NDTV and offered to buy another 26% from the open market for a combined $76M (BBG)

VC

• Process mining software vendor Celonis raised a $1B Series D at a $13B valuation led by Qatar Investment Authority: $400M in equity and a five-year $600M credit line (TC)

• Chinese B2B grocery supply firm Yonghui Fresh Food is seeking to raise ~$200M at a ~$1.5B valuation before it IPOs in Hong Kong next year (BBG)

• Orange DAO, a crypto startup investment collective composed of Y Combinator alumni, raised an $80M round from strategic investors Algorand and Near (TC)

• Digital Diagnostics, an AI diagnostic healthtech, raised a $75M Series B led by KKR (PRN)

• Fintech company Nitra raised a $62M equity / debt round led by a16z, NEA, Pantera Capital, and more (PRN)

• VR avatar platform Ready Player Me raised a $56M Series B led by a16z (BW)

• Inworld AI, a developer platform creating AI characters for games and the metaverse, raised a $50M Series A led by Section 32 and Intel Capital (BW)

• Virtual care provider Plume raised a $24M Series B led by Transformation Capital (PRN)

• Mojocare, an Indian sexual health startup, raised a $20.6M series A led by Eduardo Saverin's B Capital (BBG)

• VendorPM, a marketplace connecting building managers and service vendors, raised a $20M Series A led by Prudence (BW)

• Rookout, a developer-first observability platform, raised a $16M Series B led by Fort Ross Ventures (TC)

• Qloo, an AI platform for predicting consumer preferences, raised a $15M Series B from Eldridge and AXA Venture Partners (BW)

• Battery management software startup Zitara raised a $12M Series A led by Energy Impact Partners (BW)

• Bite Ninja, a tech company making remote work possible for the restaurant industry, raised an $11.3M bridge round led by Manta Ray Ventures, Owl Ventures, Agfunder, and others (PRN)

• ConverseNow, a startup developing voice technology for drive through ordering, raised a $10M Series A-1 led by Enlightened Hospitality Investments (TC)

• EeroQ, a quantum computer chip design company, raised a $7.25M seed round led by B Capital’s Ascent Fund (BW)

• CurbWaste, a SaaS solution for waste service companies, raised a $6M seed round led by B Capital (BW)

• The Good Face Project, an innovation platform for the beauty industry, raised a $5.65M seed round led by VMG Catalyst (PRN)

• Mural, a crypto company focused on DAO infrastructure, raised $5.6M in seed funding from Galaxy Ventures, Digital Currency Group, Firstminute Capital, 186 Ventures, and others (TC)

• Vestaboard, a messaging and display platform, raised a $5M seed round led by customers (PRN)

• Cloud-based banking plug-and-play startup Deposits raised a $5M seed round led by ATX Venture Partners (TC)

• Rewst, a managed service provider focused on robotic process automation, raised a $4M round led by TDF Ventures (PRN)

• Quivr, a decentralized social identification and verification platform, raised a $3.55M seed round led by InfinityVenturesCrypto (PRN)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• South Korean digital comics firm Kakao Piccoma will delay its Tokyo IPO to 2023 as it aims for a $6B+ valuation (BBG)

• Thai meat producer Betagro is seeking to raise ~$554M in Thailand's second-largest IPO this year (BBG)

• Chinese driverless technology startup WeRide is considering a ~$500M raise through a US or Hong Kong IPO (BBG)

• Chinese entertainment group YH Entertainment is looking to raise up to $140M in a Hong Kong IPO (BBG)

Bankruptcy / Restructuring

• Medical imaging company Carestream Health filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy and has an agreement to cut $470M of its debt (RT)

• US regional carrier ExpressJet filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and ceased all flight operations, citing market and economic conditions (RT)

Crypto Corner

• Bankrupt crypto lender Celsius sued an ex-investment manager, alleging theft of tens of millions of dollars (RT)

• Crypto exchange Coinbase has ongoing plans to cut costs and is actively engaged with regulators (CNBC)

• Messaging platform Telegram's CEO proposed auctioning usernames and links as NFTs (DC)

• Crypto lending platforms increase rates due to higher borrowing demand (TB)

Exec's Picks

• Invest in the startup that could cure 600M people. Current therapies for osteoarthritis only treat the symptoms of the disease without targeting the root cause. Cytonics is developing the cure. Their patented treatment, CYT-108, is headed to FDA human clinical trials early next year. Invest today. 

• Earlier this week, Bessemer Venture Partners released a great article on "five laws for community-led growth". Check out the piece here.

The Hiring Block 💼

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If you're a company looking to hire candidates and want to list a job opening on our board and feature on Exec Sum, click the button below:

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