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Good morning,

US stocks rebounded yesterday following last week's omicron sell-off (classic investor overreaction), congress agreed to a debt ceiling deal, and Amazon's AWS outage definitely disrupted the e-commerce supply chain in a time when a functioning supply chain is needed most.

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Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

To see the LitCap Yolo Fund's portfolio holdings, download the Iris Social Stock app here and give Litquidity a follow. If you want to learn more about crypto trading strategies and the world of DeFi, check out our Foot Guns newsletter.

Markets

• Markets continued their rebound yesterday after all three major US indexes finished in the green, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq having their best days since March

• Investors are settling in after last week’s seemingly overreactive sell-off due to omicron and fears of faster-than-expected Fed bond buyback tapering

• Today we’ll be keeping an eye out for October’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey; economists are expecting 10.6M open positions, up from 10.4M in September

Earnings

• Stitch Fix shares fell 18% in extended trading, despite posting better-than-expected Q1 revenue numbers, after discounting its future outlook due to supply chain issues and slowing demand (CNBC) 

• What we’re watching today: Rent the Runway, GameStop

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• Congress agrees on debt-ceiling deal, sidestepping default risk (BBG)

• Activist Elliot pushes for SSE board changes, new strategy (BBG)

• American Airlines CEO Doug Parker to step down (WSJ)

• Companies plan big raises for workers in 2022 (WSJ)

• Pfizer shot provides partial Omicron shield in early study (BBG)

• GlaxoSmithKline says its Covid-19 antibody drug works against Omicron (WSJ)

• Biden pick to lead bank regulator withdraws nomination (FT)

• Corona-owner Constellation Brands agrees to build large brewery in Southeastern Mexico (WSJ)

• Amazon Web Services outage brings some delivery options to a standstill (CNBC)

• US to demand halt to Nord Stream 2 pipeline if Russia invades Ukraine (FT)

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Deal Flow

M&A

• Veritas Capital is exploring a sale of health-care information and analytics company Cotiviti that could fetch $15B+ (BBG)

• AIA Group sold off ~$10B of investments in coal mining and coal-fired power businesses as part of their commitment to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 (BBG)

• Investor group BE is exploring new interest to buy Belgian insurer Ageas, after a previous attempt was rebuffed; Ageas has a current market value of ~$10B (BBG)

• Permira agreed to take security company Mimecast private in a $5.8B deal (TC)

• CRH, the world’s second biggest building material maker by market value, is planning a sale of its OldCastle Building Envelope unit that could fetch $3B+ (BBG)

• Resource REIT, a REIT that owns suburban apartment across the US, is exploring options including a sale that could fetch ~$2B (BBG)

• Hedge fund Eisler Capital agreed to buy peer Glen Point Capital which will bolster their assets by $1.5B after the combination (BBG)

• REIT Mack-Cali Realty is selling its portfolio of offices and hotels that could fetch $1B+ (BBG)

• Apartment building lender NewPoint Real Estate Capital agreed to buy commercial real estate finance company Housing & Healthcare Finance (BBG)

• Global digital infrastructure company Equinix agreed to buy MainOne, a West African data center and connectivity solutions provider, for $320M (TC)

• Twitter agreed to buy Slack competitor Quill to help improve their own messaging tools (RT)

• Visa-backed Brazilian fintech Dock agreed to buy card-processing solutions company Cacao (BBG)

• Chinese conglomerate Suning is considering selling a stake in Italian soccer club Inter Milan (BBG)

• Billionaire investor John Paulson is considering selling the Condado Vanderbilt and La Concha hotels in San Juan, Puerto Rico (BBG)

VC

• Early cancer detection startup Freenome raised a $300M led by Perceptive Advisors and RA Capital Management (PRN)

• Hong Kong fintech startup WeLab raised $240M in funding to launch a digital Indonesian bank (TC)

• Incode, an identity verification platform, raised a $220M Series B at a $1.25B valuation led by General Atlantic and SoftBank (BW)

• Odyssey Therapeutics, a immunomodulators and oncology biotech startup, raised a $218M Series A led by OrbiMed Advisors (PRN)

• Animal-free protein product startup The EVERY Co. raised a $175M Series C led by McWin and Rage Capital (TC)

• Space infrastructure startup Loft Orbital raised $140M in a funding round led by BlackRock (CNBC)

• Digital insights platform Heap raised a $110M Series D at a $960M valuation led by Sixth Street Growth (BW)

• Anyscale, a distributed computing startup, raised a $100M Series C led by a16z and Addition (Forbes)

• Ursa Major, a rocket engine manufacturer, raised a $85M Series C led by BlackRock (TC)

• Insurance focussed API startup AgentSync raised a $75M Series B at a $1.2B valuation led by Valor Equity Partners (TC)

• Suki, a NLP startup focussed on healthcare, raised a $55M Series C led by March Capital (BW)

• No-code security automation platform Torq raised a $50M Series B led by Insight Partners (TC)

• Chinese Amazon aggregator Nebula Brands raised a $50M Series B led by L Catterton (TC)

• Pento, a London-based payroll automation startup, raised a $35M Series B led by Tiger Global and Avid Ventures (TC)

• Anti-money laundering software startup Hummingbird raised a $30M Series B led by Battery Ventures (TC)

• Multi-channel customer engagement platform MoEngage raised a $30M Series D led by Steadview Capital (TC)

• Migrant-focused mobile banking service startup MAJORITY raised a $27M Series A led by Valar Ventures (TC)

• Creator and brand community platform Circle raised a $24.7M Series A at a $200M valuation led by Tiger Global (TC)

• SaaS security platform Grip Security raised a $19M Series A led by Intel Capital (TC)

• Connect the Dots, a startup looking to help sales companies graph connections, raised a $15M Series A led by Norwest Venture Partners (TC)

• L&D-focused SaaS marketplace Learnebly raised a $10M Series A led by Beringea (TC)

• SendOwl, a platform for buying and delivering digital goods, raised a $4.5M seed round led by Defy.vc (TC)

• Debt recovery and collection platform Receeve raised a $4.5M seed extension from ABN AMRO (TC)

• Supplier, a Brazilian B2B resource for small food retailers, raised a $4.5M seed round led by Valor Capital Group and ONEVC (TC)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Battery maker LG Energy Solution plans to raise up to $10.8B in what would be South Korea’s biggest ever IPO (BBG)

• FabIndia, a retailer of clothing and furniture inspired by traditional Indian crafts, filed plans to raise up to $500M in an IPO (BBG)

• Shares of Weibo, the twitter of China, slid as much as 7% in Hong Kong trading debut (BBG)

• French cosmetics brand L’Oreal agreed to buy back a $10B stake in the company held by Nestle (RT)

SPAC

• Alvotech, a company developing biosimilar drugs, agreed to merge with Oaktree Acquisition Corp. II in a $2.25B deal (BBG)

• Weather and security platform Tomorrow.io agreed to merge with Pine Technology Acquisition Corp. in a $1.2B deal (RT)

• Inhaled drug delivery tech company Aerami agreed to merge with FoxWayne Enterprises Acquisition Corp. (MD)

• Better.com, a mortgage and real estate startup backed by SoftBank, is pushing back its merger with Aurora Acquisition Corp. after amending the deal a day before it terminated 9% of its workforce (BBG)

Exec's Picks

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• Getting smoked on your crypto trading and don't know what to do? Check out the Foot Guns newsletter written by a physicist turned quant trader turned crypto savant

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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 100+ 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.

Featured roles:

• BitGo, a provider of capital markets infrastructure for cryptocurrencies, is looking to hire an Institutional Sales Associate in New York City. They're backed by the most prominent investment banks, prop trading firms, Silicon Valley VCs, and digital asset investors. Apply here

• Pantera Capital, the first institutional firm focused exclusively on blockchain / digital assets with over $5B in AUM, is looking to hire a Capital Formation Associate in NYC. Ideal for someone w/ 2+ yrs of experience in IB, Capital Markets, Equity Research, or Investor Relations. Apply here

If you're looking to hire candidates and want to post a job, all you have to do is hit "+ Hire Talent" on the top right of the job board. If you want the role to be featured on Exec Sum, check out our "Featured" and "Premium" tiers.

To Candidates: We've also partnered up with Portal Jobs for a more hands-on approach to matching talent with relevant jobs. Fill out the form here and we'll get to work on placing you in a relevant gig 🤝

Meme Cleanser

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