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Good Morning,

France ended Morocco's Cinderella run, the Fed raised rates by another 50 bps, London IPO funding is down 90% this year, BlackRock is betting against long-term sovereign debt, Goldman is weighing a 40% bonus cut for investment bankers, Visa is investing $1B in Africa, and the SEC indicted a group of eight social media influencers, collectively known as "Atlas Trading," for a $114M securities fraud.

Want to take your crypto off-exchange and keep it in cold storage? Check out the new wallet released by today's sponsor, Ledger.

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

• US stocks closed lower in a volatile trading session yesterday following a 50 bps Fed rate hike and warnings of further hikes

  • The Fed also expects a rise in unemployment and near-zero economic growth

• Oil settled $2 higher amid demand rebound forecasts for 2023

Earnings

• Lennar beat Q4 revenue estimates but forecasted a slowdown in new orders in Q1 as high mortgage rates make properties unaffordable; their stock dipped 2.2% in AH (YH)

• What we're watching this week:

  • Today: Adobe

  • Friday: Accenture

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• The Fed raised rates by 50 bps to a 5-5.25% fed funds rate target (CNBC)

• The Fed expects to raise rates further, and keep them high for longer (RT)

• US import prices fell for a fifth straight month in November (RT)

• UK inflation fell from a 41-year high to 10.7% in November (CNBC)

• ECB expects inflation to be above target through 2025 (RT)

• SEC voted to advance some of the biggest changes to US stock market structure in nearly twenty years (FT)

• London IPO fund raising plunged by over 90% this year (CNBC)

• EU will raise $21.3B to help end reliance on Russian gas (RT)

• BlackRock is betting against long-term sovereign debt in outlier move (BBG)

• US will remove some Chinese entities from red flag list soon (RT)

• Canada's new foreign investment scrutiny may risk M&A in key sectors (RT)

• US lawmakers introduced a bill to restrict Huawei and other Chinese 5G firms' access to US banks (RT)

• DOJ and SEC charged eight social media influencers associated with ‘Atlas Trading’ in an alleged $100M pump-and-dump scheme (CNBC)

• BlackRock will make leadership changes across divisions and create a new unit (RT)

• Goldman Sachs is weighing a ~40% bonus cut for investment bankers (FT)

• Citigroup promoted a record 100+ women to its newest MD class (RT)

• Barclays is weighing returning to Saudi amid capital markets boom (RT)

• Barclays increased its 2030 sustainable finance target to $1T (RT)

• HSBC will stop funding new oil and gas fields as part of policy overhaul (RT)

• BNY Mellon will award stocks to 90% of employees (RT)

• Verizon is offerings its customers free Netflix for a year if they subscribe to another service through its new streaming marketplace (WSJ)

• Visa will invest $1B in Africa over 5 years to cash in on e-payments boom (RT)

• Twitter will shut down newsletter product Revue next year (RT)

• Twitter has missed on numerous rent and other payments since Musk's takeover (AX)

• France will play Argentina in the WC finals after ending Morocco's fairy tale run with a 2-0 win (ESPN)

A Message From Ledger

Good morning –

For the past week I’ve been stuffing my face with beef tartare and increasing shareholder value at this year’s Ledger Op3n Keynote.

Outside of hosting killer after-parties and dinners, Ledger just announced the release of their new hardware wallet, Stax, with the help of iPod creator Tony Fadell.

Stax makes your crypto journey more intuitive than ever. It is a credit-card-sized device enabling you to manage over 500 digital assets, bringing a first of its kind curved touch screen to hardware wallets.

Ledger is taking pre-orders now for Exec Sum readers. Check it out for yourself.

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• BC Partners is considering taking a stake in compliance software firm Navex at a potential $3B+ valuation (RT)

• SCAN Group and CareOregon, two nonprofit health plans focused on government-backed coverage, are planning to merge under the new name HealthRight Group in a multi-billion-dollar deal (WSJ)

• Global Infrastructure Partners is among investors weighing a bid for a stake in Telecom Italia’s multi-billion-dollar phone network (BBG)

• UAE funds, led by ADQ, are in talks to buy an ~$855M stake in Israeli financial services firm Phoenix Group (BBG)

• Japanese lender MUFG is in talks to invest ~$200M at a ~$1.5B valuation in Indonesian online lender Akulaku (BBG)

• Coral Tree Partners agreed to buy digital jukebox service provider AMI Entertainment for up to $175M (BBG)

• Manulife Investment Management agreed to invest $100M in solar company PowerFlex Systems (BBG)

• Ride-hailing and e-commerce company GoTo agreed to sell a $96M stake in Indonesian convenience store operator Alfamart (BBG)

• Carlyle-owned technology and marketing business DEPT agreed to buy smaller peer Melon for $50-$60M (BBG)

• African mobile phone company MTN is considering divesting some of its smaller operations in West Africa to focus on core markets (BBG)

• Chevron will form a JV with Swedish investment and development firm Baseload Capital to develop geothermal projects in the US (RT)

VC

• Silicon-battery material company Group14 raised a $214M Series C at a $3B+ valuation from investors including Microsoft and Oman’s sovereign-wealth fund (WSJ)

• Virtual desktop management startup Nerdio raised a $117M Series B led by Updata Partners (TC)

• HistoSonics, a developer of a non-invasive, novel sonic beam therapy, raised $100M in financing: $85M in funding from J&J Innovation and a $15M debt facility expansion from Signature Bank (PRN)

• Alpha-9 Theranostics, a clinical stage company developing differentiated and targeted radiopharmaceuticals, raised a $75M Series B led by Nextech Invest (PRN)

• Military autonomous flying tech startup Shield AI raised a $60M Series E at a $2.3B valuation from the US Innovative Technology Fund (TC)

• DataVisor, a fraud detection and risk management platform for financial services and digital commerce, received a $40M strategic growth investment from Brighton Park (BW)

• Battery management tech company Element Energy raised a $28M Series B co-led by Cohort Ventures and one of the largest clean energy generation companies (PRN)

• EnCharge AI, a startup building hardware to accelerate AI processing on the edge, raised a $21.7M Series A led by Anzu Partners (TC)

• BrightSpec, a life science tools company commercializing MRR spectroscopy, raised an $18.4M Series C led by Genoa Ventures and Arboretum Ventures (PRN)

• AI-powered contract analysis platform LexCheck raised a $17M Series A led by Mayfield Fund (TC)

• AI-driven talent intelligence platform retrain.ai raised a $14M funding round led by Radical Ventures (PRN)

• EV charging company EnviroSpark raised a $10M funding round led by Ultra Capital (PRN)

• Shabodi, a next-gen 5G application enabler, raised a $10.3M Series A led by CEAS Investments and SineWave Ventures (PRN)

• FactoryOps platform Guidewheel raised a $9M Series A-1 led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BW)

• No-code financial operations platform Nilus raised an $8.5M seed round led by Bessemer Venture Partners (TC)

• Virtualness, a mobile-first platform helping creators and brands to navigate Web3, raised an $8M seed round led by Blockchange Ventures (PRN)

• API security startup FireTail raised $5M in early-stage financing led by Paladin Capital Group (BW)

• Embedded insurance startup Walnut Insurance raised a $4M seed round led by ATB Financial, NAventuresm and National Bank of Canada’s corporate VC arm (BW)

• Mad Capital, a lender offering flexible and customized funding for organic and transitioning farmers, raised a $4M seed round led by Trailhead Capital (PRN)

• Web3 licensing protocol Spaceport raised a $3.6M pre-seed round led by Arca, Decasonic and CRIT Ventures (BW)

• Copperstone Technologies, an amphibious robotics startup, raised $5.8M from WindSail Capital Group, Alberta Jobs & Growth Program and the Mining Innovation Commercialization Accelerator (PRN)

• Everimpact, a carbon monitoring and monetization start-up, raised a ~$1.8M seed round led by Motion Ventures (BW)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Russian e-scooter firm Whoosh raised $33M in its Moscow IPO, less than half of its initial $80M goal (RT)

SPAC

• Clean-power technology company NET Power agreed to merge with Rice Acquisition Corp. II in a ~$1.5B deal (BBG)

Debt

• Banks led by Morgan Stanley that lent Musk $13B to acquire Twitter will book loan losses in Q4 and attempt to minimize earnings hit (RT)

Bankruptcy / Restructuring

• AIG subsidiary AIG Financial Products filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection; the move will have no material impact on AIG's balance sheet (RT)

Fundraising

• PE firm VSS raised $530M for its VSS Structured Capital Fund IV to invest a combination of debt and equity in growth-oriented, lower middle-market firms within healthcare, education and business services (BW)

• US Venture Partners raised $400M for its USVP XIII fund to continue making Series A and B investments in cybersecurity, enterprise software, consumer and healthcare (BW)

• VC firm Storytime Capital raised $15M for its first fund to make pre-seed and seed investments in worktech startups (BW)

Crypto Corner

• Binance claimed deposits are returning after period of heavy withdrawals (RT)

• SBF was denied bail in the Bahamas (BBC)

• FTX's new CEO is getting paid $1.3k / hour (CNBC)

• Binance CEO 'CZ' believes 99% of people will lose crypto storing in self-custody (DC)

Exec's Picks

• Do you think Brock Purdy is the real deal? Well, the SF 49ers (9-4) will travel to the SEA Seahawks (7-6) in tonight’s Thursday Night Football game. If you think the Seahawks have an advantage playing at home and could rattle Purdy, you can currently buy them low at $37.5 according to the market on Sporttrade, America’s only regulated sports trading exchange. This means the Seahawks have a 37.5% chance to win. BUT on Sporttrade you do not have to wait until the final score of the game! You can trade out at any point or place a Limit Sell Order and go to bed. So, even if the Seahawks don’t win, you can trade in and out of the game based on the momentum of the game. Because on Sporttrade, you can trade sports like you do stocks. Download on iOS anywhere. If you are in NJ or travel to NJ you can start trading today.

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 aim to curate jobs across IB, S&T, VC, tech, private equity, DeFi, crypto, CorpDev and more. We'll sift through all the noise on LinkedIn, Indeed, Monster, etc. so you don't have to.

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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