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Good Morning,

BoE said pension funds were near disaster before they intervened, US apartment demand had its first Q3 drop in 30 years, Porsche is now Europe's most valuable automaker, Biden is forgiving previous offenses for marijuana possession, Amazon is hiring 150k workers ahead of the holiday season, and Adidas is "reviewing" its relationship with Kanye (🎵 nobody knows what that means, but it's provocative 🎵).

Before sending y'all off into the weekend, friendly reminder to RSVP to the "founders & funders" NYC Tech Week event Litquidity will be co-hosting with Republic and Carta. If you're a VC, lender, founder, or operator, come network and have free drinks & food. RSVP here.

Have a great weekend, all!

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• Wall Street's major indexes slid further yesterday on concerns that today's payrolls report might instigate Fed policy that could lead to a US recession

  • Economists are expecting a payroll increase of 275k and unemployment to remain at 3.7%

Earnings

• Constellation Brands beat Q2 EPS and revenue expectations and also anticipates FY 2023 earnings to beat estimates; their stock fell 1.45% yesterday (INV)

• Levi Strauss beat Q3 earning estimates but missed on revenue and cut FY profit forecasts on softening demand and a strong dollar; their stock fell ~5% in AH trading (YH)

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• Bank of England said pension funds were hours from disaster before it intervened (CNBC)

• UK's shadow banking system is raising serious concerns after bond market storm (CNBC)

• Bank of Canada's hawkish message signals another large potential rate hike (RT)

• US apartment demand fell in Q3 for the first Q3 drop in 30 years (CNBC)

• Average office occupancy in ten US cities is at just ~47% (BBG)

• South Korea transferred $780M to Turkey's central bank last week as part of a $2B swap deal signed in 2021 (RT)

• Porsche overtook Volkswagen as Europe's most valuable carmaker (RT)

• A court halted Musk's Twitter lawsuit for him to close deal by Oct. 28 (RT)

• Adidas will review its relationship with Kanye West (CNBC)

• Amazon will hire 150k workers ahead of holiday season (RT)

• Amazon is shutting down its robot delivery program and disbanding the team (TI)

• Peloton slashed 500 more jobs as it races to return to growth (CNBC)

• Atman Capital, a new cross-border VC firm, is offering its founder LPs part of its own profits (TC)

• ESPN is nearing a large partnership with DraftKings as ESPN seeks to capitalize on popularity of legalized sports betting (BBG)

• ​​Nomura is teaching Japanese high school kids how to invest amid citizen's mistrust in financial investing (BBG)

• Biden will pardon all prior federal offenses of simple marijuana possession (AX)

• Samsung's profit sinks 32% as memory chip downturn worsens (BBG)

• Tuttle Capital Management plans to launch two 'Jim Cramer' ETFs, one that track's Cramer's recommendations and one that tracks the inverse (FT)

• Tiger Global partner John Curtius will leave the firm next year (FT)

A Message From The BAD Investment Company

Tired of ESG Bullsh*t?

Fortunately, there's a money manager that decided that B-A-D might be the better acronym for investors.The BAD ETF (NYSE: BAD) launched last December and is taking a different stance in this green washed world focusing on 3 industries for which the ticker represents – B-A-D.

• Betting – Casinos, gaming, and online gaming operations – 33%

• Alcohol – Alcoholic beverage manufacturing and distribution – 23%

• Drugs – Pharmaceutical and biotechnology product development and manufacturing – 33%

  • Cannabis cultivators & distributors - 10% 

The case for these BAD industries remains strong for a simple yet important reason – they have historically offered attractive risk-adjusted returns. In addition to these industries overcoming government scrutiny, these industries have shown resilience during economic downturns because people tend to indulge in their vices, or what some call hobbies.

As a result, we believe these asset classes are typically underappreciated and therefore under-valued but the reality is that people will continue to consume alcohol, gamble, and need medicine in good times, and in BAD.

In regards to the betting and cannabis aspects, as these industries become more widely accepted socially and legally, they may offer investors additional growth as more states look to legalize those industries for additional tax revenues.

Learn more about the BAD ETF fund details and sign up for our mailing list to get the latest fund insights and information.

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Brookfield Asset Management agreed to take a 'significant' minority interest in independent publisher Primary Wave Music and committed $1.7B to fund a permanent capital vehicle focused on acquiring music rights (WSJ)

• California oil producer Berry Corp is exploring strategic options including a sale; it has a current market value of ~$669M (RT)

• The owner of luxury scent maker Parfums de Marly is weighing a sale of the company that could fetch ~$495M (BBG)

VC

• Iron-air battery startup Form Energy raised a $450M Series E led by TPG Rise Climate (TC)

• Altana, a startup providing a shared source of truth for the global supply chain, raised a $100M Series B led by Activate Capital (BW)

• Electra, a green iron refiner, raised $85M in funding led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Amazon, BHP Ventures, and others (BW)

• Jiko, a network for money storage and movement, raised a $40M Series B led by Red River West (TC)

• The Rounds, a household restocking platform, raised a $38M Series A led by Redpoint Ventures and a16z (TC)

• Clearspeed, a startup using voice analytics to assess security and fraud risk, raised a $27M Series C led by Sandia Holdings and PilotRock Investments (BW)

• Korea Credit Data, a SME focused fintech startup, raised a $24.7M Series D extension at a $776M valuation from Fiserv and LG Uplus (TC)

• Data workflow automation platform Alkymi raised a $21M Series A led by Intel Capital (PRN)

• Cyber insurance startup Elpha Secure raised a $20M Series A led by Canapi Ventures (BW)

• Culinary innovation startup Typhur raised a $20M seed round led by Jiupai Capital and Bright Future Technology (TC)

• Revlio Labs, a workforce intelligence company, raised a $15M Series A led by Elephant Partners (PRN)

• Oort, an identity-centric enterprise security platform, raised $15M in seed / Series A funding led by .406 Ventures and Energy Impact Partners (BW)

• CrowdSec, a crowdsourced cyber threat intelligence solution, raised a $13.7M Series A led by Supernova Invest (PRN)

• Gather AI, a supply chain robotics startup, raised a $10M Series A led by Tribeca Venture Partners (PRN)

• Canada Drives, an online car shopping and to-your-door delivery platform, raised $7.3M in funding from existing strategic investors (BW)

• Pet lifestyle brand Yummers raised a $6.3M seed round led by L Catterton (PRN)

• Fintor, a startup enabling easy access to invest in real estate, raised $6.2M in funding led by Public.com, Hustle Fund, Vibe Capital, and more (BW)

• Index Health, a data-driven and personalized telemedicine startup, raised a $6M seed round led by LAUNCHub Ventures and Inovo Venture Partners (TC)

• Web3 infrastructure startup Scale3 Labs raised a $5.3M seed round led by Redpoint Ventures (BW)

Debt

• Cybersecurity firm Arctic Wolf raised $401M in convertible debt from Owl Rock (TC)

Fundraising

• Tiger Global Management is seeking $6B for its next private tech fund, less than their original $8B target and despite writing down the value of its private portfolio (BBG)

• PE firm Antin raised $5B+ for its ~$10B Flagship Fund V and aims to invest in the energy, telecom, transport and social infrastructure sectors (RT)

• Industry Ventures raised a $300M third fund aimed at early and mid-stage tech companies (BW)

• David Rubenstein's Declaration Partners raised a $240M fund from wealthy individuals and family offices to target multifamily housing and industrial properties across the US (BBG)

• Paris-based Sista announced a first close of ~$29.5M (with a final target of ~$98M) for a VC fund to invest in early-stage startups with at least one woman cofounder (SFT)

Crypto Corner

• Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon, whose company was behind a $60B crypto collapse, is facing a passport freeze (CNBC)

• EU banned cross-border payments from Russian crypto accounts (CT)

• Crypto lender Celsius’ executives cashed out over $18M in cryptocurrencies in the two months before the company filed for bankruptcy (WSJ)

• MENA region is the world's fastest-growing cryptocurrency markets, with crypto intake jumping 48% in H1 2022 (RT)

Exec's Picks

• Tired of terrible economic forecasts every single week? Check out our new newsletter, Eight Ball. We use real-time event market data to see what's going on in the economy, from inflation rates to the odds that we enter a recession. If you want real, impactful economic info, check out Eight Ball here.

• If you're an accredited investor or qualified purchaser and want access to startup deal flow, fill out this form and join Litquidity's angel syndicate! We've got some deals live right now and more coming soon.

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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