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Good Morning,

The Fed is testing a digital dollar, FTX may have a million creditors, US household debt soared at the fastest pace in 15 years in Q3, global fertility rates are slowing despite the world's population hitting 8 billion, Tencent announced a new round of layoffs, Teslas were ranked one of the least reliable vehicles in the US, big tech is cutting office real estate, and Donald Trump is running for president again.

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Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• US stocks edged higher yesterday as investors weighed a lower-than-expected PPI reading against reports of a deadly Russian missile strike in Poland

• The dollar and euro had volatile trading sessions amid the Russia-Poland situation

Earnings

• Walmart beat Q3 EPS and revenue estimates on a 9% increase in sales and a receding inventory glut and raised its FY outlook; their stock rose 6.6% yesterday (CNBC)

• Home Depot also beat Q3 EPS and revenue estimates on a 6% increase in sales as consumers continue to stay home more than usual; their stock is up 8%+ since last week (CNBC)

• What we're watching this week:

  • Today: Tencent, Nvidia, Victoria's Secret

  • Thursday: Alibaba, Gap

  • Friday: JD.com

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• Former President Donald Trump announced a White House bid for 2024 (CNN)

• US PPI rose by a lower-than-expected 0.2% MoM and 8.0% YoY in October (RT)

• US household debt in Q3 soared by $351B at fastest pace in 15 years (CNBC)

• Global banking giants started a 12-week digital dollar pilot with the NY Fed (RT)

• US debt limit increase not needed this year: Sen. McConnell (RT)

• US, EU and Japan unveiled a $20B plan to wean Indonesia off coal (AX)

• Hedge funds stepped up commodities trade financing as banks retreat amid market volatility (RT)

• Germany stepped up emergency cash plans in case of energy blackout (RT)

• 2022 Wall Street year-end bonuses will be significantly lower than 2021's (AX)

• Global fertility rates are on the decline, despite 8 billion population milestone (AX)

• Metaverse could pump $1.4T/year into Asia’s GDP by 2035: Deloitte (CNBC)

• Walmart reached a $3.1B deal to settle all opioid-related government lawsuits (AX)

• Goldman Sachs paid $12M+ to bury a female partner's claim of sexist culture (BBG)

• Big Tech firms are dumping office real estate as they downsize (WSJ)

• China's Tencent started a new round of layoffs (RT)

• FedEx's freight unit is furloughing US employees (RT)

• Activist investor TCI urged Alphabet to cut headcount (CNBC)

• TikTok poses national security concerns: FBI Director (RT)

• Tesla EVs are among the least reliable vehicles in the US (RT)

• Taylor Swift's concert ticket sales are plagued by Ticketmaster delays (WSJ)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• US chipmaker Broadcom is seeking EU antitrust approval for its $61B bid for cloud computing company VMware (RT)

• Carlyle is in talks to offer to buy US urgent care group Heritage Care Network at an $8-$10B valuation (RT)

• Berkshire Hathaway acquired a ~$5B stake in chipmaker TSMC (BBG)

• Beauty company Estee Lauder agreed to buy luxury fashion label Tom Ford for $2.8B (BBG)

• Apollo agreed to buy middle-market direct lender Sector Financial as part of its purchase of part of Credit Suisse’s securitized products group (BBG)

• Elliot Investment Management agreed to buy a 1.5% stake in information services firm Clarivate for ~$94M (BBG)

• Hunter Point Capital and ADQ agreed to buy a minority stake in social change-focused investment firm Vistria Group (BBG)

• Berkshire Hathaway raised its stake in entertainment company Paramount to 15%, causing its shares to jump ~9% (BBG)

VC

• SpaceX, Elon Musk’s rocket-launch satellite company, is in talks to raise a funding round at a $150B+ valuation (BBG) (However, Musk denied this via Twitter)

• Data management startup Weka raised a $135M Series D at a $750M valuation led by Generation Investment Management (TC)

• CG Oncology, an oncolytic immunotherapy company focused on developing therapeutics for patients with urologic cancers, raised a $120M Series E led by ORI Capital, Longitude Capital, and Decheng Capital (BW)

• Jnana Therapeutics, a biotech company focused on discovering medicines for challenging-to-drug targets, raised a $107M Series C led by Bain Capital Life Sciences (PRN)

• Bonum Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical startup using allosteric regulation to create conditionally active and less toxic medicines, raised a $93M Series A from Rivervest Venture Partners, Roche Venture Fund, 3x5 Partners, and more (BW)

• Maven, a women’s health clinic and benefits platform, raised a $90M Series E at a $1.35B valuation led by General Catalyst (TC)

• Enterprise headless CMS platform Contentstack raised an $80M Series C led by Georgian and Insight Partners (TC)

• Vertical robotic warehouse startup Attabotics raised a $71.7M Series C led by Export Development Canada (TC)

• AI-powered media editing app Descript raised a $50M Series C led by the OpenAI Startup Fund (TC)

• MotherDuck, a startup building a serverless data analytics platform, raised $47.5M at a $175M valuation: a $35M Series A led by a16z and $12.5M seed round led by Redpoint (PRN)

• Low-code immersive gaming platform Yahaha raised a $40M Series A+ led by Temasek and Alibaba (TC)

• Digital payouts startup WeGift raised a $31M Series B led by Element Ventures (PRN)

• Pickle, a startup building truck unloading robots, raised a $26M Series A led by JS Capital, Ranpak, Soros Capital, and more (TC)

• Buildkite, a developer-centric CI / CD platform, raised a $21M Series B led by OneVentures and AirTree (PRN)

• RoadRunner, a startup providing sustainable waste management solutions, raised a $20M Series D extension led by Fifth Wall (PRN)

• Induction stovetop startup Impulse raised a $20M Series A led by Lux Capital (TC)

• Customer data platform MadKudu raised an $18M Series A led by Felicis (TC)

• EngFlow, a startup helping developers build faster, raised an $18M Series A led by Tiger Global, Firstminute Capital, and a16z (TC)

• Freight Farms, a container farm startup, raised a $17.5M Series B-3 led by Aliaxis and Ospraie Ag Science (PRN)

• Product growth platform Loops.ai raised a $14M seed round led by Scale Venture Partners (BW)

• Buynomics, an analytics platform for revenue related commercial decisions, raised a $13M Series A led by Insight Partners (PRN)

• Atmos, a startup building a custom home marketplace, raised a $12.5M Series A led by Khosla Ventures (TC)

• omni:us, an insurance claims management startup, raised a $12M Series A+ from Wurttembergische Versicherung (BW)

• Proprietary trading firm The Trading Pit raised a $10M growth round led by Pinorena Capital (PRN)

• Silkhaus, a Dubai-based platform for short term rentals, raised a $7.75M seed round led by Nuwa Capital, Nordstar Global Founders Capital, and more (TC)

• Cloud-based dynamic application security testing startup Probely raised an $8M Series A led by Iberis Capital and Semapa Next (PRN)

• Kenyan EV assembly startup BasiGo raised a $6.6M round led by Novastar and Mobility54 (TC)

• Rep Data, a data collection firm, raised a $6.25M Series A led by Recurring Capital Partners (PRN)

• Segmed, a cloud-based medical imaging platform, raised a $5.2M seed+ round led by Nina Capital (PRN)

• NFT fraud detection startup Yakoa raised $4.8M in funding led by Collab+Currency, Volt Capital, and Brevan Howard (TC)

• Payload, a startup developing a headless open-source CMS, raised a $4.7M seed round led by Gradient Ventures (TC)

• CalmWave, a startup using AI to improve operational health at hospitals, raised a $4M seed round led by Bonfire Ventures (PRN)

• Impacked, a B2B marketplace for primary packaging, raised a $2.5M seed round led by TenOneTen Ventures (PRN)

• Woven, a startup streamlining franchise operations, raised a $1.5M seed round led by Glow Brands (PRN)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• EV maker VinFast is considering a US IPO that could raise $1B+ as soon as January 2023 (BBG)

• JD Technology, the fintech arm of JD.Com, is seeking Beijing's approval for a potential ~$2B Hong Kong IPO as soon as the end of the year (RT)

• Chinese automaker BYD scrapped plans to list its semiconductor unit in China (RT)

Bankruptcy / Restructuring

• Crypto lender BlockFi is preparing a potential bankruptcy filing after halting withdrawals of customer deposits and acknowledging its significant exposure to FTX (WSJ)

• Sam Bankman-Fried is attempting to raise cash for FTX despite bankruptcy filing (WSJ)

• FTX could have over 1 million creditors (CNBC)

Fundraising

• The International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank, announced the launch of a $225M ‘VC platform’ to back early-stage tech startups in Africa, Middle East, Central Asia, and Pakistan (TC)

• Bling Capital raised a $212M third fund consisting of two separate vehicles: a $109M seed-stage fund and $103M opportunity fund (TC)

• NY-based VC firm Modus raised a $75M fund focused on AI and blockchain startups in sub-Saharan Africa (TC)

• Portugal-based VC firm Indico Capital Partners launched a $25M Opportunity Fund to give previous LPs the chance to invest in companies from its first fund (TC)

Crypto Corner

• SBF faces possible trip to US for questioning over FTX collapse (BBG)

• Regulator suspended license of FTX's Australian unit until mid-May (RT)

Exec's Picks

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• CNBC published a detailed summary of the SBF and FTX story here.

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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