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Good Morning,

Stocks rose, Netflix gained 2.4M users in Q3, McDonald's will sell Krispy Kreme doughnuts at nine locations, VCs are pulling out of space funding, Biden is opening the US oil reserves again to control gas prices, Apple is cutting iPhone 14+ production, and Russia destroyed 30% of Ukraine's power plants. 

Interested in fintech? Check out Plaid's latest deep dive report for free here.

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• Strong corporate earnings helped stocks build on Monday’s gains, with all three major averages closing positive yesterday

  • Despite an overall positive trajectory, Tuesday’s choppy trading session was dragged down from intraday highs as US Treasuries continued to rise

Earnings

• Goldman Sachs beat Q3 profit and revenue expectations on strong bond trading results that offset IBD slump; their shares jumped ~5% before Tuesday's opening bell (CNBC)

• Netflix crushed Q3 profit and revenue expectations as it added 2.41M subscribers (on 1.09M expected) and relayed high optimism about its new advertising business; their shares jumped over 14% immediately after the report (CNBC)

• What we're watching this week: 

  • Today: Tesla, IBM, Procter & Gamble, Nasdaq

  • Thursday: Blackstone, Snap Inc.

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• US factory output rose 0.4% in September, matching August's 0.4% rise (RT)

• Americans are buying fewer items at grocery store amid inflation: survey (AX)

• Homebuilder sentiment fell for 10th straight month to lowest level since 2012 (CNBC)

• China's state banks are acquiring dollars in swaps market to stabilize yuan (RT)

• VC funding for space tech has fallen 80% in Q3 (RT)

• Strong US dollar is expected weigh heavy on North American companies' Q3 results (RT)

• US plans to sell more oil from strategic reserves in bid to dampen fuel prices (WSJ)

• SEC is aiming to shrink hedge fund fees for investors (RT)

• US Treasury plans to collect climate-risk data from insurers (RT)

• Women leaders are leaving US companies at the fastest rate in five years (AX)

• 4-day work week firms are seeing a surge in job applications (CNBC)

• Americans have saved 60M hours on commuting amid WFH push (BBG)

• Apple is cutting production of iPhone 14+ (RT)

• Microsoft laid off more employees this week after slowdown in earnings growth (WSJ)

• J&J will likely make some workforce cuts despite higher sales and profit (WSJ)

• Missouri pulled $500M from BlackRock over firm's ESG push (RT)

• Amazon workers rejected a union bid in upstate New York (AX)

• McDonald’s will sell Krispy Kreme doughnuts at 9 locations in menu experiment (CNBC)

• Last week's Russian attacks destroyed 30% of Ukrainian power stations (AX)

• French cement firm Lafarge was fined $777M and pleaded guilty to supporting ISIS (CNBC)

A Message From Plaid

Want The 10,000-Foot View Of Fintech?

Then you need to check out the 2022 Fintech Effect by Plaid. 

Download the full report for free right here.

Through surveying fintech consumers in the US and UK, this is Plaid’s third annual deep-dive into the financial technology landscape which details why fintech adoption has grown 38% in the last 2 years.

From exploring the hottest trends, breaking down the most important learnings, and explaining the impact fintech has had on consumers (spoiler alert: a lot), it covers everything you need to truly understand the fintech space. 

But what makes this year’s version worth the download? Good question. Plaid has…  

• Used three-year trends to contextualize fintech’s changes and growth amid the crazy ups and downs of COVID, economic uncertainty, and inflation. 

• Identified where your business can use fintech to stand out from your competition

• Dialed into consumer’s main priorities including privacy and data security

For anyone looking to grow their business, this report is a must-read!

You can download it right here for free (but, as always, remember to say “Thank you, Plaid!”)

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Animal food manufacturing company Darling Ingredients agreed to buy collagen products maker Gelnex for $1.2B (RT)

• South Korea’s LG Chem agreed to buy US anti-cancer drug maker Aveo Pharmaceuticals for $566M (RT)

• Drugmaker Eli Lilly agreed to buy genetic medicine developer Akouos for ~$487M (RT)

• Lukoil is considering splitting its oil-trading unit and selling a refinery in Italy as it seeks to limit the impact of sanctions and a forthcoming EU embargo on Russian crude (BBG)

• BNP Paribas hired Barclays to sell South African financial-services business RCS (BBG)

• Buyout firms CDH Investments and PAG are considering bids for US-listed Chinese data center company Vnet (BBG)

• Meta agreed to divest GIF search engine company Giphy after their $400M acquisition was blocked by UK regulators (CNBC)

VC

• Jasper, an AI content platform, raised $125M at a $1.5B valuation led by Insight Partners (TC)

• Enable, a startup helping B2B companies manage their rebate programs, raised a $94M Series C led by Insight Partners (TC)

• Prenuvo, a startup developing radiation-free imaging technology for cancer and other disease detection, raised a $70M debt / equity Series A led by Felicis (BW)

• Viome Life Sciences, a digital health startup focused on nutrition, raised a $67M Series C extension led by Bold Capital Group (PRN)

• UK-based spaceflight startup Orbex raised a $46.1M Series C led by Scottish National Investment Bank (TC)

• Landis, a real estate startup helping renters become homeowners, raised a $40M Series B led by GV (TC)

• Streaming data processing platform RisingWave raised a $36M Series A led by Yunqi Partners (TC)

• Anokion, a clinical-stage biotech company focused on treating autoimmune diseases, received a $35M investment from Pfizer (BW)

• Crypto gaming startup Stardust raised a $30M round led by Framework Ventures (BBG)

• Blockchain infrastructure firm ChainSafe raised an $18.75M Series A led by Round13 (BW)

• Bolster, a digital risk protection company, raised $15M in funding led by Cervin, Liberty Global Ventures, and Cheyenne Ventures (PRN)

• EngagedMD, a startup serving clinics and patients in the fertility space, raised $11M in funding led by MonCap (PRN)

• DevOps conversational AI solution Kubiya raised a $6M seed round led by Hyperwise Ventures (PRN)

• Magic Games, a Turkish mobile game studio, raised a $5M seed round led by Makers Fund (BW)

• Egyptian e-commerce startup Kenzz raised a $3.5M seed round led by Outliers Venture Capital (TC)

• Insurtech startup Otonomi raised a $3.4M round led by ATX Ventures (PRN)

• Upkeep, a digital platform for treating cosmetic conditions, raised a $2M seed round co-led by the Anthemis Female Innovators Lab Fund and 1517 Fund (PRN)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Brazilian cosmetics maker Natura will start studies for a possible IPO of its high-end brand Aesop, or a spinoff that could be followed by an IPO, to restore investor confidence following a 76%, ~$12B stock plunge (BBG)

Debt

• Saudi Arabia sold $5B in Islamic and conventional bonds in its first international bond sale in almost a year for which demand topped $26.5B (RT)

• Carnival, the world's largest cruise operator, offered a dozen ships as collateral in its latest $2B, 10.75% coupon bond offering, as it seeks to refinance its debt issued during the pandemic (FT)

• Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala sold $1B in 10.5Y bonds (RT)

• Dubai's biggest bank Emirates NBD sold $500M in five-year bonds in its first public debt sale of 2022 (RT)

Fundraising

• Will Ventures, a Boston based VC firm, raised a $150M second fund to invest in sports technologies (TC)

• V3 Ventures launched with $99M to invest in UK, EU, and US-based founders and brands (TC)

Crypto Corner

• a16z launched a crypto accelerator for startups (a16z)

• Japan approved tougher anti-money-laundering rules for crypto (CD)

• EU Commission warns crypto mining may be halted in energy emergency (TB)

Exec's Picks

• 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 to let you invest in three industries: Betting, Alcohol, and Drugs. The case for these BAD industries remains strong for a simple yet important reason – they have historically offered attractive risk-adjusted returns. Want to invest? Learn more about the BAD ETF fund details and sign up for their mailing list to get the latest fund insights and information.

• Ramp Capital published a solid piece on "How do you measure capitulation?" earlier this week. Check it out here.

• We just dropped a new batch of our best-selling Litagonia t-shirts in black (for the Fall/Winter szn). Short and long sleeves available 🤝

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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