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Good Morning and Happy Ethereum Merge Day,

Markets bounced back a bit from Tuesday's drop, Ethereum merged (not in the M&A sense tho), US child poverty hit a record low, Amtrak canceled long-distance trains, Tesla is changing their battery strategy, Apollo's honcho doesn't see investment banks participating in LBO debt for months, Starbucks is predicting 20% annual EPS growth, Twilio had a round of layoffs, California is suing Amazon, and SoftBank is considering a Vision Fund 3 (lol). Fool me once, shame on you... fool me twice, shame on me... fool me thrice...???????

Whether you’re brand-new to investing or a seasoned professional, this book from David Rubenstein (the founder of Carlyle Group) will transform the way you approach investing forever. Make sure to scoop this book up and avoid investing pitfalls.

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

• After getting rocked Tuesday, the market inched higher during a choppy trading session yesterday

  • The three major averages all closed in the green with sub-1% gains

• The Ethereum merge happened last night, marking the first day of the cryptocurrency’s systemwide upgrade

Earnings

• What we're watching this week:

  • Today: Adobe

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• Mortgage demand is down 29% YoY with rates topping 6% for first time since 2008 (CNBC)

• US producer prices fell 0.1% in August for second straight monthly decline (RT)

• US child poverty hit a record low 5.2% in in 2021, down 83% since 1993 (AX)

• EU is seeking $140B from energy firms to insulate consumers from energy crisis (RT)

• Google lost their appeal against a record $4B+ EU antitrust fine (CNBC)

• White House sees US investments in foreign chip firms as potential concern (RT)

• Amtrak canceled long-distance trains as rail-strike deadline draws near (BBG)

• California sued Amazon, alleging antitrust violations, inflated prices, and stifled competition (WSJ)

• Tesla is changing their battery strategy to seek US tax breaks (WSJ)

• Starbucks is projecting EPS growth of up to 20% annually after unveiling their reinvention plan (CNBC)

• Apollo's head honcho sees Wall Street banks sitting out new buyout debt for months (BBG)

• Patagonia's founder and his family donated their $3B ownership in the company to fight climate change (CNBC)

• Lufthansa is 100% privately owned again after Covid bailout (RT)

• Wells Fargo settled for $94M over a lawsuit alleging mortgage forbearance during pandemic (RT)

• United Airlines partnered with one-time foe Emirates, will launch Dubai flights (CNBC)

• Twilio laid off 11% or ~850 members of its staff as it aims for profitability in 2023 (TC)

• Google canceled half the projects at its internal R&D group Area 120 (TC)

A Message From Simon & Schuster

What do the most successful investors have in common?

David M. Rubenstein, cofounder of one of the world’s largest investment firms, has spent years interviewing the greatest investors in the world to discover the time-tested principles, hard-earned wisdom, and indispensable tools that guide their practice.

Rubenstein, who has spent more than three decades in the hyper-competitive world of private equity, now distills everything he’s learned about the art and craft of investing, from venture capital, real estate, private equity, hedge funds, to crypto, endowments, SPACs, ESG, and more.

• How did Stan Druckenmiller short the British pound in one trade for a profit of $1 billion dollars?

• What made Sam Zell the smartest, toughest investor the world of real estate has ever seen?

• How did Mike Novogratz make $250 million from crypto in one year?

• How did Larry Fink build BlackRock from scratch into a firm that manages more than $10 trillion?

With unprecedented access to global leaders in finance, Rubenstein has assembled the most authoritative book of its kind. Whether you’re brand-new to investing or a seasoned professional, this book will transform the way you approach investing forever.

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Swiss investment fund EIP agreed to buy a 49% stake in the German Wikinger Wind Farm from Spanish power company Iberdrola for $700M (RT)

• Klaus-Michael Kuehne, Germany’s richest man, increased his stake in flagship airline Lufthansa to 17.5%, buying stock offloaded by the German government (BBG)

• Maxim Demin, the Russian owner of English soccer team AFC Bournemouth, is reviving an attempt to sell the club now that it has once again reached England’s top league (BBG)

• Japanese oil and metals giant Eneos agreed to buy the remaining 50% it doesn’t already own of Petra Nova Parish, the operator of a US CO2 capture project, for $3.6M (RT)

• Adani Wilmar, the kitchen essentials firm owned by Asia's richest man (Gautam Adani), is scouting for local and overseas acquisition targets and has earmarked $63M for purchases (BBG)

VC

• Renewable energy investment platform Bluestar Energy Capital raised $100M in financing from Declan Flanagan, S2G, and Great Bay (BW)

• Prolific Machines, a biotechnology company aiming to optimize biomanufacturing, raised $42M in a Series A and seed round: Mayfield led the seed round and Breakthrough Energy Ventures led the Series A (BW)

• Cyrebro, a startup building a cloud-based security operations center, raised a $40M Series C led by Koch Disruptive Technologies (TC)

• Kojo, a construction materials management platform, raised a $39M Series C led by Battery Ventures (PRN)

• Cloud security startup Dig Security raised a $34M Series A led by SignalFire (TC)

• Diamond Standard, the creator of the first regulatory-approved diamond commodities, raised a $30M Series A led by Left Lane Capital and Horizon Kinetics (PRN)

• EV charging platform Monta raised a $30M round at a $155M valuation led by Energize Ventures (TC)

• In-space mobility startup Morpheus Space raised a $28M Series A led by Alpine Space Ventures (PRN)

• Nyshex, a platform connecting ocean carriers with shippers, raised a $25M Series B led by Collate Capital (TC)

• Groundcover, a performance monitoring platform for cloud apps, raised a $20M Series A led by Zeev Ventures (TC)

• Ownera, a company building an ‘interoperability network for tokenized assets’, raised a $20M Series A led by LRC Group, J.P. Morgan, and others (BW)

• Chameleon, a product adoption platform for SaaS companies, raised a $13M Series A led by Matrix Partners (BW)

• Employee mobility management platform Benivo raised a $12M round led by Updata Partners (PRN)

• French animal-free dairy and cheese startup Standing Ovation raised a $12M Series A led by Peakbridge, Seventure Partners, Astanor Ventures, and more (TC)

• Stable, an EV charging data analysis platform, raised a $7M Series A led by Congruent Ventures (AXIOS)

• Composer, an automated investing platform, raised $6M in funding led by Left Lane Capital (PRN)

• HPC-AI Tech, an AI optimization platform, closed a $6M seed round led by BlueRun Ventures China (PRN)

• xtype, a DevOps platform for accelerating app development on ServiceNow, raised a $5.8M seed round led by Columbia Capital (PRN)

• Web3 music startup Arpeggi Labs raised a $5.1M seed round led by a16z crypto (TC)

• UAE-based DeFi trading startup MetaFi raised $3M in funding led by DoublePeak Group, Maven Capital, OKX Blockdream Ventures (BW)

• BloomCommunity, an app for members of queer and non-monogamous communities, raised a $2.5M seed round led by Tuesday Capital (PRN)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• AIG’s life and retirement unit Corebridge raised $1.68B in US's biggest IPO this year, despite pricing shares at the bottom of a marketed range (BBG)

• Dubai may increase the size of the $817M IPO of its road-toll operator, Salik, after stronger-than-expected demand (BBG)

SPAC

• Cancer drugmaker Apollomics agreed to merge with Maxpro Capital Acquisition Corp. in a ~$1B deal (BBG)

Fundraising

• Prime Movers Lab, a VC focused on breakthrough scientific startups, raised $500M for its debut early growth fund (PRN)

• Two Sigma Ventures raised $400M across two funds focused on early and growth stage startups (BW)

• 500 Istanbul, formerly a loosely-associated fund with 500 Global in San Francisco, launched a $70M Euro early-stage fund (TC)

• Japan's SoftBank is considering launching a third Vision Fund, likely using its own capital (RT)

Crypto Corner

• Ethermine, the world’s biggest Ether mining firm, will shut down after the ‘merge’ (BBG)

• Crypto lending now pays less than the safest US government debt (BBG)

• GameStop is adding NFT trading cards to loyalty program perks as it deepens push into digital world (CNBC)

Exec's Picks

• Billionaire investor David M. Rubenstein discusses philosophies for successful investing plus shares advice from some of the titans of private equity, crypto, real estate, and more in his latest book: How to Invest. (I personally just copped this 🤝)

• 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 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.

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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