Good Morning,

'Minions: The Rise of Gru' smashed box office records, the euro keeps sliding vs the dollar, Australia's central bank raised interest rates, BYD surpassed Tesla in EV sales, Twitter sued the Indian government, and the EU will ease IPO rules.

Today's edition of Exec Sum is brought to you by... ourselves! If you're a founder of an early-stage startup in the fintech / web3 / e-commerce / and creator economy tech sectors and currently raising capital, Lit is looking to put some $$$ to work. Please send pitch decks to [email protected] and we'll take a look 🤝 If any of y'all are in NYC, we'll be hosting a private dinner for select founders in the coming weeks.

If you're looking to reach an audience of 100,000+ highly-engaged and highly-educated readers, we'd love to partner with you. Please fill out this form to inquire about our partnership rates and packages.

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

• Markets were mixed as investors worried that slowing economic growth could curb energy consumption

• Oil fell below $100 per barrel, reaching its lowest closing value since April 25th

• The Euro slid to a 20-year low against the US dollar, trading as low as $1.028

Earnings

• What we’re watching this week:

  • Today: Saratoga Investment Corp.

  • Thursday: Levi Strauss & Co

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• The EU will ease IPO rules in order to lure $47B in deep tech funding for startups and make it easier for founders to keep control once companies go public (BBG)

• Natural gas has soared 700% since the beginning of last year, becoming a driving force in the new cold war (BBG)

• Twitter sued the Indian government to challenge some of its block orders on tweets and accounts within the country (WSJ)

• Equity crowdfunding appears immune to market volatility and is on track for its best-ever year (TC)

• Chinese automaker BYD surpassed Tesla as the world's leading electric vehicle seller (AX)

• The Biden administration is weighing a move to trim mortgage costs for first-time and lower-income buyers (WSJ)

• Canada's Brookfield Asset Management broke its annual record by pouring $12B+ into European deals already this year (BBG)

• 50,000 Australians are on evacuation alert as Sydney's floods worsen (NPR)

• 'Minions: The Rise of Gru' smashed July 4th box office records with a $125M opening (AX)

• Ford Motor Co. reported a nearly 32% annual increase in US sales in June, beating out most of the industry (WSJ)

• CEO of the $189B Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, Jo Taylor, is planning to invest more of the fund’s capital directly in private businesses to cut reliance on buyout firms (BBG)

A Message From Litquidity

Message to founders

As mentioned above, I (Lit) am looking to invest in exciting startups and support founders building incredible new tech and products. If you're a founder of an early-stage startup in the fintech / web3 / e-commerce / and creator economy tech sectors and currently raising capital, Lit is looking to put some $$$ to work. Please send pitch decks to [email protected] and we'll take a look 🤝

Side bar: If you're an accredited investor or qualified purchaser and would like to invest alongside me, please fill out this form to get access to early-stage deal flow.

Message to advertisers

If you're looking to reach an audience of 100,000+ highly-engaged and highly-educated readers, we'd love to partner with you. Please fill out this form to inquire about our partnership rates and packages.

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• Europe’s largest fund manager Amundi and JPMorgan Asset Management are considering bids for the asset management business of Thai banking group Kasikornbank, which could be valued at ~$1.5B (BBG)

• Latin America's largest convenience store operator Fomento Economico Mexicano agreed to buy Swiss retail company Valora for ~$1.2B (BBG)

• South Africa-based based mobile payments business Zapper is considering options to raise capital, including a stake sale, that could value the company at ~$1B (BBG)

• Thailand’s biggest mobile phone operator Advanced Info Service will acquire both Thai telecommunications company Triple T Broadband for ~$542M and a 19% stake in Jasmine Broadband Internet Infrastructure Fund for ~$358.5M (BBG)

• Chinese carmaker Geely acquired a 79.1% stake in Chinese Android device maker Meizu (BBG)

• Utility giant Tokyo Electric is weighing a partnership between state-backed investment fund Japan Investment Corp. and a local PE firm in bidding to take over Japanese conglomerate Toshiba (BBG)

• Primary healthcare clinics chain 1Life Healthcare is considering options after attracting takeover interest (BBG)

• Banking group UniCredit is considering selling its Russian unit through a structure that would allow the bank to repurchase the subsidiary if geopolitical tensions ease (BBG)

• Crypto lender Nexo is in talks to acquire its rival Vauld after the company froze client withdrawals and hired advisers for a potential restructuring (BBG)

• Yum! Brands is close to selling its Russian KFC business as it exits the country’s market (CNBC)

• Building materials company Knauf International's takeover of Japan's publicly listed interior wall materials manufacturer Chiyoda Ute will succeed after seven years of planning (BBG)

• Mining giant MMC Norilsk Nickel is open to merging with the world's second largest aluminum company United Co Rusal (BBG)

• Egyptian conglomerate Orascom is weighing the sale of a minority or controlling stake in Italian internet services company ItaliaOnline, which could value the company at ~$418M (BBG)

VC

• Quantum computing company Oxford Quantum Circuits raised a $47M Series A led by Lansdowne Partners and The University of Tokyo Edge Capital Partners (TC)

• Mobile virtual network operator and IoT software company Onomondo raised $21M in a funding round led by Verdane (TC)

• AI-based accounts receivable management platform Tesorio raised a $17M Series B led by BAMCAP Venture (PRN)

• McEasy, a SaaS solutions provider for the logistics and shipping industry, raised a $6.5M Series A led by East Ventures (TC)

• Blockchain-based B2B rewards marketplace qiibee raised a $4.8M seed round led by Z5 Capital (PRN)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Japanese e-commerce and online retailing company Rakuten applied to list its finance unit Rakuten Bank on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (BBG)

SPAC

• Israel's online brokerage eToro and blank-check company FinTech Acquisition Corp agreed to terminate their ~$8.8B merger deal more than a year after it was announced (RT)

Bankruptcy / Restructuring

• Scandinavian airline SAS filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US (WSJ)

Fundraising

• Sequoia Capital China raised ~$9B in fresh capital for four new funds to back Chinese tech companies across all stages (TC)

Crypto Corner

• The Bank of England says cryptocurrencies need tougher regulations after the recent ~$2T drop (BBG)

• Celsius repays $183M on DeFi exchange Maker, gets back collateral (CD)

Exec's Picks

• Infamous fund manager Bill Hwang is back in the spotlight as a $550M lawsuit accuses Hwang and top executives at Archegos Capital Management of running the now-defunct hedge fund like a religious cult. Check out Lydia Moynihan's latest NYP piece on Bill Hwang here.

• June Huh dropped out of high school to become a poet, and he just won a Fields Medal, the highest award in mathematics. Check out Jordana Cepelewicz's most recent article for this wild story.

Big Swinging Decks Podcast

🚨 Big Swinging Decks Is Back 🚨

In this week’s episode, Lit & Mark follow up on their earlier mental health discussion to answer shareholder-submitted questions about:

• working in a high-stress environment ⏳

• dating in NYC 👫🏼

• keeping your hair with your MD breathing down your back 😒

• And plenty of other topics 👀

We also touch upon recent Supreme Court rulings and other spicy topics. Y'all are gonna want to listen to this one.

Catch the latest episode of our Big Swinging Decks podcast on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube 🤝

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:

Meme Cleanser

Advertise with us // Visit our merch store // Invest alongside Lit Ventures

Catch the latest episode of our Big Swinging Decks podcast on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube 🤝

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