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Good Morning,

A new institution-only crypto exchange with big-name backers just launched, Tesla is winning the EV charging battle in Texas, vacant offices are piling up in Silicon Valley, Beijing is planning a new military training facility in Cuba, Ant Group is working on its own AI LLM, and Alibaba has a new chairman and CEO.

Do you want to stay on top of the latest news in venture capital, private equity, or M&A? Today’s sponsor, Axios Pro, has the best exclusive stories and trend analyses across these sectors.

Let’s dive in.

Before The Bell

Markets

• Stocks ended lower as investors awaited Fed Chairman Jerome Powell's testimony and eyed potential headwinds to the recent rally, including concerns about China's economy

• Chinese stocks underperformed the broader market as worries about the health of China's economy persisted as Beijing's latest cut to a key lending rate fell short of hopes

• Bitcoin and the broader crypto sector rallied on news of multiple spot bitcoin ETF filings

Earnings

• FedEx missed Q1 expectations as a drop in package demand offset CEO Raj Subramaniam’s $4B cost-cutting plan (YF)

• La-Z-Boy beat Q4 expectations with EPS of $0.99, $0.27 better than analysts’ estimates of $0.72, but the stock fell AH on weak forward guidance (IN)

• What we're watching this week:

  • Today: KB Home, Winnebago

  • Thursday: Accenture, Darden Restaurants, FactSet

  • Friday: CarMax

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• Tesla wins as Texas requires state-backed charging stations to include its plug (RT)

• Singapore's Grab cuts 1,000 jobs to stay competitive (RT)

• Alibaba named Tsai as new chairman, Wu as CEO amid reorganization (WSJ)

• FedEx to fold Canada contractor-based Ground unit into Express (RT)

• Drugmakers aim to strike down Medicare drug-price negotiations at Supreme Court (CNBC)

• Vacant offices are piling up in Silicon Valley (WSJ)

• Ant Group confirms it is working on own AI large language model (RT)

• Cisco launches new AI networking chips to compete with Broadcom, Marvell (RT)

• SoftBank to shift its stance to 'offense mode', says CEO Son (RT)

• Beijing plans new military training facility in Cuba (RT)

• Silicon Valley’s newest unicorn is a mining company (WSJ)

• Oil extends declines on China growth woes, firmer dollar (RT)

• Gannett sues Google, alleges online ad monopoly (WSJ)

• Dollar finds footing on housing data as yuan falters (RT)

• Raytheon gets $1.15B missile contract from US Air Force (RT)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• KKR will buy up to $43.7B of PayPal’s BNPL loans in Europe (RT)

• A consortium led by Brookfield Infrastructure Partners and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is buying Compass Datacenters in a $5.5B EV deal (RT)

• Italian energy group Eni is nearing a deal to acquire oil and gas explorer Neptune Energy Group for ~$5B (BBG)

• Civitas Resources will acquire oil and gas operations in the Permian basin managed by PE firm NGP Energy Capital Management for $4.7B (RT)

• Lockheed Martin has raised concerns with the FTC over American tech and defense contractor L3Harris's $4.7B acquisition of aerospace manufacturer Aerojet Rocketdyne (RT)

• Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund ADQ held talks to take $3.7B investment bank Lazard private earlier this year, but negotiations fell through and both sides walked away from the deal (RT)

• Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund is the lead bidder to acquire a ~10% stake in Brazilian multinational miner Vale’s copper and nickel operations for $2.5B (BBG)

• Eli Lilly is buying immune-related disease treatment developer Dice Therapeutics for ~$2.4B cash (RT)

• Blackstone’s infrastructure unit is acquiring a minority stake in energy company Nisource’s integrated electric- and gas-distribution unit NIPSCO for $2.2B (RT)

• Engineering consultant NV5 Global, which has a market cap of ~$1.7B, is exploring a sale (RT)

• EQT-owned Asian investment firm BPEA EQT and India PE firm ChrysCapital are acquiring a 90% stake in HDFC’s education finance arm HDFC Credila for $1.1B (RT)

• Thai maker of electrical components Stark Corp. has cancelled its $611M deal to buy Leoni Business Group Automotive Cable Solutions from Leoni AG and Leoni Bordnetz-Systeme due to the Ukraine war (BBG)

• Global Auto Holdings will buy British car dealership chain Lookers for $595M (RT)

• Retail marketing firm Neptune Retail Solutions is acquiring Coupons.com-parent Quotient Technology for $430M cash (RT)

VC

• Render, a cloud application development platform, raised a $50M Series B led by Bessemer Venture Partners (BW)

• Rose Rocket, a platform helping transportation companies communicate, raised a $38M Series B led by Scale Venture Partners (TC)

• CorWave, a French startup developing cardiac assist devices, raised a $28.4M Series C led by Bpifrance (FN)

• Yendo, a startup creating a vehicle-secured credit card, raised a $24M Series A led by FPV Ventures (BW)

• Guardian Agriculture, the first and only eVTOL company with FAA approval to operate commercially nationwide, raised a $20M Series A led by Fall Line Capital (PRN)

• Picket, a provider of integrated tech and services for residential real estate investing, raised a $20M Series B led by LL Funds (BW)

• ElevenLabs, an AI-powered platform for creating synthetic voices, raised a $19M Series A led by a16z and Creator Ventures (TC)

• GoodBuy Gear, a Denver-based online resale marketplace for baby and kid gear, raised a $14M round co-led by Interlock Partners and Revolution Ventures (FN)

• GreenPlaces, an all-in-one sustainability platform, raised a $13M Series A led by Redpoint Ventures, Felicis, Tishman Speyer Ventures, and Bull City Venture Partners (BW)

• Parrot, an AI-powered transcription platform, raised an $11M Series A led by Amplify Partners and XYZ Venture Capital (TC)

• Digantara, an Indian startup working on space situational awareness, raised a $10M Series A-1 led by Peak XV Partners (TC)

• Vyoma, a German-based space situational awareness and space traffic management company, raised a $9.2M seed round led by Safran Corporate Ventures (PRN)

• BrainTale, a medtech startup focused on improving brain care, raised a $4.9M round led by Capital Grand Est and MACSF (FN)

• Orson, a story-as-a-service startup, raised $3M in funding led by Cyan Banister and Long Journey Ventures (PRN)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Thrift Store Operator Savers Value Village, which is owned by PE firm Ares Management, aims to raise $320M at a $2.7B valuation in a US IPO (RT)

• Kodiak Gas Services is looking to raise up to $352M at a $1.65B valuation in a US IPO (RT)

• Middle East alternative asset manager Investcorp Holding is looking to raise $600M through a Abu Dhabi IPO of Investcorp Capital, an investment vehicle holding Investcorp’s private market co-investments (RT)

• Ferretti’s main shareholder China’s Weichai Group is looking to raise up to $292M as part of a Milan stock offering as the luxury yacht maker pursues a dual listing (BBG)

Debt

• Brazilian conglomerate Cosan plans to sell $500M worth of bonds this month (LF)

• Canada's Investment Management Corporation of Ontario has invested $400M in Swedish lithium-ion battery producer Northvolt through convertible notes (RT)

• Portugal plans to swap its $153M Cape Verde debt for investments in the archipelago's environmental and climate fund (RT)

Bankruptcy / Restructuring

• Iconic UK footwear brand Hunter Boot went into administration (the UK’s version of US bankruptcy) (BBG)

Fundraising

• South Africa, Netherlands, and Denmark are partnering to launch a $1B green hydrogen fund to kick-start a critical decarbonization industry (RT)

• Mexico-based PE firm Glisco Partners raised $250M total for its fifth PE fund and its first real estate fund (YF)

• VC Go-Ventures has rebranded as Argor Capital and raised $240M for its second fund to invest in early and mid-stage startups (TC)

• New European and LATAM VC fund Boost Capital Partners raised $35M to invest in gaming companies and products (TC)

Crypto Corner

• EDX Markets, an institutional-only crypto exchange backed by Citadel Securities, Fidelity Digital Assets, and Charles Schwab, is now live (BBG)

• Deutsche Bank applied for regulatory permission to operate a digital asset custody service (BBG)

• Crypto exchange Crypto.com deploys internal teams to trade crypto for profit, raising concerns of conflicts of interest (FT)

• Japanese crypto exchanges are seeking looser margin trading restrictions and a margin trading cap of up to 10x (BBG)

Exec’s Picks

• OceanGate, the company behind the missing Titanic exploration submarine, had previously fired an employee for voicing safety concerns about the vehicle’s design, according to this TNR piece.

• This Bloomberg article details how hedging failure exposed PE firms to an interest rate surge.

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