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Good morning,

Stocks were down again yesterday, Biden supports JPow's monetary tightening, Fauci said we might vaccinate toddlers soon, Biden thinks Russia might invade Ukraine, Qatar World Cup tickets are PRICY, the Microsoft deal hurt Sony's stock price, tide pods are going to be pricy, and Peloton execs cashed out big.

It's Almost Friday. (A nod to Friday Beers, our most recent podcast guest). Short weeks are the best.

Recent Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan comp days have revealed yuge YoY increases. We'll be looking to update our compensation database soon to incorporate the new data points. We've got y'all covered and hope you can use it to help negotiate higher comp at your firms. More on this soon.

If you have a coworker who should def sign up to this newsletter. Sign them up with your unique referral code (located at the bottom of this email).

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

• Each of the three major indexes closed down around 1% yesterday, as high interest rates and lackluster big earnings reports continue to dissatisfy equity markets

• The 10-yr yield hit a high of 1.9% on Wednesday; it started the year at ~1.5% 

• Investors will be eyeing another big slate of earnings reports today as well as economic data which includes jobless claims and existing home sales

Earnings

• Bank of America narrowly missed on revenue but posted a beat on Q4 profit due to record investment banking and asset management fees and loan loss reserves release (CNBC)

• Morgan Stanley shares rose slightly after a Q4 earnings report which also showed better-than-expected EPS and a small revenue miss; the strong profit was due to the firm posting great equities trading revenue and holding the line on compensation costs (CNBC)

• United Airlines posted narrower-than-expected EPS loss and higher revenue than expected in Q4 due to strong year-end bookings, but shares dipped 2.5% AH after the airline spoke of fears that omicron will delay travel recovery and drive up costs (CNBC)

• Procter & Gamble beat on both sales and profits and raised 2022 sales forecast as their price hikes have offset rising costs, a strategy which they intend to continue with more broad sweeping price raising across various product categories (CNBC)

• What we’re watching today: American Airlines, Netflix, KeyBank, Fifth Third Bank

• Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

• Biden backs Powell’s likely monetary policy tightening (CNBC)

• Supreme Court rejects Trump’s request to block release of Jan 6 records (CNBC)

• China slashes key one- and five-year prime loan rates (CNBC)

• Fauci says FDA could authorize Pfizer vaccine for kids under 5 in next month (CNBC)

• Biden thinks Putin will order Ukraine invasion and vows ‘disaster for Russia’ (CNBC)

• Qatar opens World Cup ticket sales with seats costing $1,598 (BBG)

• Andrew Duke of York deletes his Twitter account after losing HRH patronages (BBG)

• The Pound is closing in on its strongest level against the Euro since 2016 (BBG)

• Microsoft deal wipes $20B off Sony’s market value (BBG)

• Free N95 masks to be made available at pharmacies, White House says (WSJ)

• Peloton insiders sold nearly $500M in stock before its big drop, SEC filings show (CNBC)

• Higher prices ahead for Tide detergent and other Procter & Gamble products as costs climb higher (CNBC)

A Message From Masterworks

YOU CAN’T SIT WITH US!!!!!

It must be nice being one of the cool kids. You get exclusive information, influence monetary policy, and make a ton of money. Oh yeah, and on Wednesdays you wear pink.….

Meanwhile, when we hear about new investments, the cool kids already beat us to the punch. No wonder more than 50% of American investors think the stock market is rigged. 

In fact, my lab partner Karl and I discovered another market dominated by insiders. I’m talking about the global art market. The rich quietly trade $64 billion worth of art every year. And, many billionaires allocate 10-30% of their portfolios to art. That’s because they see art as a wealth-building asset.

And you know what? I agree. Here’s why:

• Art can appreciate more than gold when inflation is high

• Deloitte estimates the wealth in art will increase by $1 trillion by 2026

• Blue-chip Art prices outpaced the S&P 500 by 164% from 1995 to 2021

The Wall Street Journal even called art one of the “hottest markets on Earth”. I actually increased my allocation to art after hearing this. I mean real masterpiece paintings like Picassos. 

So how did I do it? 

I used Masterworks. This $1B platform securitizes multi-million dollar paintings by filing them with the SEC. Early investors got net IRR of 30%+ in 2020 and 2021 from selling two paintings. It’s easy to understand why 300,000 investors signed up.

Want to invest in art like me? Click this Exec Sum link to grab your seat at the table

*See important disclosures

Deal Flow

M&A

• Unilever said it won’t raise its $68B offer for GlaxoSmithKline’s consumer products division (BBG)

• Bain Capital is in talks to buy French IT firm Inetum in a ~$2.3B deal (RT)

• Audio equipment maker Music Tribe is exploring strategic options including a sale at a potential $2B valuation (BBG)

• TPG Capital Asia is close to selling a majority stake in health-care company Pathology Asia at a ~$2B valuation (BBG)

• Belgian pharmaceutical company UCB agreed to buy US seizure and rare disease drug maker Zogenix for up to $1.9B (BBG)

• Mayfair Equity Partners agreed to buy a majority stake in adtech/martech LoopMe for $125M at a $200M valuation (TC)

• NFT marketplace OpenSea is buying DeFi wallet startup Dharma Labs for between $110-130M (TC)

• Crypto platform Gemini agreed to buy trading technology provider Omniex (BBG)

• Investment firms 777 Partners and DaGrosa Capital Partners are each in talks to buy historic Brazilian soccer clubs Vasco da Gama and America Mineiro, respectively (BBG)

VC

• Password management platform 1Password raised a $620M Series C at a $6.8B valuation led by Iconiq Growth (TC)

• Israeli VC Viola Ventures closed its sixth fund of $250M (TC)

• Handshake, a job network for recent college grads, raised a $200M round at a $3.5B valuation led by Coatue and Valiant Peregrine Fund (BBG)

• Workforce management platform Lattice raised an $175M Series F at a $3B valuation in a round led by Thrive Capital, Elad Gil, Tiger Global, and Dragoneer (TC)

• Tom Brady-backed NFT startup Autograph raised a $170M Series B led by a16z and Kleiner Perkins (TC)

• Telehealth startup Wheel raised a $150M Series C led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Tiger Global (TC)

• Israeli fintech Personetics, which has built AI technology for banks to personalize their offerings, raised $85M in a round led by undisclosed financial services firms (TC)

• Australian user research software startup Dovetail raised a $63M Series A at a $700M+ valuation led by Accel (TC)

• UK biopharma startup Engitix raised a $54M Series A led by Netherton Investments and Dompé Farmaceutici S.p.A. (BBG)

• Kenyan B2C e-commerce startup Copia Global raised a $50M Series C led by Goodwell Investments (TC)

• Early-stage VC Inflection raised $40M for its second crypto-centric fund (TC)

• Digital mental health startup Mantra Health raised a $22M Series A led by VMG Partners (TC)

• Carry1st, a South African social games and interactive content publisher, raised a $20M Series A extension led by a16z (TC)

• Turing Labs, a startup using AI to help formulate CPG products, raised a $16.5M Series A led by Insight Partners (TC)

• No-code startup Softr raised a $13.5M Series A led by FirstMarket Capital (TC)

• Cross-border payments startup Routefusion raised a $10.5M ‘seed prime’ round led by Canvas Ventures (TC)

• Web3 ‘proof of attendance’ startup POAP raised a $10M seed round led by Archetype and Sapphire Sport (TC)

• Malaysian B2B wholesale Dropee raised a $7M Series A led by Vynn Capital (TC)

• Streaming distributions startup Filmhub raised a $6.8M seed round led by a16z (TC)

• Senegal-based logistics and delivery startup PAPS raised a $4.5M pre-Series A led by 4DX Ventures (TC)

• Ancient8, a Vietnamese community and software platform for people to play P2E games on the blockchain, raised a $4M seed round led by Dragonfly Capital, Pantera Capital, and Hashed (TC)

• Workflow automation startup Wrangle raised a $2M pre-seed round led by Bloomberg Beta and Eniac Ventures (TC)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Restaurant chain Tropical Smoothie Cafe is planning a US IPO this year which could value it at $1B+ (BBG)

SPAC

• Chamath Palihapitiya- and Suvretta Capital-backed Social Capital Suvretta Holdings Corp. III will merge with medical tech company ProKidney at a combined equity value of $2.64B (BBG)

• Investing app Acorns and SPAC Pioneer Merger Corp have mutually terminated their $2.2B merger agreement (RT)

Debt

• Banks are preparing to launch $10B jumbo financing backing the LBO of cybersecurity software maker McAfee (BBG)

Exec's Picks

• Nominations for this year's Litquidity 30 Under 30 are now closed. Stay tuned for the unveiling of our 2022 cohort later this month 👀 👀

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've got 40+ jobs spanning IB, S&T, VC, tech, private equity, DeFi, crypto, CorpDev and more. We sift through all the noise on LinkedIn, Indeed, Monster, etc. so you don't have to.

See below for a few featured job opportunities:

• Matchbook Capital, the corporate venture arm of Swisher, is hiring an Associate to work out of their Jacksonville, FL office. The associate will be responsible for developing, managing, and owning incubations or acquisition projects to bring a new set of innovative products to market. The ideal candidate will have 2-5 years of experience in a start-up, start-up environment, or consulting firm. Apply here.

• Podium Education, one of the fastest growing edtech companies in the US, is hiring a Head of Finance to work out of their Austin, TX HQ. The HoF will be instrumental in scaling the business and maintaining the financial health of Podium as they enter a high growth phase. The ideal candidate will have at least 6+ years of experience in IB, PE, or FP&A. Apply here.

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