RIP SPACs 2020 - 2022

Chamath is closing down his final two SPACs, global food supplies remain tight, Morgan Stanley is settling with the SEC, VCs are sitting on a ton of dry powder, Spotify is launching audiobooks, Peloton added another overpriced piece of equipment, Beyond Meat's COO bit someone's nose, and the FTC is investigating Amazon's Roomba purchase.

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Good Morning,

Chamath is closing down his final two SPACs, global food supplies remain tight, Morgan Stanley is settling with the SEC, VCs are sitting on a ton of dry powder, Spotify is launching audiobooks, Peloton added another overpriced piece of equipment, Beyond Meat's COO bit someone's nose, and the FTC is investigating Amazon's Roomba purchase.

VCs must be back from summer vacation, because deal flow is getting HOT again šŸ˜¤

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

As of 9/20/2022 market close.

Markets

  • Stocks fell yesterday ahead of todayā€™s Fed meeting, where investors expect a third consecutive 0.75% rate hike to help curb high inflation

    • The three major averages all closed in the red

    • The 2Y Treasury yield hit its highest level since 2007, at 3.99% intraday

Earnings

  • What we're watching this week:

    • Today: General Mills, Trip.com

    • Thursday: Accenture, Costco, FedEx, ManchesterĀ UnitedĀ 

  • Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

  • Canada's YoY inflation eased more than expected in August to 7% despite fastest food price increase in 41 years (RT)

  • Swedenā€™s central bank raised rates by 1% amid 9% YoY inflation (CNBC)

  • A US Treasury official criticized China's 'unconventional' debt practices (RT)

  • Global food supply remains tight amid disappointing US harvest (WSJ)

  • McDonald's will face Byron Allen's $10B discrimination lawsuit (RT)

  • Venture firms' $290B of dry powder is about to revive startup funding (TI)

  • Morgan Stanley will pay $35M to settle SEC charges over mishandling of customer data (RT)

  • ā€˜Thursday Night Footballā€™ drew a record number of Prime signups for a 3-hour period: Amazon memo (CNBC)

  • Wall Street banks set to lose $600M+ on Citrix debt (BBG)

  • Ford slid 11% after warning about ~$1B inflation-related costs (RT)

  • Spotify launched an audiobook service for US users with aims to rival Amazon (RT)

  • Peloton added a ~$3.2k rowing machine to their fitness equipment lineup (CNBC)

  • Gap is eliminating ~500 corporate jobs as sales fall (CNBC)

  • Beyond Meat suspended their COO after arrest for allegedly biting manā€™s nose (CNBC)

  • Elon Musk is floating plans to deploy thousands of Optimus humanoid robots (RT)

  • Amazonā€™s $1.7B proposed purchase of Roomba maker is under FTC investigation (WSJ)

  • Young people are driving a rise in mental health spending (AX)

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Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

  • Genstar Capital is considering strategic options for software maker Prometheus Group that could include a sale at a potential $6B valuation (BBG)

  • Walgreens Boots Alliance agreed to buy the remaining 30% it didnā€™t already own in specialty pharmacy company Shields Health Solutions for $1.37B (RT)

  • The Harris family, a former owner of British seaside holiday resorts operator Butlins, agreed to buy back the company from Blackstone for $343MĀ (BBG)

  • US fashion retailer Nordstrom adopted a poison pill to prevent outsiders from boosting ownership after Mexican retailer El Puerto de Liverpool acquired a 9.9% stake in the company (WSJ)

VC

  • InnovaFeed, a vertical insect farmĀ operator, raised aĀ $250M Series D led by QIA (TC)

  • Private capital platform Opto Investments raised $145M at a $475M valuation in a funding round led by Tiger Global Management (BBG)

  • Indian insurtech startup Zopper raised a $75M Series C led by Creaegis (TC)

  • SpinLaunch, a startup building a kinetic launch system, raised a $71M Series B led by ATW Partners (BW)

  • Sardine, real-time fraud prevention platform,Ā raised a $51.5M Series B led by a16z (BW)

  • Ojjo, a solar foundation provider, raised a $40M Series C led by NGP (PRN)

  • VavaCars, a Turkish used car trading platform, raised a $37M Series C led by Vitol and others (PRN)

  • Scratch Financial, a fintech startup focused on patient financing, raised a $35M Series C led by NorwestĀ VentureĀ Partners (PRN)

  • European neobank Monese received $35M in funding from HSBC (TC)

  • Subsurface infrastructure mapping company 4M Analytics extended its Series A to $45M via a $30M extension round led by Insight Partners and ITI Venture Capital Partners (PRN)

  • SecurityPal, a security review solutions startup, raised a $21M Series A led by Craft Ventures (PRN)

  • Zartico, a startup helping tourism offices promote local destinations, raised a $20M Series A led by Arthur Ventures (TC)

  • Sequence, a startup building a ā€œFinOpsā€ stack for B2B businesses, raised a $19M seed round led by a16z (TC)

  • Brelyon, a startup building no-headset VR displays, raised a $15M Series A led by Lockheed Martin Ventures and the E14 Fund (PRN)

  • Automated building control startup PassiveLogic received a $15M strategic investment from Nvidiaā€™s venture arm nVentures (TC)

  • Travel management platform TrovaTrip raised a $15M Series A led by Madrona (TC)

  • Higlobe, a startup aiming to eliminate international fund transfer fees, raised $14M in funding led by Battery Ventures (BW)

  • Quantum computing startup Classiq extended its Series B to $49M via a $13M investment from AwzĀ Ventures (BW)

  • Jitx, a startup allowing engineers to design circuit boards with code, announced they raised a $12M Series A led by Sequoia last year (TC)

  • Integral, a real-time finance platform for web3 enterprises, raised an $8.5M round led by ElectricĀ Capital (PRN)

  • Tres, a startup helping web3 companies manage their financial data, raised a $7.6M seed round led by boldstart ventures (TC)

  • LatAm tax automation startup Heru raised a $6M seed round led by Gradient Ventures (PRN)

  • Sparrow, a financial search engine simplifying the student lending process,Ā raised aĀ $5.83M seed round led by Sozo Ventures (BW)

  • Nigerian healthtech startup Remedial Health raised a $4.4M seed round led by Global Ventures (TC)

  • Humankind, a digital concierge and conversational commerce platform for e-commerce brands, raised a $4.2M seed round led by High Alpha Capital and Strand Equity (PRN)

  • R&D collaboration platform Halo raised a $2.6M seed round led by AsymmetricĀ CapitalĀ Partners, VillageĀ Global, and others (PRN)

  • TrueFoundy, a startup automating repetitive tasks in the ML pipeline, raised a $2.3M seed round led by Sequoia Indiaā€™s Surge (TC)

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

  • Indiaā€™s largest drone maker IdeaForge Technology is considering a Mumbai IPO that could raise ~$125M at a ~$700M valuation (BBG)

SPAC

  • Chamath Palihapitiya is closing down his two remaining SPACs, Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings IV & VI, that together hold $1.6B+ in capital, after failing to consummate deals (WSJ)

Debt

  • Vietnamese conglomerate Trung Nam Construction Investment plans to sell ~$500M in bonds in the next three years to fund renewable plans (BBG)

Fundraising

  • Defense and security focused VC firm Razors Edge Ventures raised a ~$340M third fund aimed at investing in cybersecurity, autonomous systems, and aerospace and defense tech (TC)

  • Extantia, a climate-focused venture fund, announced a 300M euro platform to invest in and accelerate climate tech innovation (PRN)

  • DTCP,Ā a VC founded by Deutsche Telekom, plans on raising a $500M third fund by March 2023 (TC)

  • Lerer Hippeau raised $230M in additional funding across two new funds, LH Seed VII and LH Select IV (TC)

  • Avanta Ventures,Ā the VC arm of CSAA InsuranceĀ Group, raised a $225M early-stage Fund II (BW)

  • Web Summit Ventures is planning to raise $40M to be split into two $20M funds, Web Summit Ventures Seed and Web Summit Ventures Growth (TC)

Crypto Corner

  • Proposed US House legislation that's being drafted would placed a two-year ban on coins similar to TerraUSD, the algorithmic stablecoin that collapsed earlier this year (BBG)

  • A hacker stole $160M from crypto trading firm Wintermute (TV)

  • Nasdaq is reportedly preparing crypto custody services for institutions (CT)

Exec's Picks

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The Hiring Block šŸ’¼

  • a16z is hiring an entry-level analyst for their GAMES ONE FUND. Interested in VC? Interested in gaming? Check out the role here.

  • 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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