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A hedge fund is driving the latest meme stock rally, Wall Street banks are maintaining their edge against private credit, EQT is vying to take over Blackstone as the biggest PE firm, Nvidia invested $100B in OpenAI, and US will collect a mega fee for arranging the TikTok deal.

Vested has accessibly reimagined VC investing. Hear Vested's CEO explain their major innovations here.  

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

Click here to learn more about the Litquidity portfolios and subscribe to the strategies on Autopilot.*

Markets

• US stocks continued their upward climb yesterday on tech and AI optimism

  • All three major indexes closed at record highs for a third-straight day

• US banks index is up 20% YTD

• European banks index is up 40% YTD

• Argentina assets soared after US Treasury pledged support

• Hong Kong dollar strengthened 1% MoM vs dollar at the fastest pace in over two decades

• Soybean oil futures hit a three-month low amid lack of China demand

Earnings

• Firefly Aerospace missed Q2 revenue estimates and posted a larger-than-expected loss in its first earnings since going public; the firm pointed to continued investment in launch and spacecraft programs to ramp flight cadence and meet demand (WSJ)

• What we're watching this week: 

  • Today: Micron, AutoZone 

  • Thursday: Costco, CarMax, Accenture

• Full calendar here 

Prediction Markets

• It's that time of the year again.

• Trade your predictions on a range of events, only on Kalshi. Sign up with code LIT and get a $20 bonus when you trade $100.

Headline Roundup

• White House will collect a multi-billion dollar fee for TikTok deal (WSJ)

• New Fed governor Miran defends rate cuts as colleagues turn hawkish (RT)

• Wall Street banks beat private credit on $20B M&A debt (BBG)

• US IPO rebound does little to dent private markets' rapid growth (BBG)

• Ray Dalio's popular risk parity quant trade is up 19% YTD (BBG)

• EQT is aiming to become the world's largest PE player (AM)

• Fire sale of popular PE fund raises alarm over Asia PE slump (BBG)

• Hedge funds piled into banks, insurance, consumer finance (RT)

• Investors poured into munis funds by the most since 2007 (BBG)

• KPMG ignored flaws at regional banks before 2023 crisis (WSJ)

• SoftBank's index concentration forces skeptical stock investors to buy (BBG)

• JPMorgan sees India building on record IPO activity (BBG)

• France is replacing Italy as Europe's poster child for fiscal woe (BBG)

• China held benchmark lending rates steady for a fourth-straight month (RT)

• Kalshi overtook Polymarket in prediction market volume (CD)

• Hedge fund behind Opendoor meme stock rally sparked 176% surge in Better Home (CNBC)

• Google seeks to avoid ad tech breakup as antitrust trial begins (RT)

• More companies are adopting co-CEO structure (RT)

• Oracle named new co-CEOs in surprise move (CNBC)

• Citigroup poached Goldman and BNY veterans for wealth exec roles (RT)

• TD Bank named JPMorgan's Jon Rasmussen as US compliance chief (RT)

• Disney will resume Jimmy Kimmel Live (RT)

• US student visa arrivals fell to a four-year low (BBG)

A Message from Vested

Over 70% of startup employees abandon their stock options, in large part because they lack the cash to exercise.  And although the major banks support the most senior employees at the latest-stage startups, the long tail of rank-and-file employees — at startups of all stages — have almost nowhere to turn.  

Vested has built the infrastructure to serve this deeply fragmented market.  In doing so, its funds create diversified portfolios of startups, at prices below what VC recently paid for similar exposure.  

Vested is now preparing to support startup employees at scale. Click here to listen to their CEO discuss this fascinating market, and the company's innovative investment approach.

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

• US-China TikTok deal won't include 'golden share' or equity for US

• Belgian lender KBC Group is weighing an acquisition of $26B-listed state-backed Dutch rival ABN Amro Bank

• Italian lender BMPS's tender offer for rival Mediobanca ended, giving it 86.3% control at a $20B valuation

• Spanish lender BBVA raised its takeover bid for rival Banco Sabadell by 10% to a $20B valuation at market price

• US pharma giant Pfizer agreed to acquire obesity startup Metsera at a 43% premium in a $4.9B cash-and-stock deal, with potential earnouts at $7.3B

• Dutch brewer Heineken agreed to acquire the beverage and retail businesses of Costa Rica's FIFCO for $3.2B in cash

• Patient Square Capital agreed to buyout health-services company Premier in a $2.6B all-cash deal for a 24% premium

• European lottery giant Allwyn agreed to acquire a majority stake in US fantasy sports operator PrizePicks at a $1.6B valuation

• Real estate brokerage Compass agreed to buy Anywhere Real Estate in a $1.5B all-stock deal at an 84% premium, forming the largest residential brokerage in US

• Tech-focused PE firm Thoma Bravo agreed to take-private software company PROS Holdings in a $1.4B all-cash deal at a 42% premium

• Vivek Ramaswamy's Bitcoin treasury firm Strive agreed to acquire rival Semler Scientific in a $1.3B all-stock deal at a 210% premium

• PE firm PAI Partners is exploring a sale of French drugmaker Ethypharm at a $1.2B valuation

• PE firm Atlas Holdings agreed to take-private ODP, the owner of retail chain Office Depot, in a $1B at a 34% premium

• Vietnamese conglomerate Masan Consumer is planning to sell a 15%-20% stake for ahead of its IPO

• Canada's La Caisse agreed to acquire Australian renewables developer Edify Energy for $725M

• Saudi developer Arada Developments will acquire a 75% stake in a London real-estate developer Regal for $680M

• Film studio and VC group Lumina acquired a minority stake in Arcade Media, the management company of YouTube group The Sidemen

VC

• OpenAI raised a $100B investment from Nvidia 

• Oura ring maker Oura Health is raising an $875M Series E at an $11B valuation 

• AppZen, a platform for autonomous finance, raised $180M in growth funding led by Riverwood Capital

• UK SME-focused fintech startup Tide raised a $120M round at a $1.5B valuation led by TPG

• AI software platform Invisible Technologies raised a $100M round led by Vanara Capital

• Airia, an enterprise AI security and orchestration platform, raised a $100M round led by co-founder John Marshall

• Cardless, a co-brand credit-card startup, raised $60M in funding led by Spark Capital

• Arvo, a healthcare AI and data integration company, raised a $26.4M Series A led by Kaszek and Base10 Partners

• Circuit & Chisel, an agentic commerce platform, raised a $19.2M seed round led by Primary Venture Partners and ParaFi Capital

• YASO, a UK startup building an OS for global brands in China, raised an $11M Series A led by Puma Growth Partners

• Predictive data security platform Ray Security raised an $11M seed round led by Venture Guides and Ibex Investors

• Fabrix Security, an AI-native identity security company, raised an $8M seed round led by Norwest, Merlin Ventures, and Jibe Ventures

• XL Batteries, a startup creating a new and affordable way to store energy for extended periods, received a $7.5M investment from Merrin Investors

• Earthmover, a startup looking to become the 'Snowflake of weather and geospatial data', raised a $7.2M seed round led by Lowercarbon Capital

• Veezoo, a Swiss agentic analytics platform, raised a $5.9M Series A led by ACE Ventures

• Shield, a crypto neo-bank, raised a $5M seed round led by Giant Ventures

IPO / Direct Listings / Issuances / Block Trades

• Gold mining giant Zijin Gold International's $3.2B Hong Kong IPO is at risk of delay due to a typhoon storm

• China's Chery Automobile plans to price its Hong Kong IPO at the top of a marketed range to raise $1.2B

• Flood insurer Neptune plans to raise $368M at a $2.75B valuation in its IPO

• Indonesian gold miner Merdeka Gold raised $280M in Indonesia's largest IPO this year

• US bank Commercial Bancgroup plans to raise $104M in a rare bank IPO

• Berkshire Hathaway fully exited Chinese automaker BYD with a $415M stock sale 

• Nukkleus, a company focused on acquiring and developing high-growth businesses in the aerospace and defense industry, raised $250M in funding from Esousa Holding Group

• 'Baby Shark' creator Pinkfong is seeking to raise $55M at a $390M valuation in a Korea IPO

SPAC / SPV

• AgriFORCE Growing Systems, a tiny agri-tech company that converted to a Bitcoin miner, plans to raise $550M from investors to acquire AVAX tokens

Debt 

• Kazakhstan plans to raise $2B in yuan-denominated debt to expand investment ties with China

• Cruise operator Royal Caribbean sold $1.5B of investment-grade bonds

• UK petrochemical giant INEOS is marketing a $765M senior secured bond

• Canadian lender CIBC is preparing a $290M AT1 debt sale in Canada

• Knowledge Realty Trust, India's largest REIT backed by Blackstone, plans to raise $180M in its first ever bond sale

• UBS is looking to issue Aussie dollar-denominated equity conversion AT1 bonds

Bankruptcy / Restructuring / Distressed

• CVS's pharmacy services subsidiary Omnicare filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after being ordered to pay $949M in a prescriptions lawsuit

• Ares acquired key funds from Indonesian PE firm Northstar Group for $6M in a fire sale after struggles due to the country's faltering outlook and a scandal

• Lenders to auto parts supplier First Brands Group are rushing to shore up its finances with a new loan as it contemplates a bankruptcy filing

Fundraising / Secondaries

• Australia's Macquarie raised over $3B for its first dedicated energy transition investment fund

• Climate-focused investment firm Galvanize launched a $1.B fund finance renewable energy companies and projects

• European growth investor Jolt Capital is targeting $1.2B for its fifth flagship fund

• Lower MM-focused Star Mountain Capital plans to sell $500M of bonds backed by stakes in its private credit funds

• Israeli VC Glilot Capital raised $500M for its Glilot Seed and Glilot Plus to back startups in cybersecurity, enterprise solutions, and AI

• French VC Ventech raised $205M for its sixth flagship fund

Crypto Sum Snapshot

• UK and US will smooth capital markets access and crypto cooperation

• Metaplanet acquired $632M in Bitcoin in its largest purchase to date

• China asked brokers to pause RWA tokenization business in Hong Kong

• New World Development's ex-CEO Adrian Cheng launched ALMAD Group to invest in digital assets and RWA tokenization

Subscribe to Crypto Sum for the most important stories on everything crypto.

Exec’s Picks

• Plaid partnered with The Harris Poll surveying 2,000+ fintech consumers to get a pulse on the future of consumer finance for 2026 and beyond. Get the report for insights on AI, lending, security, and more.

• Citadel Securities' business secret is literally documented in a physical fifty pound book. Check out Bloomberg's Big Take on the book that holds the keys to the quant trader's success.

NYC Events 🥂

• Blueflame × Litquidity Play & Pour #2 – Wednesday, October 15

  Lit, Blueflame, and our network of PE professionals are getting together at T Squared Social to test our skills on a multi-sport golf simulator. It's going to be an evening of some meaningful conversations and fun rivalries. You should definitely join. RSVP here.

Finance & Startup Recruiting 💼

Litney Partners

If you're a junior banker looking for your next career move, check out Litney Partners, a recruiting venture between Litquidity and Whitney Partners (the oldest purely financial services executive search and consulting firm), Litney Partners places talent at leading firms in PE, hedge funds, VC, growth, credit, IB, and fintech and is currently recruiting for some incredible roles. Head over to our website to drop your resume and we'd love to get in touch!

Next Play

If you're down bad, realizing finance isn't for you, and want to explore the world of startups (BizOps, chief of staff, strategic finance, etc.), fill out this form. Next Play will reach out to schedule a 1:1 video call if they think they can help as your own, personal startup matchmaker. They've grown their community to over 50k talented professionals and have deep relationships across the tech ecosystem.

Meme Cleanser

🛒 Merch Store: Visit our merch store to shop our latest apparel, shoes, bags, accessories and more. 

💵 Litquidity Ventures: Accredited investors & qualified purchasers within the Litquidity community can gain access to alternative investments such as venture, late-stage growth, and private equity through Litquidity Ventures. Interested? Fill out this form.

☎️ Book a call with Lit: Want to pick Litquidity's brain on business advice, insights, or just chat to say what's up? Buy his time here.

📧 Launch your own newsletter: Have great content ideas and looking to launch your own publication? We highly recommend Beehiiv to get started.

*DISCLAIMER: Investment advice provided by Autopilot Advisers, LLC ("Autopilot"), an SEC-registered investment adviser. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Investing carries risks, including loss of principal. As always, be smart out there. Litquidity is compensated to promote AutoPilot. Compensation details available upon request.