Axios Pro Rata: Elon phones it it

Plus, a giant shale sale. | Friday, June 17, 2022

Open in app View in browser   Presented By RBC Capital Markets   Axios Pro Rata By Dan Primack · Jun 17, 2022 Pro Rata is off Monday for the Juneteenth holiday, but back in your inbox on Tuesday. Okay, here we go...     Top of the Morning Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios   Elon Musk yesterday held his first Q&A session with Twitter employees, nearly two months after agreeing to buy the social media company for $44 billion. My first instinct was to ignore it. Not only because Musk said so little of consequence, but also because of what some of what he did say was outright odd (including a short soliloquy on aliens). But then I realized that his performance was notable as a microcosm of this entire saga. In short, Musk was winging it. Setting the scene: Musk literally phoned it in, belatedly appearing via a Facetime-like app. Content: He didn't dodge questions, but also didn't seem to have much investment thesis or vision beyond ensuring "free speech" and making Twitter more central in its users' lives (citing China's WeChat as an example). A lot was made (on Twitter, natch) of Musk saying that costs exceeding revenue is "not a great situation," although that's the obvious sentiment of all acquirers of unprofitable companies. He also suggested some sort of payments or commerce features, which has been bandied about since at least the Dick Costolo days. Or, as my Axios tech colleagues put it: If Musk had anything new to tell the world about his plans, he didn't choose to share it with his future employees Musk was noncommittal about being CEO, even suggesting he's no longer technically CEO of Tesla (having renamed himself "Technoking"). Worth noting, however, that Musk is still listed as CEO of Tesla's website and in its SEC filings. One item of interest: Musk disclosed that SpaceX offers employee liquidity options twice per year, and he would imagine the same could happen at a privately held Twitter. The bottom line: Perhaps the top takeaway is that Musk participated at all, even agreeing to a follow-up, given widespread speculation that he wants to bail (thus the steep trading discount to his takeover price). Sometimes just showing up is what matters most, even if you're late.     The BFD Illustration: Gabriella Turrisi/Axios   Targa Resources (NYSE: TRGP) will pay $3.55 billion in cash to buy Lucid Energy Group, a natural gas processor in the Permian Basin, from Riverstone Holdings and Goldman Sachs. Why it's the BFD: U.S. shale, particularly in the highly productive Permian, is one of the merger market's only bright spots, with strategic buyers buoyed by climbing commodity prices and strengthened balance sheets. Caveat: Overall energy and power deal activity is down 24% year-to-date, per new data from Refinitiv. The bottom line: "The deal will give Houston-based Targa an additional 1,050 miles of pipelines and new processing capacity at a time of record-high natural gas prices." — Matthew Griffin, Dallas Morning News     Venture Capital Deals • Rohlik, a Prague-based food delivery startup, raised €220m in Series D funding. Sofina led, and was joined by Index Ventures and founder Tomáš Čupr. http://axios.link/wUgp • Vendr, a Boston-based SaaS buying platform, raised $150m at a $1.3b valuation. Insider Craft Ventures led, and was joined by SoftBank, Sozo Ventures, F-Prime Capital, Sound Ventures, Tiger Global and YC. http://axios.link/bNUz 🚑 Aidoc, an Israeli developer of radiology software, raised $110m in Series D funding co-led by TCV and Alpha Intelligence Capital. http://axios.link/8GZ3 • HomeLight, an SF-based real estate marketplace, raised $60m in Series D extension funding led by Oren Zeev. It is also acquiring Accept.inc, a Denver-based lending startup backed by SignalFire. http://axios.link/g3A7 🚑 Sana, an Austin, Texas-based health insurance startup, raised $60m in Series B funding. Trust Ventures and Gigafund co-led, and were joined by American Family Ventures, mark vc, Breyer Capital, JAM Fund and Liquid 2. www.sanabenefits.com • Upvest, a Berlin-based investment API provider, raised $42m in Series B funding. Bessemer Venture Partners led, and was joined by Earlybird, ABN AMRO Ventures, Notion Capital, Partech, 10x Group and Speedinvest. http://axios.link/rmZY • FanClash, an Indian esports fantasy startup, raised $40m in Series B funding. Alpha Wave Global led, and was joined by Sequoia Capital India, Info Edge and Polygon. http://axios.link/7zKk • Lightning AI (fka Grid.ai), a New York-based provider of AI developer tools, raised $40m in Series B funding. Coatue led, and was joined by Index Ventures, Bain Capital, Ventures, Mantis VC and First Minute Capital. http://axios.link/qnjO 🌎 C-Zero, a Goleta, Calif.-based developer of natural gas decarbonization tech, raised $34m. SK Gas led, and was joined by Engie New Ventures, Trafigura, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Eni Next, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and AP Ventures. www.czero.energy • Able, a commercial loan enablement startup, raised $20m in Series A funding. Canapi Ventures led, and was joined by Human Capital. http://axios.link/SXvf • GreyNoise, a Washington, D.C.-based cybersecurity startup, raised $15m in Series A funding. Radian Capital led, and was joined by CRV, Inner Loop, Stone Mill Ventures and Paladin Capital. http://axios.link/fpWH • Finout, an Israeli-based cloud cost management platform, raised $14m in Series A funding led by Team8 Capital. http://axios.link/Is4F 🚑 Auxilius, a New York-based financial planning and analysis platform for clinical trials, raised $10m. Renegade Partners led and was joined by insiders Bain Capital Ventures and XYZ VC. http://axios.link/wWcH 🚑 Flexpa, a medical data sharing startup, raised $8.5m in seed funding led by General Catalyst, as first reported by Axios Pro. http://axios.link/1hW8 • RapidFort, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based attack surface management startup, raised $8.5m in seed funding. Felicis led, and was joined by ForgePoint Capital, Bloomberg Beta, GFC, Plug & Play Ventures and GIT1K Club. http://axios.link/S9ld • DAOLens, a DAO onboarding and management platform, raised $5m in seed round funding led by Nexus Venture Partners, Better Ventures and iSeed II. www.daolens.com • SKNUPS, a London-based digital collectibles platform for fashion and beauty creators, raised $3.5m from Redrice Ventures, Blue Wire Capital and Adelpha. http://axios.link/pht8 • Kairos, an SF-based NFT creation tool, raised $2.6m co-led by Worklife Ventures and Seven Seven Six. www.kairos.art     A message from RBC Capital Markets 2021 PE M&A activity was 50% higher than the previous record     Private equity (PE) firms executed 8,500 transactions worth over $1.2 trillion in value last year. Even better: Funds are experiencing significant growth and the outlook for private equity M&A dealmaking remains strong in 2022. Learn what's next for private equity and M&A.     Private Equity Deals 🚑 Blackstone made a takeover offer for Australian drugmaker iNova Pharmaceuticals, which is being sold for more than A$1b by Carlyle and Pacific Equity Partners, per The Australian. EQT also is bidding. www.inovapharma.com • Gauge Capital invested in Spatial Data Logic, a Somerset, N.J.-based provider of permitting, code enforcement and other software to counties and municipalities. www.spatiallogic.com • InMoment, a South Jordan, Utah-based portfolio company of Madison Dearborn, bought ReviewTrackers, a Chicago-based enterprise management platform, from backers like PeakSpan Capital. www.reviewtrackers.com 🚑 Linden Capital Partners agreed to acquire a majority stake in Aspirion, a Columbus, Ga.-based healthcare revenue cycle management firm, from Aquiline Capital Partners, for between $650m and $700m, per Axios Pro. http://axios.link/U8cy • Ratos AB agreed to buy a 70% stake in Swedish tech and digitization consultancy Knightec at a $166m valuation. http://axios.link/lkt7 • Swiss Life Asset Management and EDF Invest will invest $1.2b for a 27% stake in Dallas-based data center operator DataBank from DigitalBridge Group (which will retain a 15.5% stake). http://axios.link/WeYO     SPAC Stuff 🚑 Digital Health Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: DHAC) agreed to acquire and merge VSee, a San Jose, Calif.-based telehealth software provider, and iDoc, a Norwalk, Conn.-based neurocritical care and intensive care telehealth provider. The combined entity value would be $110m. ⚡ Dorchester Capital Acquisition, U.S. onshore oil and gas SPAC, filed for a $150m IPO. http://axios.link/0fJ3 • Feutune Light Acquisition, a SPAC led by Tony Tian (US Tiger Securities), raised $85m in its IPO. http://axios.link/kDhM     Liquidity Events 🐶 Bedford Capital is considering a sale process for Canada's Champion Petfoods, which could fetch more than US$2b, per Bloomberg. Champion rejected a takeover approach from Nestle in 2018. http://axios.link/OKLN • Reddit agreed to buy Spell, a New York-based platform for running ML experiments. Spell had raised around $15m from firms like Ridgeline Ventures, Blossom Capital, Eclipse Ventures and Two Sigma Ventures. http://axios.link/LC1f     More M&A ⚡ ConEd hired Barclays to find a buyer for its renewable energy portfolio, which could fetch up to $4b, per Bloomberg. http://axios.link/DZQY • Latitude Group (ASX: LFS) rescinded its A$355m takeover offer for the consumer unit of Humm Group (ASX: HUM), including its BNPL business. http://axios.link/YOw5 🚑 LifeWorks (TSE: LWRK) agreed to acquire TELUS Health, a Canadian provider of employer-focused digital health solutions, for C$2.9b. www.telushealth.com • Reliance Industries, an Indian conglomerate, is considering a takeover offer for bankrupt U.S. cosmetics maker Revlon, per an Indian media report. http://axios.link/udnI     Fundraising • Alpha Edison, an LA-based VC firm, is raising $340m for its third fund, per an SEC filing. www.alphaedison.com 🚑 Avestria Ventures, an SF-based VC firm focused on women's health and life sciences, is raising $100m for its second fund, per an SEC filing. 🚑 Column Group, an SF-based healthcare VC firm, raised $600m for its fifth flagship fund and $600m for its third opportunities fund, per SEC filings. www.thecolumngroup.com • FundersClub, an SF-based VC firm, is raising $100m for its third fund, per an SEC filing. www.fundersclub.com • HGGC, a Palo Alto-based midmarket buyout firm, raised $2.54b for its fourth fund. http://axios.link/aNv8 • LGT Capital Partners of Switzerland raised $550m for its first impact-focused PE fund. http://axios.link/Q1fC • Sagard Holdings of Toronto raised around US$1.17b for its second private debt fund. http://axios.link/a5bZ     Final Numbers Data: ICE BofA CCC & Lower U.S. High Yield Index via FRED; Chart: Axios Visuals Go deeper: Fed hikes are bad news for cash-starved companies     A message from RBC Capital Markets $35B PE funds aren't aspirational; they're reality     Mega-funds are becoming more mega as large private equity firms have pools of capital they want to deploy. "We are going to see a material increase in deals worth more than $10 billion going forward," says Harold Varah, co-head of Financial Sponsors at RBC Capital Markets. Hear from RBC's experts.   ✔️ Thanks for reading Axios Pro Rata! Please ask your friends, colleagues and fathers to sign up. Go deeper with Axios Pro: Deals, featuring hyper-relevant news and analysis across PE, VC and M&A.   Axios thanks our partners for supporting our newsletters. If you're interested in advertising, learn more here. Sponsorship has no influence on editorial content. Axios, 3100 Clarendon B‌lvd, Suite 1300, Arlington VA 22201   You received this email because you signed up for newsletters from Axios. Change your preferences or unsubscribe here.   Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up now to get Axios in your inbox.   Follow Axios on social media: