😅 Just Ship It

Twelve launches, ten fossils, two tweets.

A Free Lunch newsletter archive of July 17, 2026

Also available:🇫🇷 Édition française

🌍 All editions
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
🇺🇸 United States

Good morning!

Vibe coding arrived about 18 months ago, and with it the genre’s founding scripture: a laptop, a weekend, an API key, and by Monday a small machine that prints money while its owner sleeps. The feeds fill accordingly. Revenue screenshots, always cropped, always gross rather than net, always staged against a rented balcony in Dubai with the keys to something Italian left on the table. The sermon runs the same every time. Building software used to be hard, now it barely is, therefore money. Two of those three clauses are true.

The third one dies on contact with Stripe. Among the products indie developers verify with payment data, 54% earn precisely nothing, and about 70% of the ones that do clear under $1K a month. Roughly 5% cross $100K a year. The median American software developer makes $133K for turning up and complaining about the meetings, which puts the ceiling of the dream somewhere below the floor of the day job. Pieter Levels, patron saint of the form, once shipped 12 startups in 12 months. Two went viral. The other 10 became archaeology, filed in a Notion doc nobody retweets.

The fortunes are real enough. They accrue to the people selling the map. Boilerplate merchants flogging a $300 code template to build the SaaS. Cohort-course impresarios who sold dropshipping in 2019 and crypto in 2021, now charging a couple of grand to teach the weekend. Build-in-public accounts monetising an audience of people hoping to one day have an audience. The trade has always grasped the one thing its customers refuse to: writing the code was never the obstacle, selling it is. B2C acquisition runs $50 to $500 a head and climbs every quarter. B2B costs less per sale and more per nerve, with cycles that drag past four months and buying committees that treat a demo like a deposition. AI collapsed the price of the easy half and left the hard half exactly where it was, or dearer. Cutting the cost of building is real and useful. Selling the idea that building was ever the bottleneck is the con, and a fine one, because it flatters the buyer into believing the missing piece was a skill rather than a market.

None of this makes the buyers stupid. It makes them tired. The market for weekend-fortune content is not naive kids, it is forty-year-olds freshly restructured into a Slack notification, loyal to a career that repaid them with a calendar invite marked confidential. They reach for the one story where the exit is a repository away. The people selling that story know exactly which exhaustion they are charging for. The product is the last hour of sleep before the alarm, sold back as freedom to people who cannot face another morning at the old desk. And that is harder to laugh at than the rented Lamborghini.

😅 Just Ship It

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🗞️ Top Story

  • 🇬🇧 Burnham Notice. Andy Burnham is set to become Britain’s new prime minister after an uncontested Labour leadership bid, with nearly 95% of MPs backing him. The coronation is scheduled for Monday. (New York Times)
  • 🇬🇧 Spider Webbed. UK police say jailing two young hackers, Owen Flowers and Thalha Jubair, has severely disrupted the Scattered Spider cybercrime group after their attack cost TfL $47M. (TechCrunch)
  • 🇪🇸 Family Affairs. Begoña Gomez, wife of Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez, will stand trial for influence peddling and misuse of public funds, adding another chapter to the government’s growing list of scandals. (Le Monde)
  • 🇺🇦 Winter Is Coming. President Zelensky names Serhi Koretsky, ex-Naftogaz boss, as Ukraine’s new prime minister, betting his energy crisis credentials will help the country survive another Russian-targeted winter. (Le Monde)
  • 🇺🇸 Pay to Play. Trump Media 🇺🇸 will sell priority access to Donald Trump’s Truth Social posts via a new API, targeting traders and financial media eager to react before the rest of the world. (Le Figaro)
  • 🇺🇸 Fear Factor. Donald Trump claims « shocking vulnerabilities » in election security and accuses China of meddling, despite no supporting evidence from intelligence. (Bbc)
  • 🇲🇽 Breaking the Silence. Josué Martinez, known for reporting on security, was murdered in Puebla, prompting calls for an investigation focused on his journalism. (Le Monde)
  • 🇨🇱 Current Affairs. Over 500,000 people in Chile lost power as the country faces its most violent storm in 20 years, leaving entire neighborhoods underwater and schools closed. (Le Parisien)
  • 🇭🇰 Page Turners. Five people running Hong Kong bookshops were arrested for distributing “dangerous” literature, because in 2026, the plot twist is always censorship. (Spiegel)
  • 🇲🇲 Lost at Sea. The UN fears more than 500 people, mostly Rohingya refugees, have died in two suspected shipwrecks off Myanmar, highlighting a deadly migration route once again. (El Pais)
  • 🇮🇱 Legal Briefs. The Knesset approved a law making the attorney general’s opinions non-binding, weakening one of the last checks on Israel’s executive power just before elections. (Spiegel)
  • 🇸🇾 Toxic Assets. Syrian authorities have arrested Ahmed Habib Ali, ex-head of Assad’s chemical weapons program, accusing him of overseeing deadly Sarin attacks on civilians. (Spiegel)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
  • 🇬🇧 Hot Streak. Southern England has endured 13 days of heatwave conditions, with temperatures above 30C for 12 consecutive days and no major relief in sight. (Bbc)
  • 🇬🇧 Licence to Lie. A damning report finds MI5 repeatedly gave false evidence to three courts to shield a violent neo-Nazi informant, triggering calls for criminal inquiry and public apologies from the agency. (Bbc)
🇺🇸 United States
  • 🇺🇸 Taco Hell. Shredded iceberg lettuce from Taylor Farms, used in Taco Bell restaurants, is the culprit behind a parasitic outbreak that has sickened thousands across five states. (Wall Street Journal)
  • 🇺🇸 Fowl Play. Investigators say a bird strike may have caused last year’s Hudson River helicopter crash that killed six, after bird remains were found on the wreckage. (Wall Street Journal)
  • 🇺🇸 Squeeze Play. The House GOP’s $95B budget for war and voting restrictions faces fierce Senate skepticism, as even Republicans wonder if the fight is worth the fallout. (New York Times)

🏛️ Economy

  • 🇬🇧 Age Against the Machine. Ofcom is probing whether TikTok 🇨🇳’s age verification actually keeps underage users away from dangerous material, putting the platform at risk of major penalties. (The Guardian)
  • 🇺🇸 Prompt Profit. A White House teleprompter operator for Donald Trump was suspended without pay after allegedly using advance knowledge of speeches to win $100K on prediction markets, leaving the administration embarrassed and regulators on alert. (Le Monde)
  • 🇺🇸 HTTPay. The x402 Foundation debuts with support from Amazon, Mastercard, and Google, pushing for native, open payments directly inside web interactions. (FinExtra)
  • 🇺🇸 Fuel’s Gold. American drivers now face diesel at more than $5 per gallon, proving that running on empty is a luxury few can afford. (Bloomberg)
  • 🇺🇸 Watt Now? Surging AI data center growth puts unprecedented strain on the power grid, forcing utilities to confront their limits in real time. (Bloomberg)
  • 🇧🇷 Tariff and Error. The US will slap a 25% tariff on select Brazilian goods starting July 22, making Brazil the first target of Washington’s new trade crackdown and prompting Lula to promise swift retaliation. (Le Parisien)
  • 🇨🇳 Open Invitation. Xi Jinping calls for global adoption of open-source AI, positioning China as the champion of sharing and subtly criticizing US restrictions. (Wall Street Journal)
  • 🇮🇷 Crude Awakening. Oil prices climbed above $80 as Iran threatened to retaliate against regional infrastructure if President Trump targets its key facilities. (Cnbc)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
  • 🇬🇧 Buzz Kill. England will ban the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks to under-16s from April, targeting the 100,000 children who consume them daily and leaving influencers with one less sponsor. (The Guardian)
  • 🇬🇧 Gilt Trip. Big investors urge the Bank of England to slow or halt long-dated gilt sales, warning that quantitative tightening is straining an already fragile UK bond market. (Financial Times)
  • 🇬🇧 Mind the Gap. The UK government offers £500M to boost innovative SMEs and scale ups, but the annual finance gap still yawns as wide as £4.1B. (Uktech)
  • 🇬🇧 Incognito Mode. Ofcom reports 2.2M daily VPN users in the UK, up from 1.2M before porn age checks, proving digital detours are the national pastime. (Financial Times)
  • 🇬🇧 Little Britain. The UK’s latest aid budget slashes bilateral support to some African countries by up to 90%, sending a clear message about its global priorities. (The Guardian)
  • 🇬🇧 Barely There. UK GDP inched up 0.1% in May, just enough to reverse April’s slip, with the Iran war keeping optimism on a tight leash. (The Guardian)
🇺🇸 United States
  • 🇺🇸 Drive and Let Die. After Waymo’s driverless cars paralyzed San Francisco traffic for hours, Mayor Lurie demands new state rules to keep robotaxis from turning city events into parking lots. (TechCrunch)
  • 🇺🇸 Lower Bar. Jobless claims in the fell to 208,000, coming in under expectations and making recession predictions look a bit premature. (Bloomberg)

🏢 Real Estate

  • 🇮🇹 Bridge Over Troubled Law. An Italian court sentenced 32 former executives and officials to prison for the 2018 Genoa bridge collapse that killed 43 people, ending years of denial with nearly 200 years of jail time. (El Pais)
  • 🇺🇸 Colossus Complaints. Residents near Musk’s Memphis AI data centers say noise and emissions are unbearable, fueling lawsuits and inspiring new restrictions on data centers across the. (Cnbc)
  • 🇺🇸 Lights, Camera, Artillery. Studio lots in Los Angeles may soon swap blockbusters for bomb assembly, as defense contractors scout for new production space. (Bloomberg)
  • 🇻🇳 Prime Cut. Vietnamese authorities are putting luxury properties owned by tycoon Truong My Lan up for sale to recover funds from her record fraud case. (Bloomberg)
🇺🇸 United States
  • 🇺🇸 I, Collapse. The Midtown tower’s I-beam columns buckled after developers apparently skipped the steel upgrades meant to hold up 15 extra floors. (New York Times)
  • 🇺🇸 Home Alone. Pending home sales fell 5.4% in June as mortgage rates hit 6.64% and prices reached new highs, leaving buyers and builders on the sidelines. (Cnbc)

🔗 On-chain

  • 🇬🇧 Mint Condition. The Bank of England drops its planned stablecoin ownership limits and opts for a £40B issuance cap, hoping not to scare off digital asset firms.
  • 🇪🇺 Licence Unplugged. Only 12% of crypto companies operating in the secured the new bloc-wide licence by July 1, leaving over 1,700 firms facing shutdown or forced exits under the region’s tough MiCA rules. (Financial Times)
  • 🇺🇸 Trust Issues. Circle secures a licence for limited banking activities, as Trump’s administration continues its crypto embrace and stablecoins edge further into the mainstream. (Financial Times)
  • 🇺🇸 Block and Roll. Bitcoin plunged below $60,000 for the first time in 20 months as tech stock turmoil and rising rates sent crypto sentiment into freefall. (Financial Times)
  • 🇺🇸 Suit Yourself. CME Group 🇺🇸 files a lawsuit against the CFTC, accusing it of fast-tracking Kalshi’s perpetual crypto futures without proper oversight or public input. (Financial Times)

💱 Listed Markets

  • 🇬🇧 Module Down. Ocado’s shares sank 18% as its tech division reported weaker profits, delayed projects, and fewer installations, leaving investors unimpressed by the recovery narrative. (Financial Times)
  • 🇪🇺 Alphabet Soup. The is preparing to fine Google 🇺🇸 hundreds of millions of euros for favoring its own services and restricting app payment options, marking the bloc’s biggest Digital Markets Act penalty yet. (Siliconrepublic)
  • 🇪🇺 AI of the Tiger. Goldman Sachs analyst Peter Oppenheimer forecasts more gains for European AI infrastructure stocks, betting the continent will roar ahead in the tech race. (Bloomberg)
  • 🇪🇺 Open App Policy. Regulators in Brussels demand Google allow rival AI assistants on Android phones, promising more choice and less Google gatekeeping for users. (Washington Post)
  • 🇪🇺 Hey Rival. The European Commission orders Google to let competing AI assistants access 11 core Android features, aiming to prevent Gemini from becoming the default and to give OpenAI and Anthropic a real shot at your phone. (Le Figaro)
  • 🇺🇸 Ground Control. SpaceX’s Starship failed to launch as planned, with an automatic abort stopping the rocket on the pad and investors holding their breath. (Die Zeit)
  • 🇺🇸 Stream of Income. Netflix reported Q2 revenue up 13% to $12.6B, but lowered its growth outlook for next quarter, sending shares down 9% after hours. (New York Times)
  • 🇺🇸 Code Red. Alphabet 🇺🇸 postponed the launch of its Gemini 3.5 Pro AI model, sending shares down 4% as rivals race ahead in coding capabilities. (Cnbc)
  • 🇺🇸 Bear Force One. Short sellers pile into SpaceX, pushing bearish bets to 29% of the float as shares sink to their IPO price and optimism exits orbit. (Cnbc)
  • 🇯🇵 Pole Position. Seven & i 🇯🇵 jumps on news of potential investment in Zabka, Poland’s convenience store leader, signaling a fresh push into Eastern Europe. (Cnbc)
  • 🇯🇵 Model Citizen. Nvidia launches its Cosmos 3 Edge AI model in Japan and teams up with local giants like Fujitsu and Hitachi to boost physical AI adoption. (Cnbc)
  • 🇹🇭 Worst to First. Thailand’s stock market has staged a comeback, moving from the bottom of Asia’s charts to the very top as global funds return. (Bloomberg)
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
  • 🇬🇧 Pay As You Owe. Vodafone 🇬🇧 has agreed to settle claims from 62 ex-franchisees who said the company pocketed up to £85M at their expense, closing a lengthy court dispute with no admission of guilt. (The Guardian)
  • 🇬🇧 Partner in Crime. A&O Shearman’s equity partners pocketed £2.2M each as profits rebounded to pre-merger highs after a round of senior lawyer exits. (Financial Times)
🇺🇸 United States
  • 🇺🇸 Chip Happens. Taiwan’s TSMC will pour another $100B into factories, bringing its total American chip investment to $265B as the AI gold rush continues. (Financial Times)
  • 🇺🇸 Got Hacked? Coca-Cola 🇺🇸 suspended Fairlife dairy production nationwide after ransomware locked up its systems, proving even milk is not immune to cybercrime. (TechCrunch)

🛎️ Big Deals (M&A)

  • Attio 🇬🇧 acquires Inconvo 🇮🇪 (London-based AI-powered CRM developer buys the Irish-founded AI analytics platform that offered configurable, ChatGPT-like assistants for data analysis).
  • Dassault Systèmes 🇫🇷 is in talks to buy ArisGlobal 🇺🇸 from Nordic Capital for about $2B, drug-trial software maker with ~$200M revenue and ~1,300 employees.
  • Omio Group 🇩🇪 acquires Rail Europe 🇫🇷. Multimodal traveltech deal that would boost annual ticket sales to 22M, expand partner network to 28,000+, connect to ~250 rail providers and keep Rail Europe operating under its brand. Subject to CSE consultation.
  • Fourthline 🇳🇱 merges with Veridas 🇪🇸 to create a global identity and compliance platform, projected 115M verifications and active in 50+ countries. Transaction partly funded by Finch Capital and new investors including Rabo Investments, BBVA shareholders remain, expected close H2 2026.
  • Endo Tools Therapeutics 🇧🇪 secures Capricorn Partners 🇧🇪-led €20M Series C (c. $23M) to advance commercialization of the endomina® platform, including the FDA-cleared endomina® EZFuse, and collect clinical evidence for a U.S. weight-loss indication.
  • TEKEVER 🇵🇹 acquires Cloudsweep 🇵🇹, a startup applying AI to software development. TEKEVER is a technology company specializing in autonomous systems driven by AI.
  • EQT 🇸🇪 made an improved $1.75B offer for Perpetual 🇦🇺 after its previous bid was rejected.
  • ABB 🇨🇭 to buy Rotork 🇬🇧 for $5.6B, U.K. industrial-equipment supplier in automation sector.
  • SoftServe 🇺🇦 acquires NewVision Software 🇮🇳.
  • Industrial Development Funding 🇺🇸 and Oaktree Capital Management 🇺🇸 invest $1.7B in Bloom Energy 🇺🇸 for fuel cells supporting Nebius AI infrastructure.
  • Uber 🇺🇸 acquires Delivery Hero 🇩🇪 for $14.8B, creating a combined global food delivery and mobility leader.
  • Citadel Securities 🇺🇸 pumps $400M into Crypto.com 🇸🇬 at a $20B valuation, digital asset exchange.
  • KKR 🇺🇸 and Energy Capital Partners 🇺🇸 to acquire DCC 🇮🇪 for £5.7B. Revised offer adds conditional £1.25/share (base £65.25 cash + £1.47 final dividend) and is opposed by top shareholders who want at least £70 cash/share.
  • Eli Lilly 🇺🇸 acquires AtaiBeckley 🇬🇧 for $2.8B cash plus up to $1B in milestones (up to $3.8B), psychedelic drug developer focusing on treatments for depression and anxiety.
  • Ridgemont Equity Partners 🇺🇸 and Coogee Bay Partners 🇺🇸 acquire Caring Transitions 🇺🇸, partnering with digital marketplace executives to back the CTBids auction platform and nationwide franchise move-management business.
  • Caltius Equity Partners 🇺🇸 invests in SaaS Consulting Group 🇺🇸. Strategic growth investment to expand Salesforce, NetSuite, iPaaS, AI and data services and support a disciplined acquisition plan.
  • SSW Partners LP 🇺🇸 acquires Glovo România 🇷🇴 as part of a €1.4B purchase of Delivery Hero’s operations across 14 markets.
  • First Quantum Minerals 🇨🇦 sells a minority stake in Taca Taca 🇦🇷 to buyers including Rio Tinto 🇬🇧, Mitsubishi 🇯🇵, and Mitsui & Co. 🇯🇵, involving its Argentine copper project.
  • Anima Holding 🇧🇷 repurchases university FMU 🇧🇷 for $80M, sending its shares down 30%.
  • Hyundai 🇰🇷 acquires Boston Dynamics 🇺🇸 from SoftBank’s remaining 9.65% stake for $325M.

🧳 Private Markets & VC

  • 🇫🇷 Name Dropout. Alexandre LeBrun, CEO of AMI Labs, refuses to call his AI “AGI” or “superintelligence,” dismissing the industry’s favorite buzzwords as meaningless hype. (TechCrunch)
  • 🇸🇪 Nordic Knights. EQT is poised to lead or co-lead Mistral’s new round, bringing Swedish firepower to the French AI unicorn’s war chest. (Sifted)
  • 🇺🇸 Artificial Deadline. Anthropic is accelerating its IPO plans for a fall launch, hoping to outpace OpenAI in the AI market’s next big listing. (New York Times)
  • 🇺🇸 Valuation Nation. Elorian 🇺🇸, led by former DeepMind researcher Andrew Dai, landed a $300M valuation before launching a single product, because in AI, story sells faster than software. (TechCrunch)
  • 🇨🇳 Copy Pasteurization. Moonshot’s Kimi K3, boasting up to 3T parameters, arrives as China’s answer to Anthropic, promising US-level performance at a fraction of the price. (Financial Times)
  • 🇮🇳 Appy Together. Emergent AI joins Sarvam as India’s newest AI unicorn, raising $300M and showing the nation is eager to catch up in the AI race.
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
  • 🇮🇱 Token Resistance. Israeli fintech Nayax refuses to pay hackers after a data breach, insisting stolen payment records contain only single-use tokens and no sensitive data. (FinExtra)

Fundraising

  • Fireworks 🇺🇸 (AI): $1.505B (Atreides Management, Index Ventures, TCV, 20VC, Bessemer Venture Partners, Evantic Capital, Insight Partners, Lone Pine Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Menlo Ventures, NVIDIA, Operator Collective, Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, Original Capital, Prysm Capital, Quantum Capital, TIME Ventures)
  • Wonder 🇺🇸 (Foodtech): $650M (Accel, GV, New Enterprise Associates, funds managed by AllianceBernstein, ARK Invest, funds managed by Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management)
  • AdvanCell 🇺🇸 (Radiopharma): $315M (Ally Bridge Group, Alpha Wave, Bain Capital Life Sciences, Fidelity Management & Research Company, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., a leading sovereign wealth fund, Eventide Asset Management, Velosity Capital, Morningside, Eli Lilly and Company, SV Health Investors, Sanofi Ventures, Abingworth, SymBiosis, Tenmile, Brandon Capital, Piper Heartland, Catalio Capital Management, Proto Axiom, Time BioVentures, other shareholders)
  • Walden Robotics 🇺🇸 (Robotics): $300M (Toyota, Deviation Capital, NVIDIA, Boeing, AE Ventures, Samsung Ventures, Prologis Ventures, CoreWeave Ventures, Calibrate Ventures, Colle Capital, Shine Capital, NextView Ventures, Squarepoint Capital, One Madison Group, KAS Venture Partners, Menlo Ventures)
  • Alpaca 🇺🇸 (Fintech): $135M (Peak XV, Elefund, Opera Tech Ventures, BNP Paribas Group, Unbound)
  • Emergent (AI): $130M (Creaegis)
  • Lumin Digital 🇺🇸 (Fintech): $115M (Light Street Capital, clients)
  • Oxylabs 🇱🇹 (Data infrastructure): €113.6M (Warburg Pincus Capital Solutions Founders Fund)
  • Spectro Cloud 🇺🇸 (AI infrastructure): $100M (Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives, AMD Ventures, Ericsson, LG Technology Ventures, Maximus)
  • QuantumDiamonds 🇩🇪 (Semiconductors): €91M (World Fund, European Union)
  • Senra (Manufacturing): $65M (Lowercarbon, Interlagos)
  • SWISSto12 🇨🇭 (SpaceTech): €61M
  • Fora 🇺🇸 (Travel): $60M (Forerunner, Tactile Ventures, Thrive Capital, Insight Partners, Heartcore Capital, PLUS Capital, Amy Schumer, BlackPines Capital Partners, Tribeca Venture Partners)
  • Xenter 🇺🇸 (Medtech): $58.25M
  • Microagi 🇩🇪 (Robotics): $55M (Hummingbird, Northzone, LocalGlobe, Village Global, Redalpine)
  • Bunkerhill Health 🇺🇸 (Healthcare): $55M (Khosla Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Felicis, Optum Ventures, Y Combinator)
  • Hemispheric 🇺🇸 (NeuroAI): $52M (Hanaco Ventures, OneMind/Awareness Capital, L Catterton, and others)
  • ADI Chain 🇦🇪 (Blockchain): $50M
  • Whale 🇸🇬 (Enterprise AI): $40M (CMB International, SMBC Asia Rising Fund, Krungsri Finnovate, Singtel Innov8, Hyundai Motor Group, Charisma Partners, Bosch Ventures, MTR Lab, MDI Ventures, Gentree Fund, Linear Capital)
  • Alchemab Therapeutics 🇬🇧 (Biotech): £25m (British Business Bank)
  • Rime 🇺🇸 (AI): $24M (M13 Ventures)
  • Reformed 🇬🇧 (Functional food): $22M (Iris Ventures, JamJar Investments, V3, FoodLabs)
  • Augmodo (Robotics): $21M (TQ Ventures)
  • Applied Computing 🇬🇧 (AI): $20M (KBR, Databricks Ventures)
  • Catalyxx 🇪🇸 (Chemicals): €20M+
  • Cyclops 🇺🇸 (Payments): $20M (Nava Ventures, Castle Island Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Circle, Lasagna Ventures, Global PayTech Ventures)
  • Sherpa.ai 🇪🇸 (AI): $18M (Forgepoint Capital)
  • Overtone 🇺🇸 (Dating): $18M (Match Group, FirstMark Capital, Pace Capital)
  • Meticulous 🇺🇸 (AI): $15M (Chemistry)
  • Vorflux AI (AI): $15M (Y Combinator, Peak XV Partners, Alliance DAO)
  • Qida 🇪🇸 (Healthcare): up to €15M (Axis, ICO)
  • NxLite 🇺🇸 (Cleantech): $13.1M (Crabtree Lane Alt, VoLo Earth Ventures, Earth Foundry, MUUS, New Climate Ventures, ACT Venture Partners, strategic investors)
  • Marker 🇬🇧 (AI): $13M (Index Ventures, LocalGlobe)
  • Beacon Security 🇺🇸 (Cybersecurity): $13M (Notable Capital, Holly Ventures, AlphaDrive Ventures, SVCI, Jefferies Family Office, 60+ founders and CISOs including founders from Talon, Descope, Gem Security, Dig Security, Cider Security)
  • Skalar 🇩🇪 (Tax): €12M (Headline, futurepresent, QED Investors, Repeat, MS&AD, Foreword, several business angels)
  • Trellis Bioscience 🇺🇸 (Biotech): $9M (New Science Ventures, Easton Capital, AMR Action Fund, The Doctor Group, orthopedic surgeons)
  • Hyperion Robotics 🇫🇮 (Construction): $7.4M (Course Corrected, European Innovation Council Fund, RE Ventures, Lifeline Ventures, Übermorgen Ventures, PC Rettig Impact & Co.)
  • InsectBiotech 🇪🇸 (Biotech): €7.2M
  • Aina 🇺🇸 (Hardware): $5.5M (Redstart Labs (Infoedge, India), 360 ONE Asset, MIXI Global Investments, Antler, Blume Founders Fund, Kunal Shah (WhatsApp/Cred), Tikhon Bernstam (Scribd), Harshil and Shashank (Razorpay), Vaibhav Domkundwar (Better Capital))

Fund Watch

  • Advantage Partners 🇯🇵: $1.9B (fund to buy major national-security assets unlikely to be sold to foreign investors)
  • AlpInvest (Carlyle) 🇺🇸: $1.7B (2nd fund for single-asset continuation vehicles)
  • Uplift Investors 🇺🇸: $670M (Fund I, debut PE fund focused on services. Business model-centric)
  • LionLight Capital 🇺🇸: $215M (debut private equity fund, professional services-focused)
  • Acurio Ventures 🇪🇸: €115M (Acurio Secondaries I FCR, European VC secondaries fund)
  • SuperCharger Ventures 🇲🇹: Fund I, edtech & future-of-work fund. Pre-seed/seed, first-close 90% committed

🔔IPO

  • Xryma Plc 🇨🇾 (Banktech): listing 110,079,450 shares on Euronext Paris on 24 July 2026, with no new shares issued and no capital raised.
  • Anthropic 🇺🇸 (AI): meeting with investors ahead of a potential October IPO.
  • Braveheart Bio 🇺🇸 (Biopharma): filed for an IPO after backing from a16z.
  • Attovia Therapeutics 🇺🇸 (Immunology): filed for an IPO.
  • DeepSeek 🇨🇳 (AI): preparing a Shanghai IPO as soon as this year and targeting a ~$74B pre-money valuation while seeking several billion after raising >$7B.
  • Innolight 🇨🇳 (Optics): set to receive regulator approval for a $7B Hong Kong listing.
  • Syngenta 🇭🇰 (Agri-chemicals): facing delays to its $5B Hong Kong IPO due to market conditions.
  • Eoptolink 🇭🇰 (Optics): filing for a Hong Kong IPO to raise up to $5B.
  • Kopi Kenangan 🇮🇩 (F&B): exploring an IPO that could value it at up to $1.0B, with Singapore among listing options.

🧳 Debt

  • PremFina 🇬🇧: secured a £400M senior debt facility from Lloyds.
  • QTS Realty Trust 🇺🇸: scrapped a $1B bond sale for a $3.25B leveraged loan led by JPMorgan.
  • JPMorgan 🇺🇸: leading lenders lining up $3B in debt to back Warburg Pincus’s $7B acquisition of PANTHERx Rare.
  • Anthropic 🇺🇸: in talks to expand its $2.5B credit line.
  • New York Yankees 🇺🇸: in advanced talks to raise $3B of financing from Apollo.
  • IM8 🇺🇸: lined up $1B in growth financing from General Catalyst.
  • KKR 🇺🇸: marketing a debt deal tied to PayPal’s BNPL business in Germany.
  • Balbec 🇺🇸: raised $930M in commitments for an asset-based credit fund.
  • Inhibrx Biosciences 🇺🇸: expanded its Oxford Finance credit facility to $500.0M, with $100.0M funded and up to $225.0M more available.
  • Forward Financing 🇺🇸: raised $525M via a $350M VFN and $175M ABS, boosting committed funding capacity to nearly $700M.
  • Inspired by Somerset Development 🇺🇸: raised $186M construction loan for Lido Oceanfront Residences in Asbury Park, NJ.

❌ Failures

  • Entain 🇬🇧: will cut 500 jobs (about 2% of its global workforce) amid higher UK taxes, tighter regulation and growing competition.
  • Aston Martin 🇬🇧: creditors hired Jefferies as debt worries grew, prompting refinancing talks.
  • BP 🇬🇧: after 20 years BP is selling most of its venture portfolio (over 10 companies) to Verdane. The portfolio was valued at about $1.2B.
  • Aer Lingus 🇮🇪: to cut up to 500 jobs and trim capacity by 6% as it seeks to lift margins from ~10% to 12–15%.
  • Paloma 🇺🇸: multistrategy hedge fund is cutting teams in its latest strategic pivot.
  • Verizon 🇺🇸: cutting about 3,000 jobs and divesting 274 retail stores, keeping roughly 1,000.
  • Thomson Reuters 🇨🇦: cutting up to 500 engineering roles, about 1.8% of its 27,100-strong workforce.
  • OnePlus 🇨🇳: avvecklar verksamheten i USA och Europa och planerar att lämna Indien 2027 efter sviktande efterfrågan.
  • Honda 🇯🇵: will end production of its lone U.S. EV, the Prologue, after the 2026 model year, with sales running through early 2027.

🎯 For a Few More Minutes…

  • 🇬🇧 Before the Stardust. A collection of ten unreleased songs from David Bowie’s formative years is set for release, tracing his journey before superstardom. (Bbc)
  • 🇪🇸 Sugar Rush. Researchers in Madrid have identified erythrulose, a complex sugar, near the galactic center, supporting the theory that life’s ingredients are cosmic imports. (Libé)
  • 🇺🇦 Cheap Shot. A $550 Ukrainian FPV drone destroyed a $15M Russian Mi-28 helicopter, giving the phrase « cost-effective » a whole new meaning on the battlefield. (Le Parisien)
  • 🇺🇸 Black Hole Sun. Astronomers using Hubble and Webb have found the first stellar-mass black hole in Omega Centauri, challenging old theories about how black holes form in star clusters. (Italian)

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