🚪 Knock Knock

🗞️ Top Story

• 🇫🇷 Drone Alone. After an explosives-laden drone was found at Leipzig airport, France is reviewing its security strategy amid rising fears of direct attacks on key industries. (Die Zeit)
• 🇪🇺 Cloud Control. The Ariane 6 rocket delivered the MTG-I2 weather satellite to orbit, giving Europe faster, sharper eyes on the skies every 2.5 minutes. (Ouest-France)
• 🇮🇸 Ice Breaker. Iceland holds a razor-close vote on reviving EU membership talks as Trump’s Greenland obsession puts security fears front and center. (Cnbc)
• 🇷🇺 Risky Business. CIA chief Ratcliffe quietly told Russia’s top spy that the Ukraine war is going badly and now is the time to make a deal. (New York Times)
• 🇺🇸 Case of the Century. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s 9/11 trial is now scheduled for June 2028 at Guantanamo, only 27 years after his alleged crime. (Le Monde)
• 🇺🇸 Signal Failure. Construction work at the White House under Trump blocked air traffic control communications, nearly bringing Marine One and an airliner into collision range. (Le Figaro)
• 🇺🇸 Name Calling. Trump orders Lake Ontario to be rebranded “Lake America” in official documents, escalating his tariff feud with Canada by water. (Wall Street Journal)
• 🇳🇵 Flood and Order. Binod Chaudhary, chairman of Chaudhary Group, warns Nepal’s post-flood rebuilding could cost at least $5B, topping the group’s 2015 earthquake outlay. (Bloomberg)
• 🇮🇱 Thinktank You Very Much. A fake US thinktank funded by Israel published 124 reports in nine days to game AI chatbots into spreading pro-Israel arguments. (The Guardian)
• 🇮🇱 Collapse Course. Israeli officials openly support tougher US sanctions on Iran, betting that economic isolation will eventually topple Tehran’s government. (Le Monde)
• 🇶🇦 Mediation Station. With US-Iran negotiations frozen and the Strait of Hormuz effectively shut, Qatar returns to Tehran hoping shuttle diplomacy still works in 2024. (Boursier)
• 🇺🇬 Outbreak Outdone. The WHO has officially declared Uganda free of Ebola after 42 days without a new case, marking a rare victory as the virus rages next door in the DRC. (Le Monde)

• 🇬🇧 Waste of Money. Taxpayers are footing a £6M bill to clean up the Kidlington illegal waste site while the government struggles to recover costs from offenders. (Bbc)
• 🇬🇧 Eggs Factor. UK health officials report 474 salmonella cases and two deaths linked to imported eggs, with investigations ongoing and British eggs declared safe for now. (Bbc)

• 🇺🇸 Delivery Denied. The Trump administration’s effort to tighten mail-in voting rules hits another legal roadblock as a federal judge blocks the Postal Service’s plan for at least 14 days. (New York Times)
• 🇺🇸 Moss Control. Ben Moss, former top aide to JD Vance, is named White House staff secretary by Trump, taking charge of presidential paperwork and gatekeeping the Oval Office inbox. (New York Times)
• 🇺🇸 Primary Colors. Donald Trump dominates Republican primaries with endorsements and rallies, but his low approval ratings could haunt GOP candidates in the midterms as Democrats plan to tie them to his brand. (New York Times)

🏛️ Economy

• 🇩🇪 Friendship’s End. The Schwedt refinery, once fueled by Russia’s “Druzhba” pipeline, now exposes just how tangled Germany’s oil dependence remains. (Le Monde)
• 🇪🇸 Tank You Very Much. Spain and Poland join forces to buy seven Airbus A330 MRTT military tankers for €5.4B, boosting NATO’s eastern airpower and sending a clear message to Moscow. (Lindependant)
• 🇸🇪 Vote of Growth. Sweden’s ruling coalition revises its 2026 GDP growth forecast upward to 2.5%, hoping the economy can do what the polls will not. (Boursier)
• 🇪🇺 Return to Sender. A €3 tax on small Chinese packages has sent imports from Shein, Temu, and AliExpress tumbling by up to 40% since July. (Ouest-France)
• 🇪🇺 Cut Above. Chancellor Merz and leaders from Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Austria, and Sweden insist the trim its next seven-year budget by hundreds of billions, warning the current draft is pure fantasy for net payers. (Die Zeit)
• 🇪🇺 Frozen Assets. Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Poland push to reopen the debate on using over €200B in frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine, hoping to overcome Belgian resistance at next week’s meeting. (El Pais)
• 🇺🇸 Swiss Missed. The Trump administration intervened to prevent a Venezuelan oilman’s extradition to Switzerland, keeping him in play for US-backed regime change plans. (Washington Post)
• 🇺🇸 Hack to the Future. With AI-enabled cyberattacks multiplying, OpenAI, Anthropic, and industry peers call for governments and companies to overhaul defenses before the next breach writes history. (Bbc)
• 🇦🇷 Print Control. Javier Milei wins congressional approval for a law slashing the central bank’s power to fund deficits, vowing to end Argentina’s inflationary habits for good. (Le Monde)
• 🇻🇪 Exit Strategy. Venezuela is considering quitting OPEC, raising the prospect of another founding member walking away from the world’s most famous oil alliance. (Bloomberg)
• 🇻🇪 Barrel Rights. US officials are negotiating for American firms to secure guaranteed shares of Venezuela’s oil reserves, potentially rewriting the rules of the world’s largest crude holder. (Boursier)
• 🇮🇳 Globe Trotters. Indians sent $315M abroad for stocks and bonds June, setting a new record and giving domestic markets a hint of FOMO. (Bloomberg)

• 🇬🇧 Start Me Up. UK business numbers hit an all-time high at 5.66M, though new startups slowed by 5.7% compared to last year. The hustle never sleeps, just yawns. (Uktech)
• 🇬🇧 Pay It Forward. The UK Treasury gives the Bank of England a secondary objective to foster innovation in payments and digital finance, aiming to future-proof the City’s status. (FinExtra)
• 🇬🇧 Hurdle Jumpers. Private equity firms in the UK accelerated exits to beat looming tax increases, sharing the largest carried interest pool since 2017 at £5.4B. (Financial Times)

• 🇺🇸 Speech Patterns. All eyes are on Kevin Warsh at his first Jackson Hole as Fed Chair, as investors hunt for clues on his policy direction. (Bloomberg)
• 🇺🇸 Target Practice. The ATF must notify Congress after declaring a “major incident” when hackers claimed access to data on its investigative targets. (TechCrunch)

🏢 Real Estate

• 🇬🇧 Critical Condition. Greens demand a halt to new data centre approvals, arguing their classification as « critical infrastructure » puts jobs ahead of drought-stricken communities. (Bbc)
• 🇩🇪 Cloud Control. The Schwarz Group 🇩🇪, owner of Lidl and Kaufland, will invest €5.6B to build a massive data center near Rostock, aiming to boost digital sovereignty and rival US tech giants. (Die Zeit)
• 🇦🇺 Loan Ranger. Toplace’s $2.3B debt pile puts Australia’s private credit sector in the spotlight, as lenders discover the risks of playing developer’s sidekick. (Bloomberg)

• 🇬🇧 Byte Club. Scottish data centre operator DataVita secures a £25M loan from OakNorth Bank to expand its Glasgow site for AI infrastructure, betting big on machine learning demand. (Uktech)
• 🇬🇧 Buy Bye. Andy Burnham wants English mayors to halt council home sales, challenging the Conservative legacy and signalling Labour’s intent to keep public housing public. (Financial Times)
• 🇬🇧 Clampdown Abbey. Prime Minister Burnham pledges to crack down on bailiffs and cowboy builders, vowing to make life fairer for those struggling with debt or home repairs. (The Guardian)

• 🇺🇸 Lease in Peace. After four years of August declines, apartment rents finally rise 0.1%, giving landlords a rare reason to celebrate. (Cnbc)
• 🇰🇷 Spin Class. SK Telecom is spinning off its data-center and submarine-cable units into a new company, SK Horizon, with $2.2B from KKR and local partners. The cloud just got a new instructor. (Wall Street Journal)

🔗 On-chain

• 🇵🇱 Olympic Trials. Radoslaw Piesiewicz, president of Poland’s Olympic Committee, was arrested for allegedly taking bribes tied to crypto platform Zondacrypto, turning the Olympic spirit into a cautionary tale for sponsors. (Le Parisien)
• 🇺🇸 Future Proof. Gemini 🇺🇸 joins forces with Apex to offer crypto-based prediction markets to brokerages, betting that Wall Street wants in on the action. (Journalducoin)
• 🇦🇪 Stake Secrets. Sheikh Tahnoon, known as the “spy sheikh,” and his co-investors quietly acquired nearly half of the Trump-backed World Liberty crypto bank, just as the Trump administration greenlights more AI chip sales to the UAE. (Cnbc)

💱 Listed Markets

• 🇬🇧 Appy Ending. Alphabet has agreed to pay £260M to settle a UK class action over “unfair” Google Play charges, with UK developers set for compensation if the tribunal approves. (Financial Times)
• 🇺🇸 Fine Print. private equity giant KKR 🇺🇸 will pay $250M to settle Justice Department claims it repeatedly broke antitrust merger notification rules, closing a costly chapter in dealmaking. (Agefi)
• 🇺🇸 One and Done. Gilead’s Bixlenvo gets FDA approval, offering a single daily pill for HIV patients who previously needed multiple medications to stay suppressed. (Cnbc)
• 🇺🇸 Cash and Burn. Mark Zuckerberg warns about AI power grabs, yet Meta quietly prepares to funnel as much as $10B annually into Anthropic’s models, fueling the very race he claims to fear. (New York Times)

• 🇬🇧 Pound for Pound. The FTSE 100 is expected to rebound while the pound remains stuck below $1.36, keeping traders guessing about the next move. (Bloomberg)
• 🇺🇸 Like and Order. Meta will pay up to $18B to settle claims its platforms harm children, agreeing to new safety features for kids on Facebook and Instagram but admitting no wrongdoing. (Bbc)

🛎️ Big Deals (M&A)

• Oakley Capital 🇬🇧 acquires Graphwise 🇧🇬, an AI data platform (knowledge graphs/semantic layer) serving 200+ international blue‑chip clients.
• Prudential 🇬🇧 sells 2% stake in India asset manager 🇮🇳 for $327M.
• DAZN 🇬🇧 acquires EverPass Media 🇺🇸, sports streamer expands into the US market.
• Oddo BHF 🇫🇷 acquires International Fund Services & Asset Management (IFSAM) 🇱🇺, a B2B fund platform for distribution, fund operations, retrocession management and tech solutions.
• NRW.BANK & Hübner Invest 🇩🇪 invest in ag-tech.systems 🇩🇪, AgriTech developing non-chemical weed control (Raiffeisen Ventures holds ~20%).
• Boliden 🇸🇪 buys majority stake in Nexa Resources 🇵🇪 for $1.31B, acquiring Votorantim’s ~65% stake.
• Boksi 🇫🇮 acquires Goodlife 🇩🇪, adding 30 German-speaking creators to its platform.
• Accenture 🇮🇪 acquires Comware 🇯🇵, Japan-based SAP specialist founded in 2000 with 180+ staff and 260 SAP certifications, to join Accenture Edge.
• Integrity360 🇮🇪 acquires CyberIAM 🇿🇦, an Irish cybersecurity firm integrates CyberIAM’s identity services. CyberIAM (~120 employees in London, Chester and Cape Town) specialises in IAM, IGA, PAM and CIAM.
• Sandberg Capital 🇸🇰 acquires majority stake in Carrot 🇵🇱, Polish online platform for selling insurance‑damaged vehicles. First Sandberg transaction in Poland.
• TechMagic 🇺🇦 acquires CCTV Design Tool 🇺🇦 for $500K–$700K. Browser-based B2B SaaS for video-surveillance design (freemium, 2,000+ paid-license companies), TechMagic’s first acquisition of a global product business.
• Nvidia 🇺🇸 acquires Hugging Face 🇺🇸 for $12.9B, open-source AI models hub, reported by The Information. Deal values company at >$13B, up from a $4.5B 2023 valuation after a $235M raise, with recent revenue ~ $150M and having declined a prior $500M Nvidia offer.
• Unrivaled 3-on-3 League 🇺🇸 valued at $650M ahead of its third season.
• Nvidia 🇺🇸 eyes investment in Perplexity 🇺🇸 at $30B+ valuation. AI search/agent startup with ~$750M annualised revenue and recent rounds including $200M at $20B (Sept 2025) and a $23B round (Jan 2026).
• TRG 🇺🇸 acquires Reverse IT 🇳🇱, a mobile device management and enterprise mobility provider. Expands TRG’s presence in the Benelux and European managed mobility capabilities. Portfolio company of Gemspring Capital.
• Amazon 🇺🇸 acquires DuckLabs 🇳🇱, the Amsterdam-based creators of DuckDB. DuckDB will remain free and open source under an independent nonprofit, the DuckLabs team of 30+ join AWS.
• Apollo 🇺🇸 buys into Atlantic Aviation 🇺🇸 at near $10B valuation.
• Bain Capital 🇺🇸 acquires a stake in RQD Clearing 🇺🇸. RQD raised $74M in the round, with $66M from Bain Capital Tech Opportunities and the rest from Nyca Partners and ABN AMRO’s clearing bank.
• Zoom 🇺🇸 stake in Anthropic 🇺🇸 grows to $3B after gains.
• Vanguard 🇺🇸 acquires Altruist 🇺🇸, an AI-driven custody and advisory software platform for independent financial advisers that Vanguard first invested in in 2020.
• KKR & Co. Inc. 🇺🇸 and Apollo Global Management 🇺🇸 acquire Enbridge 🇨🇦’s Westcoast pipeline network for $2.7B, buying a 29% stake in the B.C. Sunrise and Aspen expansion.
• Victory Capital 🇺🇸 acquires First Eagle 🇺🇸 for $7B (cash and stock).
• DigitalBridge 🇺🇸 to buy Australian smart‑meter unit 🇦🇺, a SoftBank‑linked deal in the smart‑meter/energy infrastructure sector.
• BitGo 🇺🇸 acquires NYDIG 🇺🇸’s institutional trading business and related assets as crypto trading rebounds.
• Couche-Tard 🇨🇦 starts a $8.7B takeover bid for Żabka 🇵🇱
• SoftBank 🇯🇵 in talks to buy a majority stake in 1X Technologies 🇺🇸 at a $6B valuation, The Information reports.
• Flashlight Capital Partners 🇸🇬 offers to acquire S-1 Corporation 🇰🇷’s 20.6% stake from five Samsung Group units for Won906.6bn ($655mn), the first activist takeover bid for a Samsung affiliate under South Korea’s new shareholder rules.
• Owner of Bayan 🇮🇩 in talks to sell Bayan 🇮🇩.
• India 🇮🇳 reduces stake in Hindustan Copper 🇮🇳 as metal rallies to record.
• Perion 🇮🇱 acquires PRN 🇺🇸 for up to $12M, expanding in-store retail media reach across North America.
• MTN 🇿🇦 seeks investors for a $1.1B stake in IHS Nigeria 🇳🇬.

• Jetstream Venture Fund 🇺🇸 invests in ImageAiD 🇺🇸 (early-stage healthtech investment in AI-enabled vascular diagnostics).
• Continuim Equity Partners 🇺🇸 acquires a majority interest in Resodyn Corporation 🇺🇸 and the assets of Resodyn Acoustic Mixers, Inc. 🇺🇸, a Butte, Montana–headquartered maker of ResonantAcoustic® mixing systems with a strategic growth investment and founder Lawrence Farrar transitioning to CTO.
• Enbridge 🇨🇦 acquires Salt Creek Midstream 🇺🇸 for $600M, buying crude oil gathering assets in the Permian Basin (full ownership of Orla and Wink North, 50% of Delaware Crossing), ~800 km of lines, 420,000 bpd throughput and 350,000-barrel storage. Closing expected in 2026.
• Vinod Khosla 🇮🇳 acquires Seattle Seahawks 🇺🇸 for $9.6B, buying the Super Bowl champions.
• Mubadala Capital 🇦🇪 acquires majority equity interest in Arrive Logistics 🇺🇸. Expected to close Q4 2026, ATL Partners and Lead Edge Capital retain meaningful stakes and Arrive management rolls significant equity, J.P. Morgan and BofA act as advisors.

🧳 Private Markets & VC

• 🇫🇷 Quack Open. Hugging Face 🇫🇷 launches Microduck, a $399 open-source robot duck that waddles, grabs objects, and learns tricks, just in time for Christmas. (TechCrunch)
• 🇪🇺 Red Card. Uefa is pursuing criminal charges against Fifa president Gianni Infantino, accusing him of secretly pushing a $4.2B World Cup sell-off for personal gain. (Bbc)
• 🇺🇸 Margin Call. After Situational Awareness lost $30B in the AI crash, the SEC wants Wall Street banks to explain their role in funding the fund’s risky bets. (Breakit)
• 🇺🇸 Artificial Offense. The Trump administration’s attempt to blacklist Anthropic is blocked by a judge, who says the move was more about punishment than protection. (Le Figaro)
• 🇺🇸 Trump Card. Miami drone-defense startup Space-Eyes hired Eric Trump as an adviser in May, betting his connections will open government doors they could not. (Wall Street Journal)
• 🇦🇷 The hand of God. Hugo and Mariano Jinkis, two Argentine sports marketing executives, admitted in US court to paying bribes worth tens of millions to international football officials, keeping the Fifagate scandal in extra time. (Ouest-France)
• 🇨🇳 IPO and Seek. DeepSeek, the AI lab that put China on the map, hunts for new funding after High-Flyer Quant’s IPO windfalls prove too unpredictable to rely on. (Cnbc)

• 🇬🇧 Legal Briefs. The Solicitors Regulation Authority is investigating Gunnercooke over its work for companies tied to collapsed lender MFS, after allegations of fraud and forged evidence surfaced. (Financial Times)

• 🇬🇧 Legal Briefs. The Solicitors Regulation Authority is investigating Gunnercooke over its work for companies tied to collapsed lender MFS, after allegations of fraud and forged evidence surfaced. (Financial Times)

Fundraising

• Socure 🇺🇸 (Identity): $5.2B (Summit Partners, Goldman Sachs Alternatives, Wells Fargo, DocuSign)
• Kalshi 🇺🇸 (Prediction markets): $1.12B
• Vox, Frogfoot 🇿🇦 (Broadband): $900M
• Lizy 🇧🇪 (Mobility): €300M+
• Starcloud 🇺🇸 (Space): $250M
• REGENT Craft 🇺🇸 (Aerospace): $240M (Mare Liberum, AE Ventures, Erebor Bank, DCVC, Founders Fund, Caffeinated Capital, Lockheed Martin Ventures, Japan Airlines, Giant Step Capital)
• Gatik 🇺🇸 (Mobility): $200M (Qatar Investment Authority, Koch Disruptive Technologies, Millennium Management, ARK Invest, Intact Private Capital)
• Alice 🇮🇱 (AI security): $140M (Apax Digital Funds, MoreTech, Phoenix)
• AusperBio 🇺🇸 (Biotech): $120M (RA Capital Management, HanKang Capital, Sherpa Capital, InnoPinnacle Fund, Qiming Venture Partners, YuanBio Venture Capital, CDH Investments)
• Stability AI 🇬🇧 (AI): $76M (Universal Music Group, Sony Music Group, Warner Music Group, Electronic Arts, AMD Ventures, Pacific Alliance Ventures, Coatue, Greycroft, Kadmos Capital, Sean Parker, Eric Schmidt, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Mantis Capital, Sound Ventures, WPP)
• RQD Clearing 🇺🇸 (Fintech) : $74M (Bain Capital Tech Opportunities, ABN AMRO Clearing Bank, Nyca Partners)
• WRTN 🇰🇷 (AI): $72.23M (Coreline Ventures, Eugene Asset Management, Goodwater Capital, Antler Global, Woori Venture Partners, Korea Development Bank)
• Deep Cogito 🇺🇸 (AI): $43M (TQ Ventures, Benchmark, Nexus Venture Partners, Atreides Management, South Park Commons, Zscaler)
• Airbound 🇮🇳 (Mobility): $37M (Greenoaks, DoorDash, Lachy Groom, Lightspeed, Humba Ventures)
• Liner 🇰🇷 (AI search): $36.1M (LB Investment, InterVest, Atinum Investment, CJ Investment)
• Adaptyv Bio 🇨🇭 (Biotech): €34.35M (Highland Europe, Ace Ventures, ByFounders, Y Combinator)
• Yardstik 🇺🇸 (HR): $30M (Harbert Growth Partners, Rally Ventures, MissionOG, Crosslink Capital, Grotech Ventures, Great North Ventures)
• CivilGrid 🇺🇸 (Infrastructure): $26M (Spark Capital, Energy Impact Partners, Afore Capital, A*, Ford Street Ventures, SNR Ventures)
• Metriport 🇺🇸 (Healthcare): $26M (Matrix, ARTIS, Y Combinator)
• Arintra 🇺🇸 (Healthcare): $25M (Define Ventures, Peak XV Partners, Yale New Haven Health Center for Health Care Innovation, Endeavor Health Ventures, Y Combinator, Counterpart Ventures, Ten13, Spider Capital, Endeavor Health)
• Breedr 🇬🇧 (Agtech): €23M (Partech)
• Levanta 🇺🇸 (Social commerce): $22M (Volition Capital, Long Run Capital)
• Runable 🇮🇳 (AI): $21M (Susquehanna Venture Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, Together Fund, Array VC)
• Astromech 🇺🇸 (AI): $20M (Bob Nelsen, Peak 6, NeoGenesis Capital, Builders VC, CA Investments)
• VitalFluid 🇳🇱 (Agtech): €17.2M (Invest-NL, Alder Tree Investments, Horticoop, Brabantse Ontwikkelings Maatschappij (BOM), Future Food Fund, Graduate Ventures, Innovation Industries)
• Hivemind Digital Group 🇬🇧 (Fintech): $17M (M&G Investments)
• Onos Health 🇺🇸 (Behavioral health): $17M (Costanoa, Flare Capital Partners, CVS Health Ventures)
• Prevalent AI 🇬🇧 (AI): £16.1M (Integrity Growth Partners)
• Letara 🇯🇵 (Space): $16M (Headline Asia, JIC Venture Growth Investments, Incubate Fund, Aozora Corporate Investment, SMBC Venture Capital, NES Corporation, Gogin Capital, Toyoda Gosei, BIG Impact, Frontier Innovations, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, mint Incyer)
• eComID 🇸🇪 (Commerce): €14.58M (Systemiq Capital, Regeneration.VC, Course Corrected, Stadium, CapitalT, H&M Group)
• MAASH 🇧🇪 (Food): €12.15M (Ambra Capital, InvestPro, Bpifrance, Amorçage Industriel, Nordzucker, Tereos)
• Certain Energy 🇬🇧 (Energy storage): £10M (British Business Bank, Centrica, Ceres Power Holdings, Catalytic Capital for Climate and Health from the Temasek Trust)
• Atorie 🇫🇷 (Fashion): $9.5M (a16z Speedrun, Night Capital, Lightspeed Ventures’ Jeremy Liew)
• Repodo 🇩🇰 (AI audit): €8.2M (Hedosophia, Seed Capital)
• AI-native audit firm 🇩🇰 (Auditing): €8.2M
• LITILIT 🇱🇹 (Photonics): €8M
• Cloverleaf AI 🇺🇸 (Govtech): $8M (S3 Ventures, Jackson Square Ventures, Ivy Ventures, Tawani Ventures)
• Mara 🇺🇸 (Defense): $7M (Khosla Ventures, a16z Speedrun, Night Capital, Palmdrive, Protagonist, Freedom Fund, Indicator Fund, angel investors)
• Neno 🇳🇱 (Fintech): €6.6M (AlleyCorp, Motive Partners, Firstminute Capital, angel investors from Hugging Face, Mollie, Juni, Deel, Miro, Coinbase, PayPal, Navro)
• Hyperion Robotics 🇫🇮 (Robotics): €6.4M
• BOOKR 🇭🇺 (Edtech): €6.1M (TCEE Fund IV, 3TS Capital Partners, Leib Lurie, Robert Iskander, Infinit Capital Oy, Albert Sarospataki (FusionWise))
• Revier Therapeutics 🇩🇪 (Biotech): €6M (KHAN Technology Transfer Fund II, High-Tech Gründerfonds, VORNvc, Revier Invest Heidelberg)
• Teragen Energy 🇺🇸 (Energy): $6M (BEVC, Energy Capital Ventures®, AP Ventures, AIC Ventures, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC), UntroD Capital Asia)
• Medly AI 🇬🇧 (Edtech): £5.9M
• Velatir 🇩🇰 (AI): €5M (Spintop Ventures, Ugly)
• Friendly Fire 🇭🇷 (Gaming): €4M (AYMO Ventures)
• ColibriTD 🇫🇷 (Quantum): €4M (Earlybird Venture Capital, SymbiaVC, Medin VC)
• Soctera 🇺🇸 (Semiconductor): $4M (Anorak Ventures, Multiball Capital, 9Yards Capital, Mana Ventures, Red Bear Ventures)
• SnerpaPower 🇮🇸 (Energy): €3.4M
• Surge Games 🇹🇷 (Gaming): $3M (Simya VC, Play Ventures, Drilo)
• Volve 🇳🇴 (ConTech): $3M (Skyfall Ventures, J12, Norrsken Evolve, OBOS Ventures, Antler, StartupLab, Daniel Kjørberg Siraj)
• Itoflow (Fintech): $2.5M (Balderton Capital, Barney Hussey-Yeo)
• Kazimi 🇩🇪 (Cybersecurity): €2.2M (Market One Capital, IBB Ventures, Petri Hyökyranta, Janne Peltola, Erik Massmann)
• Motion 🇧🇪 (Robotics): $2M (Extantia Capital, Norrsken Evolve)
• ArcSpace 🇫🇷 (SpaceTech): €2M+ (DEPO Ventures, SCE Freiraum Ventures, IRDI Capital Investissement)
• Embedd 🇬🇧 (AI): £2M
• os.energy 🇩🇰 (Energy): €1M

Fund Watch

• GenNx360 Capital Partners 🇺🇸: $865M (Fund IV, 4th flagship PE fund for lower middle market industrial & business services)
• Fresenius 🇩🇪: €200M+ (corporate venture fund for health, seed to growth; €200M+ over 5 years, led by Thomas Michael Thestrup)
• MassMutual Ventures 🇺🇸: $150M (Climate Technology Fund II, early-stage climate tech fund focused on real assets and AI)
• IFC-Backed Ventures 🇺🇸: $84M (fund to invest in African startups)
• RunwayVC 🇳🇴: €40M (Fund II first close, early-stage industrial tech. AI, robotics, automation)
• Navisalma 🇸🇪: €40M (initial raise, mostly committed; €450M target for European deep-tech investments)
• Capital F 🇺🇸: $17M (debut VC fund, female economy startups)

🔔IPO

• Nscale 🇬🇧 (AI cloud): preparing a US IPO to raise up to $3B, potentially as soon as Sept. 2026.
• KNDS 🇫🇷🇩🇪 (Defense): owners to sell 10% each and could float in the second half of September, timing dependent on investor feedback.
• Pasqal 🇫🇷 (Quantum): raises $360M in cash in a Nasdaq listing via SPAC merger, trading as PSQL/PSQLW.
• Moderna 🇺🇸 (Biotech): launching a $2B share offering after a recent stock jump.
• Unitree 🇨🇳 (Robotics): surged from a $9B IPO valuation to about $66B market cap on debut, then fell ~45%, wiping nearly $30B.
• Shein 🇨🇳 (E-commerce): backers agreed to a six-month lock-up on new IPO shares.
• Mahle 🇮🇳 (Auto parts): said to revisit plans for an IPO of its India unit.
• Vista Global Holding 🇦🇪 (Aviation): targeting a Europe IPO that could raise more than $1B and value the group above $10B.

🧳 Debt

• Brightline 🇺🇸: landed a $350M assured loan in case of bankruptcy.

• CLERHP 🇪🇸: registered a $75M 10-year revolving debt programme on the Panama Stock Exchange.
• Canyon Partners Real Estate 🇺🇸: provided a $74.7M senior construction loan with J.P. Morgan.

❌ Failures

• Glow25 🇩🇪: after growing from 130 to 240 employees in two years, the collagen startup is now cutting a large number of jobs as it automates processes with AI.

🎯 For a Few More Minutes…

• 🇬🇧 Gear Shift. The BBC will relaunch Top Gear after a four-year pause due to Freddie Flintoff’s crash, fueling speculation about who will take the wheel. (The Guardian)
• 🇫🇷 Locked In. After being accused of abducting and assaulting a businessman for €300K, Sham N. is denied release as authorities worry about coordinated intimidation. (Le Parisien)
• 🇩🇰 Womb Service. Danish lawmakers approve a $47,000 payout for Greenlandic women forced into contraception, offering overdue reparations for decades of state control. (New York Times)
• 🇺🇸 Self-Appointed. Donald Trump released his own presidential ranking on social media, crowning himself « the greatest » and relegating Biden and Obama to the « failures » pile. (Le Parisien)
• 🇦🇺 Crawl 911. Scientists in Australia are turning burrowing cockroaches into robotic first responders, fitting them with cameras and injectors for disaster rescue missions. (The Guardian)

🗞️ Top Story

• 🇬🇧 Waste of Money. Taxpayers are footing a £6M bill to clean up the Kidlington illegal waste site while the government struggles to recover costs from offenders. (Bbc)
• 🇬🇧 Eggs Factor. UK health officials report 474 salmonella cases and two deaths linked to imported eggs, with investigations ongoing and British eggs declared safe for now. (Bbc)
• 🇫🇷 Drone Alone. After an explosives-laden drone was found at Leipzig airport, France is reviewing its security strategy amid rising fears of direct attacks on key industries. (Die Zeit)
• 🇪🇺 Cloud Control. The Ariane 6 rocket delivered the MTG-I2 weather satellite to orbit, giving Europe faster, sharper eyes on the skies every 2.5 minutes. (Ouest-France)
• 🇮🇸 Ice Breaker. Iceland holds a razor-close vote on reviving EU membership talks as Trump’s Greenland obsession puts security fears front and center. (Cnbc)
• 🇷🇺 Risky Business. CIA chief Ratcliffe quietly told Russia’s top spy that the Ukraine war is going badly and now is the time to make a deal. (New York Times)
• 🇺🇸 Case of the Century. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s 9/11 trial is now scheduled for June 2028 at Guantanamo, only 27 years after his alleged crime. (Le Monde)
• 🇺🇸 Signal Failure. Construction work at the White House under Trump blocked air traffic control communications, nearly bringing Marine One and an airliner into collision range. (Le Figaro)
• 🇺🇸 Name Calling. Trump orders Lake Ontario to be rebranded “Lake America” in official documents, escalating his tariff feud with Canada by water. (Wall Street Journal)
• 🇳🇵 Flood and Order. Binod Chaudhary, chairman of Chaudhary Group, warns Nepal’s post-flood rebuilding could cost at least $5B, topping the group’s 2015 earthquake outlay. (Bloomberg)
• 🇮🇱 Thinktank You Very Much. A fake US thinktank funded by Israel published 124 reports in nine days to game AI chatbots into spreading pro-Israel arguments. (The Guardian)
• 🇮🇱 Collapse Course. Israeli officials openly support tougher US sanctions on Iran, betting that economic isolation will eventually topple Tehran’s government. (Le Monde)
• 🇶🇦 Mediation Station. With US-Iran negotiations frozen and the Strait of Hormuz effectively shut, Qatar returns to Tehran hoping shuttle diplomacy still works in 2024. (Boursier)
• 🇺🇬 Outbreak Outdone. The WHO has officially declared Uganda free of Ebola after 42 days without a new case, marking a rare victory as the virus rages next door in the DRC. (Le Monde)

🏛️ Economy

• 🇬🇧 Start Me Up. UK business numbers hit an all-time high at 5.66M, though new startups slowed by 5.7% compared to last year. The hustle never sleeps, just yawns. (Uktech)
• 🇬🇧 Pay It Forward. The UK Treasury gives the Bank of England a secondary objective to foster innovation in payments and digital finance, aiming to future-proof the City’s status. (FinExtra)
• 🇬🇧 Hurdle Jumpers. Private equity firms in the UK accelerated exits to beat looming tax increases, sharing the largest carried interest pool since 2017 at £5.4B. (Financial Times)
• 🇩🇪 Friendship’s End. The Schwedt refinery, once fueled by Russia’s “Druzhba” pipeline, now exposes just how tangled Germany’s oil dependence remains. (Le Monde)
• 🇪🇸 Tank You Very Much. Spain and Poland join forces to buy seven Airbus A330 MRTT military tankers for €5.4B, boosting NATO’s eastern airpower and sending a clear message to Moscow. (Lindependant)
• 🇸🇪 Vote of Growth. Sweden’s ruling coalition revises its 2026 GDP growth forecast upward to 2.5%, hoping the economy can do what the polls will not. (Boursier)
• 🇪🇺 Return to Sender. A €3 tax on small Chinese packages has sent imports from Shein, Temu, and AliExpress tumbling by up to 40% since July. (Ouest-France)
• 🇪🇺 Cut Above. Chancellor Merz and leaders from Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Austria, and Sweden insist the trim its next seven-year budget by hundreds of billions, warning the current draft is pure fantasy for net payers. (Die Zeit)
• 🇪🇺 Frozen Assets. Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Poland push to reopen the debate on using over €200B in frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine, hoping to overcome Belgian resistance at next week’s meeting. (El Pais)
• 🇺🇸 Swiss Missed. The Trump administration intervened to prevent a Venezuelan oilman’s extradition to Switzerland, keeping him in play for US-backed regime change plans. (Washington Post)
• 🇺🇸 Hack to the Future. With AI-enabled cyberattacks multiplying, OpenAI, Anthropic, and industry peers call for governments and companies to overhaul defenses before the next breach writes history. (Bbc)
• 🇦🇷 Print Control. Javier Milei wins congressional approval for a law slashing the central bank’s power to fund deficits, vowing to end Argentina’s inflationary habits for good. (Le Monde)
• 🇻🇪 Exit Strategy. Venezuela is considering quitting OPEC, raising the prospect of another founding member walking away from the world’s most famous oil alliance. (Bloomberg)
• 🇻🇪 Barrel Rights. US officials are negotiating for American firms to secure guaranteed shares of Venezuela’s oil reserves, potentially rewriting the rules of the world’s largest crude holder. (Boursier)
• 🇮🇳 Globe Trotters. Indians sent $315M abroad for stocks and bonds June, setting a new record and giving domestic markets a hint of FOMO. (Bloomberg)

🏢 Real Estate

• 🇬🇧 Byte Club. Scottish data centre operator DataVita secures a £25M loan from OakNorth Bank to expand its Glasgow site for AI infrastructure, betting big on machine learning demand. (Uktech)
• 🇬🇧 Buy Bye. Andy Burnham wants English mayors to halt council home sales, challenging the Conservative legacy and signalling Labour’s intent to keep public housing public. (Financial Times)
• 🇬🇧 Critical Condition. Greens demand a halt to new data centre approvals, arguing their classification as « critical infrastructure » puts jobs ahead of drought-stricken communities. (Bbc)
• 🇬🇧 Clampdown Abbey. Prime Minister Burnham pledges to crack down on bailiffs and cowboy builders, vowing to make life fairer for those struggling with debt or home repairs. (The Guardian)
• 🇩🇪 Cloud Control. The Schwarz Group 🇩🇪, owner of Lidl and Kaufland, will invest €5.6B to build a massive data center near Rostock, aiming to boost digital sovereignty and rival US tech giants. (Die Zeit)
• 🇦🇺 Loan Ranger. Toplace’s $2.3B debt pile puts Australia’s private credit sector in the spotlight, as lenders discover the risks of playing developer’s sidekick. (Bloomberg)

🔗 On-chain

• 🇵🇱 Olympic Trials. Radoslaw Piesiewicz, president of Poland’s Olympic Committee, was arrested for allegedly taking bribes tied to crypto platform Zondacrypto, turning the Olympic spirit into a cautionary tale for sponsors. (Le Parisien)
• 🇺🇸 Future Proof. Gemini 🇺🇸 joins forces with Apex to offer crypto-based prediction markets to brokerages, betting that Wall Street wants in on the action. (Journalducoin)
• 🇦🇪 Stake Secrets. Sheikh Tahnoon, known as the “spy sheikh,” and his co-investors quietly acquired nearly half of the Trump-backed World Liberty crypto bank, just as the Trump administration greenlights more AI chip sales to the UAE. (Cnbc)

💱 Listed Markets

• 🇬🇧 Pound for Pound. The FTSE 100 is expected to rebound while the pound remains stuck below $1.36, keeping traders guessing about the next move. (Bloomberg)
• 🇬🇧 Appy Ending. Alphabet has agreed to pay £260M to settle a UK class action over “unfair” Google Play charges, with UK developers set for compensation if the tribunal approves. (Financial Times)
• 🇺🇸 Fine Print. private equity giant KKR 🇺🇸 will pay $250M to settle Justice Department claims it repeatedly broke antitrust merger notification rules, closing a costly chapter in dealmaking. (Agefi)
• 🇺🇸 One and Done. Gilead’s Bixlenvo gets FDA approval, offering a single daily pill for HIV patients who previously needed multiple medications to stay suppressed. (Cnbc)
• 🇺🇸 Like and Order. Meta will pay up to $18B to settle claims its platforms harm children, agreeing to new safety features for kids on Facebook and Instagram but admitting no wrongdoing. (Bbc)
• 🇺🇸 Cash and Burn. Mark Zuckerberg warns about AI power grabs, yet Meta quietly prepares to funnel as much as $10B annually into Anthropic’s models, fueling the very race he claims to fear. (New York Times)

🛎️ Big Deals (M&A)

• Oakley Capital 🇬🇧 acquires Graphwise 🇧🇬, an AI data platform (knowledge graphs/semantic layer) serving 200+ international blue‑chip clients.
• Prudential 🇬🇧 sells 2% stake in India asset manager 🇮🇳 for $327M.
• DAZN 🇬🇧 acquires EverPass Media 🇺🇸, sports streamer expands into the US market.
• Oddo BHF 🇫🇷 acquires International Fund Services & Asset Management (IFSAM) 🇱🇺, a B2B fund platform for distribution, fund operations, retrocession management and tech solutions.
• NRW.BANK & Hübner Invest 🇩🇪 invest in ag-tech.systems 🇩🇪, AgriTech developing non-chemical weed control (Raiffeisen Ventures holds ~20%).
• Boliden 🇸🇪 buys majority stake in Nexa Resources 🇵🇪 for $1.31B, acquiring Votorantim’s ~65% stake.
• Boksi 🇫🇮 acquires Goodlife 🇩🇪, adding 30 German-speaking creators to its platform.
• Accenture 🇮🇪 acquires Comware 🇯🇵, Japan-based SAP specialist founded in 2000 with 180+ staff and 260 SAP certifications, to join Accenture Edge.
• Integrity360 🇮🇪 acquires CyberIAM 🇿🇦, an Irish cybersecurity firm integrates CyberIAM’s identity services. CyberIAM (~120 employees in London, Chester and Cape Town) specialises in IAM, IGA, PAM and CIAM.
• Sandberg Capital 🇸🇰 acquires majority stake in Carrot 🇵🇱, Polish online platform for selling insurance‑damaged vehicles. First Sandberg transaction in Poland.
• TechMagic 🇺🇦 acquires CCTV Design Tool 🇺🇦 for $500K–$700K. Browser-based B2B SaaS for video-surveillance design (freemium, 2,000+ paid-license companies), TechMagic’s first acquisition of a global product business.
• Nvidia 🇺🇸 acquires Hugging Face 🇺🇸 for $12.9B, open-source AI models hub, reported by The Information. Deal values company at >$13B, up from a $4.5B 2023 valuation after a $235M raise, with recent revenue ~ $150M and having declined a prior $500M Nvidia offer.
• Unrivaled 3-on-3 League 🇺🇸 valued at $650M ahead of its third season.
• Nvidia 🇺🇸 eyes investment in Perplexity 🇺🇸 at $30B+ valuation. AI search/agent startup with ~$750M annualised revenue and recent rounds including $200M at $20B (Sept 2025) and a $23B round (Jan 2026).
• TRG 🇺🇸 acquires Reverse IT 🇳🇱, a mobile device management and enterprise mobility provider. Expands TRG’s presence in the Benelux and European managed mobility capabilities. Portfolio company of Gemspring Capital.
• Amazon 🇺🇸 acquires DuckLabs 🇳🇱, the Amsterdam-based creators of DuckDB. DuckDB will remain free and open source under an independent nonprofit, the DuckLabs team of 30+ join AWS.
• Apollo 🇺🇸 buys into Atlantic Aviation 🇺🇸 at near $10B valuation.
• Bain Capital 🇺🇸 acquires a stake in RQD Clearing 🇺🇸. RQD raised $74M in the round, with $66M from Bain Capital Tech Opportunities and the rest from Nyca Partners and ABN AMRO’s clearing bank.
• Zoom 🇺🇸 stake in Anthropic 🇺🇸 grows to $3B after gains.
• Vanguard 🇺🇸 acquires Altruist 🇺🇸, an AI-driven custody and advisory software platform for independent financial advisers that Vanguard first invested in in 2020.
• KKR & Co. Inc. 🇺🇸 and Apollo Global Management 🇺🇸 acquire Enbridge 🇨🇦’s Westcoast pipeline network for $2.7B, buying a 29% stake in the B.C. Sunrise and Aspen expansion.
• Victory Capital 🇺🇸 acquires First Eagle 🇺🇸 for $7B (cash and stock).
• DigitalBridge 🇺🇸 to buy Australian smart‑meter unit 🇦🇺, a SoftBank‑linked deal in the smart‑meter/energy infrastructure sector.
• BitGo 🇺🇸 acquires NYDIG 🇺🇸’s institutional trading business and related assets as crypto trading rebounds.
• Couche-Tard 🇨🇦 starts a $8.7B takeover bid for Żabka 🇵🇱
• SoftBank 🇯🇵 in talks to buy a majority stake in 1X Technologies 🇺🇸 at a $6B valuation, The Information reports.
• Flashlight Capital Partners 🇸🇬 offers to acquire S-1 Corporation 🇰🇷’s 20.6% stake from five Samsung Group units for Won906.6bn ($655mn), the first activist takeover bid for a Samsung affiliate under South Korea’s new shareholder rules.
• Owner of Bayan 🇮🇩 in talks to sell Bayan 🇮🇩.
• India 🇮🇳 reduces stake in Hindustan Copper 🇮🇳 as metal rallies to record.
• Perion 🇮🇱 acquires PRN 🇺🇸 for up to $12M, expanding in-store retail media reach across North America.
• MTN 🇿🇦 seeks investors for a $1.1B stake in IHS Nigeria 🇳🇬.

🧳 Private Markets & VC

• 🇬🇧 Legal Briefs. The Solicitors Regulation Authority is investigating Gunnercooke over its work for companies tied to collapsed lender MFS, after allegations of fraud and forged evidence surfaced. (Financial Times)
• 🇫🇷 Quack Open. Hugging Face 🇫🇷 launches Microduck, a $399 open-source robot duck that waddles, grabs objects, and learns tricks, just in time for Christmas. (TechCrunch)
• 🇪🇺 Red Card. Uefa is pursuing criminal charges against Fifa president Gianni Infantino, accusing him of secretly pushing a $4.2B World Cup sell-off for personal gain. (Bbc)
• 🇺🇸 Margin Call. After Situational Awareness lost $30B in the AI crash, the SEC wants Wall Street banks to explain their role in funding the fund’s risky bets. (Breakit)
• 🇺🇸 Artificial Offense. The Trump administration’s attempt to blacklist Anthropic is blocked by a judge, who says the move was more about punishment than protection. (Le Figaro)
• 🇺🇸 Trump Card. Miami drone-defense startup Space-Eyes hired Eric Trump as an adviser in May, betting his connections will open government doors they could not. (Wall Street Journal)
• 🇦🇷 The hand of God. Hugo and Mariano Jinkis, two Argentine sports marketing executives, admitted in US court to paying bribes worth tens of millions to international football officials, keeping the Fifagate scandal in extra time. (Ouest-France)
• 🇨🇳 IPO and Seek. DeepSeek, the AI lab that put China on the map, hunts for new funding after High-Flyer Quant’s IPO windfalls prove too unpredictable to rely on. (Cnbc)

Fundraising

• Socure 🇺🇸 (Identity): $5.2B (Summit Partners, Goldman Sachs Alternatives, Wells Fargo, DocuSign)
• Kalshi 🇺🇸 (Prediction markets): $1.12B
• Vox, Frogfoot 🇿🇦 (Broadband): $900M
• Lizy 🇧🇪 (Mobility): €300M+
• Starcloud 🇺🇸 (Space): $250M
• REGENT Craft 🇺🇸 (Aerospace): $240M (Mare Liberum, AE Ventures, Erebor Bank, DCVC, Founders Fund, Caffeinated Capital, Lockheed Martin Ventures, Japan Airlines, Giant Step Capital)
• Gatik 🇺🇸 (Mobility): $200M (Qatar Investment Authority, Koch Disruptive Technologies, Millennium Management, ARK Invest, Intact Private Capital)
• Alice 🇮🇱 (AI security): $140M (Apax Digital Funds, MoreTech, Phoenix)
• AusperBio 🇺🇸 (Biotech): $120M (RA Capital Management, HanKang Capital, Sherpa Capital, InnoPinnacle Fund, Qiming Venture Partners, YuanBio Venture Capital, CDH Investments)
• Stability AI 🇬🇧 (AI): $76M (Universal Music Group, Sony Music Group, Warner Music Group, Electronic Arts, AMD Ventures, Pacific Alliance Ventures, Coatue, Greycroft, Kadmos Capital, Sean Parker, Eric Schmidt, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Mantis Capital, Sound Ventures, WPP)
• RQD Clearing 🇺🇸 (Fintech) : $74M (Bain Capital Tech Opportunities, ABN AMRO Clearing Bank, Nyca Partners)
• WRTN 🇰🇷 (AI): $72.23M (Coreline Ventures, Eugene Asset Management, Goodwater Capital, Antler Global, Woori Venture Partners, Korea Development Bank)
• Deep Cogito 🇺🇸 (AI): $43M (TQ Ventures, Benchmark, Nexus Venture Partners, Atreides Management, South Park Commons, Zscaler)
• Airbound 🇮🇳 (Mobility): $37M (Greenoaks, DoorDash, Lachy Groom, Lightspeed, Humba Ventures)
• Liner 🇰🇷 (AI search): $36.1M (LB Investment, InterVest, Atinum Investment, CJ Investment)
• Adaptyv Bio 🇨🇭 (Biotech): €34.35M (Highland Europe, Ace Ventures, ByFounders, Y Combinator)
• Yardstik 🇺🇸 (HR): $30M (Harbert Growth Partners, Rally Ventures, MissionOG, Crosslink Capital, Grotech Ventures, Great North Ventures)
• CivilGrid 🇺🇸 (Infrastructure): $26M (Spark Capital, Energy Impact Partners, Afore Capital, A*, Ford Street Ventures, SNR Ventures)
• Metriport 🇺🇸 (Healthcare): $26M (Matrix, ARTIS, Y Combinator)
• Arintra 🇺🇸 (Healthcare): $25M (Define Ventures, Peak XV Partners, Yale New Haven Health Center for Health Care Innovation, Endeavor Health Ventures, Y Combinator, Counterpart Ventures, Ten13, Spider Capital, Endeavor Health)
• Breedr 🇬🇧 (Agtech): €23M (Partech)
• Levanta 🇺🇸 (Social commerce): $22M (Volition Capital, Long Run Capital)
• Runable 🇮🇳 (AI): $21M (Susquehanna Venture Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, Together Fund, Array VC)
• Astromech 🇺🇸 (AI): $20M (Bob Nelsen, Peak 6, NeoGenesis Capital, Builders VC, CA Investments)
• VitalFluid 🇳🇱 (Agtech): €17.2M (Invest-NL, Alder Tree Investments, Horticoop, Brabantse Ontwikkelings Maatschappij (BOM), Future Food Fund, Graduate Ventures, Innovation Industries)
• Hivemind Digital Group 🇬🇧 (Fintech): $17M (M&G Investments)
• Onos Health 🇺🇸 (Behavioral health): $17M (Costanoa, Flare Capital Partners, CVS Health Ventures)
• Prevalent AI 🇬🇧 (AI): £16.1M (Integrity Growth Partners)
• Letara 🇯🇵 (Space): $16M (Headline Asia, JIC Venture Growth Investments, Incubate Fund, Aozora Corporate Investment, SMBC Venture Capital, NES Corporation, Gogin Capital, Toyoda Gosei, BIG Impact, Frontier Innovations, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, mint Incyer)
• eComID 🇸🇪 (Commerce): €14.58M (Systemiq Capital, Regeneration.VC, Course Corrected, Stadium, CapitalT, H&M Group)
• MAASH 🇧🇪 (Food): €12.15M (Ambra Capital, InvestPro, Bpifrance, Amorçage Industriel, Nordzucker, Tereos)
• Certain Energy 🇬🇧 (Energy storage): £10M (British Business Bank, Centrica, Ceres Power Holdings, Catalytic Capital for Climate and Health from the Temasek Trust)
• Atorie 🇫🇷 (Fashion): $9.5M (a16z Speedrun, Night Capital, Lightspeed Ventures’ Jeremy Liew)
• Repodo 🇩🇰 (AI audit): €8.2M (Hedosophia, Seed Capital)
• AI-native audit firm 🇩🇰 (Auditing): €8.2M
• LITILIT 🇱🇹 (Photonics): €8M
• Cloverleaf AI 🇺🇸 (Govtech): $8M (S3 Ventures, Jackson Square Ventures, Ivy Ventures, Tawani Ventures)
• Mara 🇺🇸 (Defense): $7M (Khosla Ventures, a16z Speedrun, Night Capital, Palmdrive, Protagonist, Freedom Fund, Indicator Fund, angel investors)
• Neno 🇳🇱 (Fintech): €6.6M (AlleyCorp, Motive Partners, Firstminute Capital, angel investors from Hugging Face, Mollie, Juni, Deel, Miro, Coinbase, PayPal, Navro)
• Hyperion Robotics 🇫🇮 (Robotics): €6.4M
• BOOKR 🇭🇺 (Edtech): €6.1M (TCEE Fund IV, 3TS Capital Partners, Leib Lurie, Robert Iskander, Infinit Capital Oy, Albert Sarospataki (FusionWise))
• Revier Therapeutics 🇩🇪 (Biotech): €6M (KHAN Technology Transfer Fund II, High-Tech Gründerfonds, VORNvc, Revier Invest Heidelberg)
• Teragen Energy 🇺🇸 (Energy): $6M (BEVC, Energy Capital Ventures®, AP Ventures, AIC Ventures, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC), UntroD Capital Asia)
• Medly AI 🇬🇧 (Edtech): £5.9M
• Velatir 🇩🇰 (AI): €5M (Spintop Ventures, Ugly)
• Friendly Fire 🇭🇷 (Gaming): €4M (AYMO Ventures)
• ColibriTD 🇫🇷 (Quantum): €4M (Earlybird Venture Capital, SymbiaVC, Medin VC)
• Soctera 🇺🇸 (Semiconductor): $4M (Anorak Ventures, Multiball Capital, 9Yards Capital, Mana Ventures, Red Bear Ventures)
• SnerpaPower 🇮🇸 (Energy): €3.4M
• Surge Games 🇹🇷 (Gaming): $3M (Simya VC, Play Ventures, Drilo)
• Volve 🇳🇴 (ConTech): $3M (Skyfall Ventures, J12, Norrsken Evolve, OBOS Ventures, Antler, StartupLab, Daniel Kjørberg Siraj)
• Itoflow (Fintech): $2.5M (Balderton Capital, Barney Hussey-Yeo)
• Kazimi 🇩🇪 (Cybersecurity): €2.2M (Market One Capital, IBB Ventures, Petri Hyökyranta, Janne Peltola, Erik Massmann)
• Motion 🇧🇪 (Robotics): $2M (Extantia Capital, Norrsken Evolve)
• ArcSpace 🇫🇷 (SpaceTech): €2M+ (DEPO Ventures, SCE Freiraum Ventures, IRDI Capital Investissement)
• Embedd 🇬🇧 (AI): £2M
• os.energy 🇩🇰 (Energy): €1M

Fund Watch

• GenNx360 Capital Partners 🇺🇸: $865M (Fund IV, 4th flagship PE fund for lower middle market industrial & business services)
• Fresenius 🇩🇪: €200M+ (corporate venture fund for health, seed to growth; €200M+ over 5 years, led by Thomas Michael Thestrup)
• MassMutual Ventures 🇺🇸: $150M (Climate Technology Fund II, early-stage climate tech fund focused on real assets and AI)
• IFC-Backed Ventures 🇺🇸: $84M (fund to invest in African startups)
• RunwayVC 🇳🇴: €40M (Fund II first close, early-stage industrial tech. AI, robotics, automation)
• Navisalma 🇸🇪: €40M (initial raise, mostly committed; €450M target for European deep-tech investments)
• Capital F 🇺🇸: $17M (debut VC fund, female economy startups)

🔔IPO

• Nscale 🇬🇧 (AI cloud): preparing a US IPO to raise up to $3B, potentially as soon as Sept. 2026.
• KNDS 🇫🇷🇩🇪 (Defense): owners to sell 10% each and could float in the second half of September, timing dependent on investor feedback.
• Pasqal 🇫🇷 (Quantum): raises $360M in cash in a Nasdaq listing via SPAC merger, trading as PSQL/PSQLW.
• Moderna 🇺🇸 (Biotech): launching a $2B share offering after a recent stock jump.
• Unitree 🇨🇳 (Robotics): surged from a $9B IPO valuation to about $66B market cap on debut, then fell ~45%, wiping nearly $30B.
• Shein 🇨🇳 (E-commerce): backers agreed to a six-month lock-up on new IPO shares.
• Mahle 🇮🇳 (Auto parts): said to revisit plans for an IPO of its India unit.
• Vista Global Holding 🇦🇪 (Aviation): targeting a Europe IPO that could raise more than $1B and value the group above $10B.

🧳 Debt

• Brightline 🇺🇸: landed a $350M assured loan in case of bankruptcy.

❌ Failures

• Glow25 🇩🇪: after growing from 130 to 240 employees in two years, the collagen startup is now cutting a large number of jobs as it automates processes with AI.

🎯 For a Few More Minutes…

• 🇬🇧 Gear Shift. The BBC will relaunch Top Gear after a four-year pause due to Freddie Flintoff’s crash, fueling speculation about who will take the wheel. (The Guardian)
• 🇫🇷 Locked In. After being accused of abducting and assaulting a businessman for €300K, Sham N. is denied release as authorities worry about coordinated intimidation. (Le Parisien)
• 🇩🇰 Womb Service. Danish lawmakers approve a $47,000 payout for Greenlandic women forced into contraception, offering overdue reparations for decades of state control. (New York Times)
• 🇺🇸 Self-Appointed. Donald Trump released his own presidential ranking on social media, crowning himself « the greatest » and relegating Biden and Obama to the « failures » pile. (Le Parisien)
• 🇦🇺 Crawl 911. Scientists in Australia are turning burrowing cockroaches into robotic first responders, fitting them with cameras and injectors for disaster rescue missions. (The Guardian)

🗞️ Top Story

• 🇺🇸 Case of the Century. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s 9/11 trial is now scheduled for June 2028 at Guantanamo, only 27 years after his alleged crime. (Le Monde)
• 🇺🇸 Delivery Denied. The Trump administration’s effort to tighten mail-in voting rules hits another legal roadblock as a federal judge blocks the Postal Service’s plan for at least 14 days. (New York Times)
• 🇺🇸 Signal Failure. Construction work at the White House under Trump blocked air traffic control communications, nearly bringing Marine One and an airliner into collision range. (Le Figaro)
• 🇺🇸 Moss Control. Ben Moss, former top aide to JD Vance, is named White House staff secretary by Trump, taking charge of presidential paperwork and gatekeeping the Oval Office inbox. (New York Times)
• 🇺🇸 Primary Colors. Donald Trump dominates Republican primaries with endorsements and rallies, but his low approval ratings could haunt GOP candidates in the midterms as Democrats plan to tie them to his brand. (New York Times)
• 🇺🇸 Name Calling. Trump orders Lake Ontario to be rebranded “Lake America” in official documents, escalating his tariff feud with Canada by water. (Wall Street Journal)
• 🇫🇷 Drone Alone. After an explosives-laden drone was found at Leipzig airport, France is reviewing its security strategy amid rising fears of direct attacks on key industries. (Die Zeit)
• 🇪🇺 Cloud Control. The Ariane 6 rocket delivered the MTG-I2 weather satellite to orbit, giving Europe faster, sharper eyes on the skies every 2.5 minutes. (Ouest-France)
• 🇮🇸 Ice Breaker. Iceland holds a razor-close vote on reviving EU membership talks as Trump’s Greenland obsession puts security fears front and center. (Cnbc)
• 🇷🇺 Risky Business. CIA chief Ratcliffe quietly told Russia’s top spy that the Ukraine war is going badly and now is the time to make a deal. (New York Times)
• 🇳🇵 Flood and Order. Binod Chaudhary, chairman of Chaudhary Group, warns Nepal’s post-flood rebuilding could cost at least $5B, topping the group’s 2015 earthquake outlay. (Bloomberg)
• 🇮🇱 Thinktank You Very Much. A fake US thinktank funded by Israel published 124 reports in nine days to game AI chatbots into spreading pro-Israel arguments. (The Guardian)
• 🇮🇱 Collapse Course. Israeli officials openly support tougher US sanctions on Iran, betting that economic isolation will eventually topple Tehran’s government. (Le Monde)
• 🇶🇦 Mediation Station. With US-Iran negotiations frozen and the Strait of Hormuz effectively shut, Qatar returns to Tehran hoping shuttle diplomacy still works in 2024. (Boursier)
• 🇺🇬 Outbreak Outdone. The WHO has officially declared Uganda free of Ebola after 42 days without a new case, marking a rare victory as the virus rages next door in the DRC. (Le Monde)

🏛️ Economy

• 🇺🇸 Speech Patterns. All eyes are on Kevin Warsh at his first Jackson Hole as Fed Chair, as investors hunt for clues on his policy direction. (Bloomberg)
• 🇺🇸 Target Practice. The ATF must notify Congress after declaring a “major incident” when hackers claimed access to data on its investigative targets. (TechCrunch)
• 🇺🇸 Swiss Missed. The Trump administration intervened to prevent a Venezuelan oilman’s extradition to Switzerland, keeping him in play for US-backed regime change plans. (Washington Post)
• 🇺🇸 Hack to the Future. With AI-enabled cyberattacks multiplying, OpenAI, Anthropic, and industry peers call for governments and companies to overhaul defenses before the next breach writes history. (Bbc)
• 🇦🇷 Print Control. Javier Milei wins congressional approval for a law slashing the central bank’s power to fund deficits, vowing to end Argentina’s inflationary habits for good. (Le Monde)
• 🇻🇪 Exit Strategy. Venezuela is considering quitting OPEC, raising the prospect of another founding member walking away from the world’s most famous oil alliance. (Bloomberg)
• 🇻🇪 Barrel Rights. US officials are negotiating for American firms to secure guaranteed shares of Venezuela’s oil reserves, potentially rewriting the rules of the world’s largest crude holder. (Boursier)
• 🇩🇪 Friendship’s End. The Schwedt refinery, once fueled by Russia’s “Druzhba” pipeline, now exposes just how tangled Germany’s oil dependence remains. (Le Monde)
• 🇪🇸 Tank You Very Much. Spain and Poland join forces to buy seven Airbus A330 MRTT military tankers for €5.4B, boosting NATO’s eastern airpower and sending a clear message to Moscow. (Lindependant)
• 🇸🇪 Vote of Growth. Sweden’s ruling coalition revises its 2026 GDP growth forecast upward to 2.5%, hoping the economy can do what the polls will not. (Boursier)
• 🇪🇺 Return to Sender. A €3 tax on small Chinese packages has sent imports from Shein, Temu, and AliExpress tumbling by up to 40% since July. (Ouest-France)
• 🇪🇺 Cut Above. Chancellor Merz and leaders from Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Austria, and Sweden insist the trim its next seven-year budget by hundreds of billions, warning the current draft is pure fantasy for net payers. (Die Zeit)
• 🇪🇺 Frozen Assets. Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Poland push to reopen the debate on using over €200B in frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine, hoping to overcome Belgian resistance at next week’s meeting. (El Pais)
• 🇮🇳 Globe Trotters. Indians sent $315M abroad for stocks and bonds June, setting a new record and giving domestic markets a hint of FOMO. (Bloomberg)

🏢 Real Estate

• 🇺🇸 Lease in Peace. After four years of August declines, apartment rents finally rise 0.1%, giving landlords a rare reason to celebrate. (Cnbc)
• 🇩🇪 Cloud Control. The Schwarz Group 🇩🇪, owner of Lidl and Kaufland, will invest €5.6B to build a massive data center near Rostock, aiming to boost digital sovereignty and rival US tech giants. (Die Zeit)
• 🇬🇧 Critical Condition. Greens demand a halt to new data centre approvals, arguing their classification as « critical infrastructure » puts jobs ahead of drought-stricken communities. (Bbc)
• 🇰🇷 Spin Class. SK Telecom is spinning off its data-center and submarine-cable units into a new company, SK Horizon, with $2.2B from KKR and local partners. The cloud just got a new instructor. (Wall Street Journal)
• 🇦🇺 Loan Ranger. Toplace’s $2.3B debt pile puts Australia’s private credit sector in the spotlight, as lenders discover the risks of playing developer’s sidekick. (Bloomberg)

🔗 On-chain

• 🇺🇸 Future Proof. Gemini 🇺🇸 joins forces with Apex to offer crypto-based prediction markets to brokerages, betting that Wall Street wants in on the action. (Journalducoin)
• 🇵🇱 Olympic Trials. Radoslaw Piesiewicz, president of Poland’s Olympic Committee, was arrested for allegedly taking bribes tied to crypto platform Zondacrypto, turning the Olympic spirit into a cautionary tale for sponsors. (Le Parisien)
• 🇦🇪 Stake Secrets. Sheikh Tahnoon, known as the “spy sheikh,” and his co-investors quietly acquired nearly half of the Trump-backed World Liberty crypto bank, just as the Trump administration greenlights more AI chip sales to the UAE. (Cnbc)

💱 Listed Markets

• 🇺🇸 Fine Print. private equity giant KKR 🇺🇸 will pay $250M to settle Justice Department claims it repeatedly broke antitrust merger notification rules, closing a costly chapter in dealmaking. (Agefi)
• 🇺🇸 One and Done. Gilead’s Bixlenvo gets FDA approval, offering a single daily pill for HIV patients who previously needed multiple medications to stay suppressed. (Cnbc)
• 🇺🇸 Cash and Burn. Mark Zuckerberg warns about AI power grabs, yet Meta quietly prepares to funnel as much as $10B annually into Anthropic’s models, fueling the very race he claims to fear. (New York Times)
• 🇬🇧 Appy Ending. Alphabet has agreed to pay £260M to settle a UK class action over “unfair” Google Play charges, with UK developers set for compensation if the tribunal approves. (Financial Times)

🛎️ Big Deals (M&A)

• Nvidia 🇺🇸 acquires Hugging Face 🇺🇸 for $12.9B, open-source AI models hub, reported by The Information. Deal values company at >$13B, up from a $4.5B 2023 valuation after a $235M raise, with recent revenue ~ $150M and having declined a prior $500M Nvidia offer.
• Unrivaled 3-on-3 League 🇺🇸 valued at $650M ahead of its third season.
• Nvidia 🇺🇸 eyes investment in Perplexity 🇺🇸 at $30B+ valuation. AI search/agent startup with ~$750M annualised revenue and recent rounds including $200M at $20B (Sept 2025) and a $23B round (Jan 2026).
• TRG 🇺🇸 acquires Reverse IT 🇳🇱, a mobile device management and enterprise mobility provider. Expands TRG’s presence in the Benelux and European managed mobility capabilities. Portfolio company of Gemspring Capital.
• Amazon 🇺🇸 acquires DuckLabs 🇳🇱, the Amsterdam-based creators of DuckDB. DuckDB will remain free and open source under an independent nonprofit, the DuckLabs team of 30+ join AWS.
• Apollo 🇺🇸 buys into Atlantic Aviation 🇺🇸 at near $10B valuation.
• Bain Capital 🇺🇸 acquires a stake in RQD Clearing 🇺🇸. RQD raised $74M in the round, with $66M from Bain Capital Tech Opportunities and the rest from Nyca Partners and ABN AMRO’s clearing bank.
• Zoom 🇺🇸 stake in Anthropic 🇺🇸 grows to $3B after gains.
• Vanguard 🇺🇸 acquires Altruist 🇺🇸, an AI-driven custody and advisory software platform for independent financial advisers that Vanguard first invested in in 2020.
• Jetstream Venture Fund 🇺🇸 invests in ImageAiD 🇺🇸 (early-stage healthtech investment in AI-enabled vascular diagnostics).
• KKR & Co. Inc. 🇺🇸 and Apollo Global Management 🇺🇸 acquire Enbridge 🇨🇦’s Westcoast pipeline network for $2.7B, buying a 29% stake in the B.C. Sunrise and Aspen expansion.
• Victory Capital 🇺🇸 acquires First Eagle 🇺🇸 for $7B (cash and stock).
• DigitalBridge 🇺🇸 to buy Australian smart‑meter unit 🇦🇺, a SoftBank‑linked deal in the smart‑meter/energy infrastructure sector.
• Continuim Equity Partners 🇺🇸 acquires a majority interest in Resodyn Corporation 🇺🇸 and the assets of Resodyn Acoustic Mixers, Inc. 🇺🇸, a Butte, Montana–headquartered maker of ResonantAcoustic® mixing systems with a strategic growth investment and founder Lawrence Farrar transitioning to CTO.
• BitGo 🇺🇸 acquires NYDIG 🇺🇸’s institutional trading business and related assets as crypto trading rebounds.
• Enbridge 🇨🇦 acquires Salt Creek Midstream 🇺🇸 for $600M, buying crude oil gathering assets in the Permian Basin (full ownership of Orla and Wink North, 50% of Delaware Crossing), ~800 km of lines, 420,000 bpd throughput and 350,000-barrel storage. Closing expected in 2026.
• Couche-Tard 🇨🇦 starts a $8.7B takeover bid for Żabka 🇵🇱
• Oddo BHF 🇫🇷 acquires International Fund Services & Asset Management (IFSAM) 🇱🇺, a B2B fund platform for distribution, fund operations, retrocession management and tech solutions.
• NRW.BANK & Hübner Invest 🇩🇪 invest in ag-tech.systems 🇩🇪, AgriTech developing non-chemical weed control (Raiffeisen Ventures holds ~20%).
• Boliden 🇸🇪 buys majority stake in Nexa Resources 🇵🇪 for $1.31B, acquiring Votorantim’s ~65% stake.
• Boksi 🇫🇮 acquires Goodlife 🇩🇪, adding 30 German-speaking creators to its platform.
• Accenture 🇮🇪 acquires Comware 🇯🇵, Japan-based SAP specialist founded in 2000 with 180+ staff and 260 SAP certifications, to join Accenture Edge.
• Integrity360 🇮🇪 acquires CyberIAM 🇿🇦, an Irish cybersecurity firm integrates CyberIAM’s identity services. CyberIAM (~120 employees in London, Chester and Cape Town) specialises in IAM, IGA, PAM and CIAM.
• Sandberg Capital 🇸🇰 acquires majority stake in Carrot 🇵🇱, Polish online platform for selling insurance‑damaged vehicles. First Sandberg transaction in Poland.
• Oakley Capital 🇬🇧 acquires Graphwise 🇧🇬, an AI data platform (knowledge graphs/semantic layer) serving 200+ international blue‑chip clients.
• Prudential 🇬🇧 sells 2% stake in India asset manager 🇮🇳 for $327M.
• DAZN 🇬🇧 acquires EverPass Media 🇺🇸, sports streamer expands into the US market.
• TechMagic 🇺🇦 acquires CCTV Design Tool 🇺🇦 for $500K–$700K. Browser-based B2B SaaS for video-surveillance design (freemium, 2,000+ paid-license companies), TechMagic’s first acquisition of a global product business.
• SoftBank 🇯🇵 in talks to buy a majority stake in 1X Technologies 🇺🇸 at a $6B valuation, The Information reports.
• Flashlight Capital Partners 🇸🇬 offers to acquire S-1 Corporation 🇰🇷’s 20.6% stake from five Samsung Group units for Won906.6bn ($655mn), the first activist takeover bid for a Samsung affiliate under South Korea’s new shareholder rules.
• Owner of Bayan 🇮🇩 in talks to sell Bayan 🇮🇩.
• Vinod Khosla 🇮🇳 acquires Seattle Seahawks 🇺🇸 for $9.6B, buying the Super Bowl champions.
• India 🇮🇳 reduces stake in Hindustan Copper 🇮🇳 as metal rallies to record.
• Mubadala Capital 🇦🇪 acquires majority equity interest in Arrive Logistics 🇺🇸. Expected to close Q4 2026, ATL Partners and Lead Edge Capital retain meaningful stakes and Arrive management rolls significant equity, J.P. Morgan and BofA act as advisors.
• Perion 🇮🇱 acquires PRN 🇺🇸 for up to $12M, expanding in-store retail media reach across North America.
• MTN 🇿🇦 seeks investors for a $1.1B stake in IHS Nigeria 🇳🇬.

🧳 Private Markets & VC

• 🇺🇸 Margin Call. After Situational Awareness lost $30B in the AI crash, the SEC wants Wall Street banks to explain their role in funding the fund’s risky bets. (Breakit)
• 🇺🇸 Artificial Offense. The Trump administration’s attempt to blacklist Anthropic is blocked by a judge, who says the move was more about punishment than protection. (Le Figaro)
• 🇺🇸 Trump Card. Miami drone-defense startup Space-Eyes hired Eric Trump as an adviser in May, betting his connections will open government doors they could not. (Wall Street Journal)
• 🇦🇷 The hand of God. Hugo and Mariano Jinkis, two Argentine sports marketing executives, admitted in US court to paying bribes worth tens of millions to international football officials, keeping the Fifagate scandal in extra time. (Ouest-France)
• 🇫🇷 Quack Open. Hugging Face 🇫🇷 launches Microduck, a $399 open-source robot duck that waddles, grabs objects, and learns tricks, just in time for Christmas. (TechCrunch)
• 🇪🇺 Red Card. Uefa is pursuing criminal charges against Fifa president Gianni Infantino, accusing him of secretly pushing a $4.2B World Cup sell-off for personal gain. (Bbc)
• 🇬🇧 Legal Briefs. The Solicitors Regulation Authority is investigating Gunnercooke over its work for companies tied to collapsed lender MFS, after allegations of fraud and forged evidence surfaced. (Financial Times)
• 🇨🇳 IPO and Seek. DeepSeek, the AI lab that put China on the map, hunts for new funding after High-Flyer Quant’s IPO windfalls prove too unpredictable to rely on. (Cnbc)

Fundraising

• Socure 🇺🇸 (Identity): $5.2B (Summit Partners, Goldman Sachs Alternatives, Wells Fargo, DocuSign)
• Kalshi 🇺🇸 (Prediction markets): $1.12B
• Vox, Frogfoot 🇿🇦 (Broadband): $900M
• Lizy 🇧🇪 (Mobility): €300M+
• Starcloud 🇺🇸 (Space): $250M
• REGENT Craft 🇺🇸 (Aerospace): $240M (Mare Liberum, AE Ventures, Erebor Bank, DCVC, Founders Fund, Caffeinated Capital, Lockheed Martin Ventures, Japan Airlines, Giant Step Capital)
• Gatik 🇺🇸 (Mobility): $200M (Qatar Investment Authority, Koch Disruptive Technologies, Millennium Management, ARK Invest, Intact Private Capital)
• Alice 🇮🇱 (AI security): $140M (Apax Digital Funds, MoreTech, Phoenix)
• AusperBio 🇺🇸 (Biotech): $120M (RA Capital Management, HanKang Capital, Sherpa Capital, InnoPinnacle Fund, Qiming Venture Partners, YuanBio Venture Capital, CDH Investments)
• Stability AI 🇬🇧 (AI): $76M (Universal Music Group, Sony Music Group, Warner Music Group, Electronic Arts, AMD Ventures, Pacific Alliance Ventures, Coatue, Greycroft, Kadmos Capital, Sean Parker, Eric Schmidt, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Mantis Capital, Sound Ventures, WPP)
• RQD Clearing 🇺🇸 (Fintech) : $74M (Bain Capital Tech Opportunities, ABN AMRO Clearing Bank, Nyca Partners)
• WRTN 🇰🇷 (AI): $72.23M (Coreline Ventures, Eugene Asset Management, Goodwater Capital, Antler Global, Woori Venture Partners, Korea Development Bank)
• Deep Cogito 🇺🇸 (AI): $43M (TQ Ventures, Benchmark, Nexus Venture Partners, Atreides Management, South Park Commons, Zscaler)
• Airbound 🇮🇳 (Mobility): $37M (Greenoaks, DoorDash, Lachy Groom, Lightspeed, Humba Ventures)
• Liner 🇰🇷 (AI search): $36.1M (LB Investment, InterVest, Atinum Investment, CJ Investment)
• Adaptyv Bio 🇨🇭 (Biotech): €34.35M (Highland Europe, Ace Ventures, ByFounders, Y Combinator)
• Yardstik 🇺🇸 (HR): $30M (Harbert Growth Partners, Rally Ventures, MissionOG, Crosslink Capital, Grotech Ventures, Great North Ventures)
• CivilGrid 🇺🇸 (Infrastructure): $26M (Spark Capital, Energy Impact Partners, Afore Capital, A*, Ford Street Ventures, SNR Ventures)
• Metriport 🇺🇸 (Healthcare): $26M (Matrix, ARTIS, Y Combinator)
• Arintra 🇺🇸 (Healthcare): $25M (Define Ventures, Peak XV Partners, Yale New Haven Health Center for Health Care Innovation, Endeavor Health Ventures, Y Combinator, Counterpart Ventures, Ten13, Spider Capital, Endeavor Health)
• Breedr 🇬🇧 (Agtech): €23M (Partech)
• Levanta 🇺🇸 (Social commerce): $22M (Volition Capital, Long Run Capital)
• Runable 🇮🇳 (AI): $21M (Susquehanna Venture Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, Together Fund, Array VC)
• Astromech 🇺🇸 (AI): $20M (Bob Nelsen, Peak 6, NeoGenesis Capital, Builders VC, CA Investments)
• VitalFluid 🇳🇱 (Agtech): €17.2M (Invest-NL, Alder Tree Investments, Horticoop, Brabantse Ontwikkelings Maatschappij (BOM), Future Food Fund, Graduate Ventures, Innovation Industries)
• Hivemind Digital Group 🇬🇧 (Fintech): $17M (M&G Investments)
• Onos Health 🇺🇸 (Behavioral health): $17M (Costanoa, Flare Capital Partners, CVS Health Ventures)
• Prevalent AI 🇬🇧 (AI): £16.1M (Integrity Growth Partners)
• Letara 🇯🇵 (Space): $16M (Headline Asia, JIC Venture Growth Investments, Incubate Fund, Aozora Corporate Investment, SMBC Venture Capital, NES Corporation, Gogin Capital, Toyoda Gosei, BIG Impact, Frontier Innovations, Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance Venture Capital, Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, mint Incyer)
• eComID 🇸🇪 (Commerce): €14.58M (Systemiq Capital, Regeneration.VC, Course Corrected, Stadium, CapitalT, H&M Group)
• MAASH 🇧🇪 (Food): €12.15M (Ambra Capital, InvestPro, Bpifrance, Amorçage Industriel, Nordzucker, Tereos)
• Certain Energy 🇬🇧 (Energy storage): £10M (British Business Bank, Centrica, Ceres Power Holdings, Catalytic Capital for Climate and Health from the Temasek Trust)
• Atorie 🇫🇷 (Fashion): $9.5M (a16z Speedrun, Night Capital, Lightspeed Ventures’ Jeremy Liew)
• Repodo 🇩🇰 (AI audit): €8.2M (Hedosophia, Seed Capital)
• AI-native audit firm 🇩🇰 (Auditing): €8.2M
• LITILIT 🇱🇹 (Photonics): €8M
• Cloverleaf AI 🇺🇸 (Govtech): $8M (S3 Ventures, Jackson Square Ventures, Ivy Ventures, Tawani Ventures)
• Mara 🇺🇸 (Defense): $7M (Khosla Ventures, a16z Speedrun, Night Capital, Palmdrive, Protagonist, Freedom Fund, Indicator Fund, angel investors)
• Neno 🇳🇱 (Fintech): €6.6M (AlleyCorp, Motive Partners, Firstminute Capital, angel investors from Hugging Face, Mollie, Juni, Deel, Miro, Coinbase, PayPal, Navro)
• Hyperion Robotics 🇫🇮 (Robotics): €6.4M
• BOOKR 🇭🇺 (Edtech): €6.1M (TCEE Fund IV, 3TS Capital Partners, Leib Lurie, Robert Iskander, Infinit Capital Oy, Albert Sarospataki (FusionWise))
• Revier Therapeutics 🇩🇪 (Biotech): €6M (KHAN Technology Transfer Fund II, High-Tech Gründerfonds, VORNvc, Revier Invest Heidelberg)
• Teragen Energy 🇺🇸 (Energy): $6M (BEVC, Energy Capital Ventures®, AP Ventures, AIC Ventures, Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC), UntroD Capital Asia)
• Medly AI 🇬🇧 (Edtech): £5.9M
• Velatir 🇩🇰 (AI): €5M (Spintop Ventures, Ugly)
• Friendly Fire 🇭🇷 (Gaming): €4M (AYMO Ventures)
• ColibriTD 🇫🇷 (Quantum): €4M (Earlybird Venture Capital, SymbiaVC, Medin VC)
• Soctera 🇺🇸 (Semiconductor): $4M (Anorak Ventures, Multiball Capital, 9Yards Capital, Mana Ventures, Red Bear Ventures)
• SnerpaPower 🇮🇸 (Energy): €3.4M
• Surge Games 🇹🇷 (Gaming): $3M (Simya VC, Play Ventures, Drilo)
• Volve 🇳🇴 (ConTech): $3M (Skyfall Ventures, J12, Norrsken Evolve, OBOS Ventures, Antler, StartupLab, Daniel Kjørberg Siraj)
• Itoflow (Fintech): $2.5M (Balderton Capital, Barney Hussey-Yeo)
• Kazimi 🇩🇪 (Cybersecurity): €2.2M (Market One Capital, IBB Ventures, Petri Hyökyranta, Janne Peltola, Erik Massmann)
• Motion 🇧🇪 (Robotics): $2M (Extantia Capital, Norrsken Evolve)
• ArcSpace 🇫🇷 (SpaceTech): €2M+ (DEPO Ventures, SCE Freiraum Ventures, IRDI Capital Investissement)
• Embedd 🇬🇧 (AI): £2M
• os.energy 🇩🇰 (Energy): €1M

Fund Watch

• GenNx360 Capital Partners 🇺🇸: $865M (Fund IV, 4th flagship PE fund for lower middle market industrial & business services)
• Fresenius 🇩🇪: €200M+ (corporate venture fund for health, seed to growth; €200M+ over 5 years, led by Thomas Michael Thestrup)
• MassMutual Ventures 🇺🇸: $150M (Climate Technology Fund II, early-stage climate tech fund focused on real assets and AI)
• IFC-Backed Ventures 🇺🇸: $84M (fund to invest in African startups)
• RunwayVC 🇳🇴: €40M (Fund II first close, early-stage industrial tech. AI, robotics, automation)
• Navisalma 🇸🇪: €40M (initial raise, mostly committed; €450M target for European deep-tech investments)
• Capital F 🇺🇸: $17M (debut VC fund, female economy startups)

🔔IPO

• Moderna 🇺🇸 (Biotech): launching a $2B share offering after a recent stock jump.
• KNDS 🇫🇷🇩🇪 (Defense): owners to sell 10% each and could float in the second half of September, timing dependent on investor feedback.
• Pasqal 🇫🇷 (Quantum): raises $360M in cash in a Nasdaq listing via SPAC merger, trading as PSQL/PSQLW.
• Nscale 🇬🇧 (AI cloud): preparing a US IPO to raise up to $3B, potentially as soon as Sept. 2026.
• Unitree 🇨🇳 (Robotics): surged from a $9B IPO valuation to about $66B market cap on debut, then fell ~45%, wiping nearly $30B.
• Shein 🇨🇳 (E-commerce): backers agreed to a six-month lock-up on new IPO shares.
• Mahle 🇮🇳 (Auto parts): said to revisit plans for an IPO of its India unit.
• Vista Global Holding 🇦🇪 (Aviation): targeting a Europe IPO that could raise more than $1B and value the group above $10B.

🧳 Debt

• Brightline 🇺🇸: landed a $350M assured loan in case of bankruptcy.
• Canyon Partners Real Estate 🇺🇸: provided a $74.7M senior construction loan with J.P. Morgan.
• CLERHP 🇪🇸: registered a $75M 10-year revolving debt programme on the Panama Stock Exchange.

❌ Failures

• Glow25 🇩🇪: after growing from 130 to 240 employees in two years, the collagen startup is now cutting a large number of jobs as it automates processes with AI.

🎯 For a Few More Minutes…

• 🇺🇸 Self-Appointed. Donald Trump released his own presidential ranking on social media, crowning himself « the greatest » and relegating Biden and Obama to the « failures » pile. (Le Parisien)
• 🇫🇷 Locked In. After being accused of abducting and assaulting a businessman for €300K, Sham N. is denied release as authorities worry about coordinated intimidation. (Le Parisien)
• 🇩🇰 Womb Service. Danish lawmakers approve a $47,000 payout for Greenlandic women forced into contraception, offering overdue reparations for decades of state control. (New York Times)
• 🇬🇧 Gear Shift. The BBC will relaunch Top Gear after a four-year pause due to Freddie Flintoff’s crash, fueling speculation about who will take the wheel. (The Guardian)
• 🇦🇺 Crawl 911. Scientists in Australia are turning burrowing cockroaches into robotic first responders, fitting them with cameras and injectors for disaster rescue missions. (The Guardian)