Good Morning,

Home Depot launched a VC fund, stocks closed in the green once again, the SEC is probing Didi Global, Germany supports Sweden and Finland's NATO bids, Rivian won a $1.5B incentives plan for its GA plant, and Biden is eyeing $125k for student loan relief cut off.

Big Swinging Decks is back with a new episode!

This week Lit & Mark are joined by Christina Melas-Kyriazi, a Partner at Bain Capital Ventures. Catch the latest episode of our Big Swinging Decks podcast on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube (presented by CoinFLEX.US) 🤝

Let's dive in.

Before The Bell

As of 5/3/2022 market close.

If you want to learn more about crypto trading strategies and the world of DeFi, check out our Foot Guns newsletter.

Markets

  • The major averages rose slightly yesterday as investors look forward to today’s Fed announcement on rate hikes

    • Most of Wall Street is expecting the central bank to raise rates by 50 basis points

  • On the data front, factory orders for March rose 2.2% (better-than-expected) and job openings came in at 11.5M (an ATH)

Earnings

  • Pfizer beat on top- and bottom-line estimates for Q1 driven by strong Covid vaccine and oral treatment sales but discounted its FY outlook due to R & D costs and changes in foreign exchange rates (CNBC)

  • BP reported bumper Q1 profits and announced a further $2.5B in share buybacks but posted a headline loss of $20.4B loss associated with its Russia exit (CNBC)

  • Hilton missed on revenue and issued a disappointing current quarter profit forecast with revenue per available room (important metric for the company) down 17%+ from pre-pandemic levels (YHOO)

  • Airbnb posted better-than-expected Q1 results with revenue growing 70% YoY as travel rebounds from the pandemic (CNBC)

  • Starbucks reported stronger-than-expected revenue numbers as US same-store sales grew 7% in the quarter, offsetting sharp declines in China (CNBC)

  • Lyft Q1 revenue was up 44% YoY, beating expectations, as the business continues to improve post-pandemic but the stock fell AH due to a lackluster forecast and sequential decline in active riders numbers (TC)

  • MicroStrategy reported a $170M impairment charge to write down the value of its Bitcoin holdings, along with a revenue decline (BBG)

  • What we’re watching today: Moderna, CVS, Marriott, Uber, Etsy 

  • Full calendar here

Headline Roundup

  • Russia dodges default as some investors receive dollar funds (BBG)

  • Tiger Global slumps more than 40% in first four months of 2022 (FT)

  • Protesters block entrance to Scottish oil terminal in climate action (BBG)

  • Germany backs looming Swedish, Finnish NATO membership bids (BBG)

  • JD Vance, an author and VC, wins Ohio republican senate primary (FT)

  • Rivian wins $1.5B incentive package for Georgia plant (BBG)

  • BP takes $25.5B hit from Russia exit (WSJ)

  • Paramount+ adds 6.8M subscribers in Q1 (WSJ)

  • Elliott pushes Western Digital to separate its hard drive and flash-memory businesses (WSJ)

  • Apple store workers in Maryland begin union drive (CNBC)

  • AT&T raises prices on wireless plans to address higher costs (BBG)

  • Biden team eyes $125K income cutoff for student loan relief (BBG)

  • CIA chief met Saudi Crown Prince last month in push to mend ties (WSJ)

  • If Supreme Court reverses Roe v. Wade, up to half of US expected to ban or severely restrict abortion (CNBC)

A Message From Composer

Can you guess who said this?

“There should be a shift back towards active investment. Passive has gone too far.”

It wasn’t Warren Buffett or Peter Lynch, but Elon Musk. The eccentric billionaire may have a point.

Boomers LOVE parking their net worth into ETFs. And tell us to “set aside a small amount to invest in stocks, if you have to scratch that trading itch.”

But is there somewhere between brainless passive investing and neck-beard day trading?

Institutional investors use systematic, or “rules-based” strategies that automatically buy and sell stocks when certain conditions are met: “Buy the Nasdaq 100 every time it dips 5% over 3 trading days” “Sell 10% of my Apple shares when AAPL goes above its 200 day moving average.”

For the first time, you can have access to the same tools the big boys do – no code or Excel required. Composer lets you invest in a robust library of customizable systematic strategies, 100% free to use. Composer is active management, evolved.

Browse their collection of strategies today.*

*See important disclaimer

Deal Flow

M&A / Investments

  • Brookfield Asset Management is exploring a purchase of data-center operator Switch which has a current market value of ~$7.6B (BBG)

  • British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe has moved quickly to hold talks with fans of Chelsea Football Club as he looks to build momentum for his late $5.3B bid for the team (BBG)

  • Digital media company Roku and Apollo have teamed up to bid for a minority stake in pay-TV streaming service Starz (WSJ)

  • Swedish pension fund AMF agreed to buy a 10% stake in energy storage developer Polarium at a $1B+ valuation (BBG)

VC

  • Home equity platform Point raised a $115M Series C led by WestCap (PRN)

  • Identity-based infrastructure access startup Teleport raised a $110M Series C at a $1.1B valuation led by Bessemer Venture Partners (TC)

  • Payments startup Kevin raised a $65M Series A led by Accel (TC)

  • Edge Delta, an observability platform that analyzes and extracts data insights from distributed stream processing, raised a $63M Series B led by Quiet Capital (PRN)

  • API security and observability startup Traceable AI raised a $60M Series B at a $450M+ valuation led by IVP (PRN)

  • Backend services platform AccelByte raised a $60M Series B led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 (TC)

  • Open-source database management startup Prisma raised a $40M round led by Altimeter (TC)

  • LottieFiles, a motion graphics platform for designers and developers, raised a $37M Series B led by Square Peg Capital (PRN)

  • European BNPL platform Scalapay raised a $27M Series B from Poste Italiane (PRN)

  • Teamwork platform Valence raised a $25M Series A led by Insight Partners (TC)

  • Graphite, a startup building an internal code review tool, raised a $20M Series A led by a16z (TC)

  • Robotic startup SLAMcore raised a $16M Series A led by ROBO Global Ventures and Presidio Ventures (TC)

  • DRUID, an end-to-end platform for building AI-driven conversational business applications, raised a $15M Series A led by Karma Ventures and Hoxton Ventures (PRN)

  • Open source risk management startup Phylum raised a $15M Series A led by ClearSky (PRN)

  • Operational technology security startup Network Perception raised a $13M Series A led by The Westly Group (BW)

  • Media company Decrypt raised $10M in funding at a $50M valuation from a group of investors including Hack VC, Hashkey Capital, Canvas Ventures, Protocol Labs, and more (BW)

  • Americana Technologies, a startup turning real-world objects into NFTs, raised a $6.9M seed round led by a16z (TC)

  • Syndicate, a startup bringing DAOs to the masses, raised a $6M strategic investment from Carta, Circle Ventures, OpenSea, and others (TC)

  • Courted.io, a professional network for residential real estate, raised a $6M seed round led by Human Capital (BW)

  • Stakes, a social wagering platform, raised a $5.3M seed round from Digital Currency Group, FBG Capital, CMS Holdings, and more (PRN)

  • Claira, a competency analytics engine, raised a $3.5M seed round led by Heartland Ventures (PRN)

  • WILE, a hormone wellness brand for women, raised a $3M pre-seed round led by Serena Ventures (PRN)

  • Lillii RNB, a retail fraud detection and prevention data services firm, raised a $3M seed round co-led by Serena Ventures and Aperture Venture Capital (BW)

SPAC

  • Chinese EV company CH-AUTO agreed to merge with Mountain Crest Acquisition Corp IV in a $1.7B deal (RT)

Fundraising

  • BlackRock seeks up to $4B for new private credit fund (BBG)

  • RoundTable Healthcare Partners raised $800M for its sixth fund (PRN)

  • Life sciences investment firm Catalio Capital Management closed its third fund at $381M (BW)

  • HOF Capital, a VC firm focused on ​​pre-seed to Series A investments, raised a $300M second fund (TC)

  • Home Depot announced a $150M VC fund to fuel innovation in retail and home improvement (PRN)

  • Hetz Ventures, an Israeli seed-stage VC firm, raised a $123M third fund to focus on startups involved in DevOps and dev tools, open-source software, enterprise/data software, fintech and cybersecurity (TC)

Crypto Corner

  • El Salvador debt risk looms as bitcoin bond has yet to launch (DC)

  • Luxury fitness club Equinox starts accepting crypto payments in NYC (TBC)

  • Bitcoin mining revenues fell in April while Ethereum’s rose (TBC)

  • Coinbase ends M&A talks with Brazilian crypto firm 2TM (BBG)

Exec's Picks

  • Yesterday, Jack Raines wrote a great piece about our problem with an overabundance of choices. Check out "The Paradox of Choice" here

Big Swinging Decks Podcast

Big Swinging Decks

Listen to Big Swinging Decks on Spotify. Litquidity and Mark Moran get granular without spinning their wheels to give you the industry-leading, mission-critical, official podcast of Wall Street. The former bankers take a bottoms-up approach and boil the ocean while still keeping it high level. Through their unfiltered analyses, the duo open up the kimonos on Wall Street and unveil the industry's juiciest news, rumors, and trends. The BSD Podcast is proudly presented by CoinFLEX.US. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

🚨BIG SWINGING DECKS IS BACK🚨

This week Lit & Mark sit down with Christina Melas-Kyriazi, a Partner at Bain Capital Ventures. The duo discusses Christina’s path from an analyst in Goldman Sachs' Industrials group to her current position as a Partner at BCV focused on early-stage fintech investments.

Pop that F1 key off your mechanical keyboard and listen to Christina’s phenomenal career advice as well as the REAL story about how Lit became a venture scout for Bain Capital Ventures.

Catch the latest episode of our Big Swinging Decks podcast on Spotify, Apple, and YouTube 🤝 (presented by CoinFLEX.US)

The Hiring Block

If you're looking to break into finance, lateral, or move out, check out our job board on Pallet. If you're a firm looking to advertise a job opening to a highly-targeted finance audience, you can post a job here.

Meme Cleanser

Advertise with us // Visit our merch store // Invest alongside Lit Ventures

Catch the latest episode of our Big Swinging Decks podcast, presented by CoinFLEX.US, on Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube 🤝