When startups collapse, the losers usually are direct stakeholders like investors, founders, and employees.

• But when fintech Synapse went under earlier this year, thousands of users were also left holding the bag. In some cases, that meant their life savings.
• The question now is what to do about it.

Catch up quick: Synapse was a middleman, connecting fintechs that didn't have banking licenses with actual banks.

• It raised just over $50 million in VC funding, most recently in a $33 million Series B round in 2019 led by Andreessen Horowitz (which took a board seat).
• Earlier this year a dispute over account balances arose between Synapse and lender Evolve Bank, resulting in Synapse locking users out of their accounts. Synapse's fintech partners bailed, and bankruptcy followed.
• That dispute remains unresolved, with a court-appointed trustee estimating that there are between $65 million and $95 million in missing funds. For example, a woman named Kayla Morris so far only has recovered $579 of $282,153 that she believed was kept in FDIC-insured accounts — cash that the mother of three had saved to buy a house.

The big picture: The mystery of the missing money hasn't been resolved because of ... well, money.

• The trustee says that Synapse doesn't have enough to pay for an outside firm to reconcile the ledgers, estimating it would cost between $2 and $3 million.
• It's not a guarantee that all the funds would be found in a reconciliation process, but it's the best option.

A modest proposal: Synapse is broke. Andreessen Horowitz is not.

• The venture firm got wiped out on its Synapse investment, and has no legal obligation to help, but it could be the financier of last resort for people like Kayla Morris.
• Kind of like what Bain Capital and KKR did when they created a $20 million pool to compensate thousands of Toys "R" Us employees who lost their jobs when the retailer shut down — funded by the general partners, not the limited partners.
• In this case we're talking about just $2 million to $3 million, which is just a small fraction of the management fees that Andreessen Horowitz generates each year.

Andreessen Horowitz didn't return requests for comment.

The bottom line: Venture capital firms aren't charities, but that doesn't mean they must turn a blind eye to suffering caused by companies that they funded and helped to oversee.

Source: Giphy

UniCredit (Milan: UCG) offered to buy rival Italian lender Banco BPM (Milan: BAMI) for €10 billion in stock.

Why it's the BFD: The surprise bid could wreck Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's plan to create the country's third-largest bank — behind UniCredit and Intesa Sanpaolo — by selling BMPS to Banco BPM.

• It also comes as UniCredit continues to consider a takeover effort for Germany's Commerzbank, which would face stiff opposition from Berlin.

The bottom line: UniCredit wants to become one of Europe's top banks, even if that means ruffling government feathers.

🚑 Adcendo, a Denmark-based developer of ADCs treating cancers, raised $135m in Series B funding. TCGX led, and was joined by TPG Life Sciences Innovations, Orbimed, Venrock, Surveyor Capital, Logos Capital and insiders RA Capital Management, Novo Holdings, Pontifax, KKR-controlled Dawn Biopharma, HealthCap, Gilde Healthcare, and Ysios Capital. axios.link/3ZjQYCO

• Halcyon, an Austin, Texas-based cybersecurity startup focused on ransomware, raised $100m in Series C funding. Evolution Capital Partners led, and was joined by Bain Capital Ventures, SYN Ventures, Harmony Group, Corner Capital Management, Dropbox Ventures, and ServiceNow Ventures. axios.link/4fNI0Uf

• Pyramid Analytics, a Dutch business decision intelligence company, raised $50m from BlackRock. axios.link/4g5qM4D

🚑 Neoplas Med, a German developer of wound care devices, raised $18m from insider Niterra Ventures. neoplas-med.eu

• Emma, a Luxembourg-based cloud management platform, raised $17m in Series A funding. Smartfin led, and was joined by RTP Global. emma.ms

• Amigo, a digital AI cloning platform, raised $6.3m co-led by General Catalyst and GSV Ventures. amigo.ai

🚑 Cofactor AI, a platform for appealing health claim denials, raised $4m in seed funding led by Drive Capital. cofactorai.com

• Pi-xcels, a startup that sends receipts directly to phones, raised $2.7m in seed funding led by Headline, per Axios Pro. axios.link/4g4kOkg

• Apax Partners agreed to buy the professional services unit of Evelyn Partners, a British wealth manager owned by Permira, for £700m, per The Sunday Times. axios.link/4935out

• Arlington Capital Partners bought Team Technologies, a Morristown, Tenn., provider of manufacturing and supply chain solutions to health-care companies, from Clearlake Capital Group. teamtech.com

⚡ Blackstone will invest $3.5b to buy non-control equity stakes in some natural gas pipelines owned by EQT (NYSE: EQT). axios.link/4fHK5kH

• BUKO Traffic & Safety, a Dutch portfolio company of Equistone, acquired Hooke Highways, a U.K. provider of road traffic solutions. bukoinfrasupport.nl

📺 CVC Capital Partners is exploring a takeover of U.K. broadcaster ITV, per Sky News. axios.link/4115BMM

• Goldman Sachs Asset Management agreed to buy Melita, a Malta provider of broadband and mobile services, from EQT for around €750m, per Bloomberg. axios.link/4g3lJBK

⚡ KKR and Mitsui OSK Lines (Tokyo: 9401) are among the bidders for LBC Tank Terminals, a Dutch bulk liquid storage company that could fetch more than €1.5b, per Bloomberg. LBC's owners include APG Asset Management, Ardian, and PGGM. axios.link/4g3lCWQ

🚑 Lafayette Instrument, a scientific instrumentation equipment maker owned by Branford Castle Partners, acquired Cupertino, Calif.-based Alzet Osmotic Pumps from Durect (Nasdaq: DRRX). alzet.com

• Mubadala Capital agreed to buy Canadian asset and wealth manager CI Financial (TSX: CIX) for C$4.7b, or C$32 per share. axios.link/411kuOW

• PAG agreed to buy Indian packaging company Manjushree Technopack from Advent International for nearly $1b, per Reuters. axios.link/40XB8z6

• Regnology, a German portfolio company of Nordic Capital, acquired the regulatory reporting business (fka Lombard Risk) of VERMEG, a portfolio company of Charterhouse Capital Partners. axios.link/3V4gHN6

• River Associates acquired ID Label, a Lake Villa, Ill.-based maker of barcode labels and warehouse signage for 3PLs and multi-site manufacturers. idlabelinc.com

• Sagewind Capital acquired a majority stake in Aechelon, a provider of image generation software and complex databases for training pilots across the U.S. Department of Defense. aechelon.com

• SolomonEdwards, a portfolio company of Renovus Capital Partners, acquired Dominion Advisory Group, an anti-money laundering advisory and financial crime consulting firm. solomonedwards.com

• Unanet, a Dulles, Va.-based ERP and CRM company backed by Onex and JMI Equity, acquired GovPro AI, a Washington, D.C.-based platform for writing government contract proposals. axios.link/3ZlFH50

• Vitu, a portfolio company of Accel-KKR, agreed to buy the Dealertrack registration and titling businesses from Cox Automotive. axios.link/496SThq

• Wind Point Partners acquired Velocity Rail Solutions, a Draper, Utah-based provider of locomotive services to the rail industry. velocityrail.com

🚑 Anteris Technologies Global, an Australian maker of artificial heart valves that trades on the ASX (AVR), filed for a $75m float on the Nasdaq (AVR). axios.link/4932fuH

• Inflection Point Acquisition III, a SPAC formed by Kingstown Capital, filed for a $220m IPO. axios.link/3V3oCug

• Odido, a Dutch telco owned by Apax Partners and Warburg Pincus, is interviewing banks about an Amsterdam IPO, per Bloomberg. axios.link/412PdeO

• Altas Partners and Leonard Green & Partners are weighing a sale of Tecta America, a Rosemont, Ill., commercial roofer that could fetch $3b-$4b, per Bloomberg. axios.link/4eIVsY9

• Global Schools, a Singapore-based international schools network backed by Apollo Global Management, is considering a minority stake sale, per Bloomberg. axios.link/4eJVv6c

• Perella Weinberg Partners Capital is weighing a sake of Flagship Credit Acceptance, a Coppell, Texas-based auto finance business that could fetch around $400m, per Bloomberg. axios.link/4g4D7WL

• Ally Financial (NYSE: ALLY) is weighing a sale of its credit card unit, which it acquired in 2021 for $750m, per Bloomberg. axios.link/40XgUFJ

⚡ Anglo American (LSE: AAL) agreed to sell its Australian steelmaking coal mines to Peabody Energy (NYSE: BTU) for up to $3.78b. This comes just days before mining giant BHP is allowed to renew its takeover efforts for Anglo American, after having been repeatedly rebuffed. axios.link/4fFIz2h

• Atos (Paris: ATOS) is in talks to sell its advanced computing business to the French government for around €500m. axios.link/3V7zNSp

• Bending Spoons, acquirer of apps like Evernote and Meetup, agreed to buy stream tech company Brightcove (Nasdaq: BCOV) for $233m in cash, or $4.45 per share. Bending Spoons backers include Durable Capital Partners, Baillie Gifford, Cox Enterprises, NB Renaissance, NUO Capital, and StarTIP. axios.link/3ZlzB4D

• D.W. Shaw hired Alantra Partners to sell around a €380m portfolio of Spanish non-performing loans and real estate assets, per Bloomberg. axios.link/4g2z1OU

• Edelweiss Financial Services of India hired Nomura to find a buyer for a minority stake in its mutual fund business, which could have a total valuation of $700m-$800m, per Bloomberg. axios.link/3OnUNAI

• Mavenir, a Richardson, Texas-based provider of mobile networking software, is in talks to raise $1b at a $3b valuation from Saudi Aramco's digital unit, per Reuters. axios.link/491mAR7

⚡ ONEOK (NYSE: OKE) agreed to buy the 57% stake it doesn't hold in EnLink Midstream (NYSE: ENLC) for $4.3b in stock. axios.link/4ePFc7I

• Quikrete agreed to buy Summit Materials (NYSE: SUM), a Denver-based maker of aggregates and cement, for approximately $11.5b (including debt), or $52.50 per share. axios.link/4hXsO8F

🚑 Frontline Healthcare Partners, a Charleston, S.C.-based small-cap PE firm, raised $125m for its debut fund. frontlinehcp.com

• Gray Line Partners, a Bellevue, Wash.-based VC firm led by Eddie Kang (ex-Point72), is raising up to $100m for its debut fund, per an SEC filing. graylinepartners.com

• Neo, a seed-stage accelerator and investor led by Ali Partovi, is raising up to $250m for its fourth fund, per SEC filings. neo.com

President-elect Trump chose hedge fund manager Scott Bessent to be U.S. Treasury secretary and picked Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer (R-Ore.) as U.S. Labor secretary.

• Just a week ago, Elon Musk tweeted that Bessent would be a "business-as-usual choice" and that "business-as-usual is driving America bankrupt."
• Elsewhere, the WSJ reports that Trump is considering venture capitalist Trae Stephens (Founders Fund) and Cerberus Capital Management CEO Stephen Feinberg to be deputy secretary of defense.

• H/L Ventures promoted Galina Ozgur to general partner. axios.link/3Or5EK

• Charles Yoon joined Brightstar Capital Partners as managing partner of a new lower-midmarket strategy, and the firm also hired Kevin Deemer as a managing director. Both men previously were with Bregal Partners. brightstarcp.com

70% of private equity managers have backed out of at least one deal due to AI considerations, according to a new Bain & Co. survey.

• Nearly 30% of managers currently underwrite generative AI risks of opportunities for all or most deals, although expectations are that the figure will rise to 95% within three years.