Cleaning out the notebook before packing...

🧱 Second-order effects: America is in "an era of deportation," which means that construction companies will turn faster to new technologies, according to Brick & Mortar Ventures founder Darren Bechtel.

• Sure he's talking his book, and quietly raising a third fund with a $150 million target, but that doesn't make him wrong.
• "Construction companies used to look at something like a drywall finishing robot and put it head-to-head against their best guy, and usually stick with the human because of switching costs," Bechtel says. "But suddenly they don't know where their best guy went and can't find anyone to do drywall, so they're asking for the robot."

🎉 Static growth: Private credit is the party that just won't end.

• Just this week saw Blackstone launch a $20 billion PC partnership with Legal & General, plus Coller Capital raising $6.8 billion for a PC secondaries fund.
• The big question going forward is how, or if, the industry scales beyond its sponsor-backed origins.
• Carlyle recently wrote a white paper arguing that PC soon could expand into investment grade debt and asset-backed finance, and JPMorgan even launched something akin to a PC trading desk.
• But some forms of expansion may be antithetical to the core value proposition, which perhaps is why JPM traders can't find sellers. Feels like a storyline to watch in the back half of 2025...

⚖️ Lost kingdom: Fraudulent fashion "unicorn" CaaStle late last month filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Three interesting notes from court docs:

1. Not everyone is out of the money. Company cofounder and Princeton computer science professor JP Singh cashed $6 million of shares last October, while then-COO George Goldenberg netted $3 million in November. Neither of them brought that up on an investor call shortly after the fraud news broke.
2. Major shareholders included investment entities affiliated with Ram Shriram, Seth Klarman, and Jim Breyer (who also invested in another of Singh's startup). In other words, these weren't unsophisticated investors who got swindled.
3. CaaStle confirms that both DOJ and the SEC are investigating, even though no charges have been brought yet. Which continues to be mind-boggling, given that over half a billion dollars was siphoned.

💰 Base broadener: When we last checked in with Adeo Ressi, who us olds will remember as the unmasked creator of TheFunded.com, he was launching a chatbot for emerging VC fund managers.

• Now his company, called Decile Group, has quietly raised $14 million in seed funding led by Draper Associates, Javelin Venture Partners, and Geek Ventures.
• It's also launched Start Fund, which enables people to launch institutional-grade VC funds in just hours. No fund formation lawyers or other standard vendor requirements.
• "We've been helping to launch around 250 new VC firms per year, but to really get to the tens of thousands we feel are needed worldwide, something big needed to happen," Ressi explains. "We looked at barriers to entry and it was in setting up funds — which can take six months and cost $100k — so we just hacked away at it."
• Start Fund splits 2% management fees with the GPs, who aren't required to use Start Fund for follow-ons.

🌎 Who you calling for? Luisa Sucre (ex-Collaborative Fund) just joined Sunna Ventures, a new climate-tech firm led by Luis Daniel Arbulu. That's right, Luisa and Luis.

• She'll be a general partner at Sunna, which just closed on $40 million for its debut fund.

📅 Mark your calendar: Axios BFD returns to New York City on Tuesday, Nov. 18. More details soon...

The U.S. Department of Defense agreed to buy $400 million of preferred shares in MP Materials (NYSE: MP), owner of America's only operational rare earths mine, as part of a broader strategic agreement.

Why it's the BFD: The U.S. is almost entirely dependent on foreign countries for the mining and processing of rare earths, even though they're key components in everything from fighter jets to iPhones.

• Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, a onetime venture capitalist, previewed this sort of deal back in April, as a way to decouple from China.

Investor reax: MP Materials shares spiked more than 45% on the news, closing yesterday with a $7.3 billion market cap.

Catch up quick, per Axios Pro's Katie Fehrenbacher: The U.S. has tried before to stimulate domestic rare earth production, but costs for Chinese imports remained cheaper.

• MP Materials bought the Mountain Pass mine in California from Molycorp, which went bankrupt in 2015 — shortly after the mine opened. It later went public via SPAC.
• A risk mitigator here is that DOD becomes one of MP's top customers, although that's also something of a risk concentrator.

The bottom line: It's kind of wild for a Republican administration to literally buy the means of production.

• Bilt, a New York-based rent credit card provider, raised $250m at a $10.75b valuation led by General Catalyst and GID. Axios Pro flashback.

• Harmonic AI, a math-focused AI startup co-founded by Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, raised $100m in Series B funding. Kleiner Perkins led, joined by Sequoia Capital, Index Ventures, and Paradigm. axios.link/4lO18UN

🚑 Neuros Medical, a Cleveland‑based maker of nerve‑stimulation devices, raised $56m in Series D funding. EQT Life Sciences led, joined by USVP, Amzak Health, Osage University Partners, Sectoral Asset Management, and Aperture Venture Partners. axios.link/4nFv72L

• Agora, a stablecoin startup, raised $50m in Series A funding led by Paradigm, with participation from Dragonfly. axios.link/46CvTaO

• RealSense, a robotics computer vision group, spun out from Intel and raised $50m in Series A funding. An undisclosed PE firm led, joined by Intel Capital and MediaTek Innovation Fund. axios.link/3U5b0xv

• Virtru, a Washington, D.C.-based data security startup, raised $50m in Series D funding at a $500m valuation. Iconiq led, joined by Bessemer Venture Partners, Foundry Capital, and The Chertoff Group. axios.link/44CWstS

• Moment, a trading and portfolio management workflow automation platform for fixed income, raised $36m in Series B funding. Index Ventures led, joined by a16z and Lightspeed. axios.link/44UmiL7

• Tolan, an AI companion, raised $20m in Series A funding. Khosla Ventures led, joined by NFDG, Bloomberg Beta, Homebrew, and Lachy Groom. tolans.com

• QuiX Quantum, a Dutch photonic quantum computing startup, raised €15m in Series A funding. Invest-NL and EIC Fund led, joined by PhotonVentures, Oost, and FORWARD one. axios.link/44XjlcQ

• Two, an Oslo-based B2B payments startup, raised €13m in Series A funding, per Axios Pro. Idékapital and Shine Capital led, joined by Antler, Sequoia Capital, Alliance Ventures, Arkwright, and Local Globe. axios.link/44Fmxsp

• Woba, a Brazilian flexible office network provider, raised $13.5m led by Bewater, with participation from Kaszek and Valor Capital. axios.link/4kAd6Ap

• Knox, a federal managed cloud provider, raised $6.5m in seed funding. Felicis led, joined by Ridgeline and FirsthandVC. axios.link/4lu5qRC

• ALTR, a Phoenix‑based alcohol removal tech company, raised $5m in seed funding. Demeter led, joined by Suntory Global Spirits, Techmind, AZ Venture Capital, FTW Ventures, Bluestein Ventures, Solvable, and Xinomavro. axios.link/3GFQiRL

• Booz Allen Ventures invested in Corsha, a Vienna, Va.-based machine identity provider. corsha.com

🚑 Angeles Equity Partners and Kain Capital merged portfolio companies Agile Occupational Medicine and Akeso Occupational Health, creating the nation's second-largest independent occupational medicine provider. axios.link/44Gvhya

⚡ ArcLight agreed to acquire the economic interests in Middletown, a 484-MW natural gas fired power generation asset in Ohio. axios.link/4lF77ek

• Counsel Press, a portfolio company of Align Capital Partners, acquired Gibson Moore, a Richmond, Va.-based provider of legal services like court rules interpretation and proofreading. counselpress.com

• Pacific Equity Partners agreed to buy Australian building services group Johns Lyng (ASX: JLG) for A$1.1b. axios.link/4ksV96F

• Lubrication Engineers, a Wichita, Kan.-based portfolio company of Aurora Capital Partners, acquired SWEPCO, a Fort Worth, Texas-based maker of industrial greases and lubricating oils, from DalFort Capital Partners. lelubricants.com

⚡ Rehlko, an Wisconsin-based energy resilience company owned by Platinum Equity, agreed to acquire Wilmott Group, a U.K. maker of backup power solutions. rehlko.com

• NexPhase Capital sold Zing Zang, a non-alcoholic cocktail mix brand, to Mizkan America. mizkan.com

• OpenGate completed its sale of Player One, a Toronto-based amusement services provider, to GENDA (Tokyo: 9166). axios.link/4iZeGf2

• Torch, a leadership coaching platform that's raised over $90m, acquired Praxis Labs, an AI learning platform that had raised around $19m from backers like Accenture and Precursor Ventures. axios.link/3TsVivY

• Ulta Beauty (Nasdaq: ULTA) agreed to acquire High Street retailer Space NK from Manzanita Capital. axios.link/463Hz6m

• Bazaar Technologies, a Pakistani e-commerce platform that's raised over $100m from firms like Dragoneer and Tiger Global, acquired local payments company Keenu. axios.link/3GIdtL8

• Citadel Securities acquired Morgan Stanley's electronic options market-making unit. axios.link/44qAage

• Flutter (NYSE: FLUT) agreed to buy Boyd Gaming's (NYSE: BYD) 5% stake in FanDuel for $1.76b, giving Flutter 100% control of the sports betting app. axios.link/3Tw5gNd

📰 Hearst agreed to buy Dallas Morning News publisher DallasNews (Nasdaq: DALN) for $75m, or $14 per share (219% premium). axios.link/45YCw76

• Jupiter (LSE: JUP), a British money manager, agreed to acquire smaller rival CCLA Investment Manager. axios.link/3ICY0N1

• Iveco Group (Milan: IVG) received bids for its defense unit from KNDS (€1.9b), Czechoslovak Group, and Leonardo (€1.6b), per Bloomberg. axios.link/4lMaP5V

• T-Mobile (Nasdaq: TMUS) received U.S. antitrust approval for its $4.4b purchase of U.S. Cellular's (NYSE: USM) wireless operations and select spectrum assets. axios.link/4lRlson

• US Foods (NYSE: USFD) is kicking tires on Performance Food Group (NYSE: PFGC), which has a $14b market cap, per Bloomberg. axios.link/3U3eWyO

• Flyer One Ventures, a Ukrainian VC firm, raised €50m for its fifth fund. axios.link/44nSExJ

• Gilot Capital Partners, an Israeli VC firm, is raising its fifth fund, per an SEC filing.

• Haveli Investments, a software-focused PE firm led by Brian Sheth (ex-Vista Equity), raised $4.5b for its debut fund, per the WSJ. axios.link/3ICElg9

🚑 Lorient Capital raised $500m for its third health-care PE fund. lorientcap.com

• Nzyme, a Spanish PE fund backed by Kibo Ventures and focused on B2B businesses, raised €160m. axios.link/3InupY3

• RCP Advisors of Chicago is raising up to $500m for its 20th primary fund-of-funds, per an SEC filing.

• Sarah Smith Fund, a VC firm led by former Bain Capital Ventures partner Sarah Smith, raised $16.1m for its debut fund. axios.link/3IlPL8c

🚑 Vie Ventures, a Boston-based life sciences VC firm led by MPM Capital vets Luke Evnin and Steven St. Peter, is raising $200m for its debut fund (with plans to close on at least $75m by year-end). axios.link/44FHS4H

• Scott Kupor, former managing partner of a16z and the firm's first employee, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to lead the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). axios.link/4lGvrg6

• Goldman Sachs promoted Ben Wallace to co-head of Americas M&A. axios.link/4lN1cEg

DOD's deal with MP Materials also provided a tailwind to Ramaco Resources, whose CEO said the company has had "indirect outreaches" with the government.

• Ramaco mines for metallurgical coal, but a recent study showed there could be technical viability and attractive economics for extracting rare earths from Brook Mine, a coal site in Wyoming. Go deeper.