Emptying out the notebook on a Thursday morning...

🤖 The new thing: SignalFire, a Silicon Valley-based VC firm that's been talking about and utilizing AI for years, tells Axios that it's launching a new AI lab that will be part incubator and part investment strategy.

• The basic conceit is to focus on the intersection of large language models with data that isn't publicly available on the Internet.
• Most of that's locked up within corporations or institutions like medical organizations or banks. So SignalFire's AI lab aims to bring together individuals from such places, and team them with both AI engineers and entrepreneurs who have sell-side domain expertise.
• SignalFire has earmarked up to $50 million for such startups, out of larger funds raised earlier this year.
• "All the blockchain hustlers are now AI hucksters," says SignalFire founder and CEO Chris Farmer. "We're bearish on a lot of these LLMs that we think will commoditize, even though a lot of it on the consumer side is very interesting, and think the real transformation will come from very specific private data sets."

🔑 Next act: Amy Wu, who led FTX Ventures until the crypto exchange's collapse, has joined Menlo Ventures as a partner focused on consumer startups.

• Wu, who will be based in New York, tells Axios' Kia Kokalitcheva about her FTX experience: "It was really difficult, I was there for a short period of time — it was 10 months and it felt like 10 years ... I found out about what happened on Twitter, along with most of the employees."
• Go deeper.

🗳️ In the ring: Miami Mayor Francis Suarez yesterday became the latest Republican to seek his party's presidential nomination.

• That also makes him another candidate with private market investment ties.
• Suarez in 2021 joined Miami-based DaGrosa Capital Partners as a senior operating partner.
• At the time, he told me of the arrangement: "Not unusual at all. In Miami, we do not have a strong mayor form of government so the mayors of the past have been practicing lawyers or have had outside employment ... I have a city manager that manages the day to day. In addition, the PE firm does not do any business with the city nor will they ... And to be clear, I've been a practicing lawyer through my time as a public servant."

🚑 New fund alert: Recharge Capital this morning announced the launch of a $200 million private equity fund focused on women's health outside the U.S.

• Here's part of the PR pitch: "As countries around the world crack down on reproductive access, medical tourism has become a human rights issue — and Recharge is at the forefront of ensuring the right to fertility services for women and LGBTQ+ people globally."
• One of the new fund's limited partners is Peter Thiel, who in 2016 helped fund the campaign of a presidential candidate who not only promised to overturn Roe v. Wade, but effectively succeeded in doing so.
• Axios asked Recharge about the seeming hypocrisy, to which it replied: "All of the investors have a shared belief in the importance of addressing women’s healthcare issues, including IVF access, menstrual wellness, and disease prevention. We specifically selected an investor group for this vehicle to demonstrate that there is common ground to address the numerous areas in the women's healthcare space."

Cava, a fast-casual Mediterranean restaurant chain with over 250 locations, raised $318 million in its IPO.

Why it's the BFD: This may be the big win that the IPO market has been desperately waiting for.

Details: Cava busted through a price range that it had already boosted, snaring $22 per share.

• That gives the company an initial market value of $2.45 billion. For context, its last private round valuation was in April 2021 at $1.71 billion.
• VC backers include T. Rowe Price (17.4% pre-IPO stake), SWaN & Legend (11.6%) and Revolution Growth (6.9%).
• Chief financial officer Tricia Tolivar tells Axios that the company plans to open between 60 and 70 new stores in 2023, with a 15% target for annual store growth. By 2032, that would mean over 1,000 Cava locations.

The bottom line: Cava isn't a clean comp for most of prospective IPO issuers, which trend more toward SaaS or biotech. But its success does suggest that institutional investors are again willing to look at new names, after a year of focusing on discounted named already in market.

• Paro, a Chicago-based marketplace for freelance finance and accounting professionals, raised $25m in Series C funding. Top Tier Capital Partners led, and was joined by insiders Madrona Venture Group, Revolution Ventures and Sierra Ventures. https://axios.link/3p4tRgh

• Thinksurance, a German insurtech focused on commercial and industrial clients, raised €22m. Viewpoint Ventures and M-Tech Capital co-led and were joined by Segenia Capital, Eight Roads Ventures and Columbia Lake Partners. https://axios.link/42EcxfJ

🚑 Medivis, a New York-based developer of AR surgical tools, raised $30m in Series A funding. Thrive Capital led, and was joined by Initialized Capital and Mayo Clinic. www.medivis.com

• Blackbird.ai, a Rochester, N.Y.-based misinformation analysis platform, raised $20m in Series B funding. Ten Eleven Ventures led, and was joined by Dorilton Capital, Generation Ventures StartFast Ventures and Trousdale Ventures. www.blackbird.ai

🎵 Soundtrack Your Brand, a Swedish music streaming service for businesses, raised $15m led by MUSIC, a holding company of Matt Pincus, Liontree, JS Capital Management and Schusterman Family Investments. Other backers include Dundee Partners, Balderton Capital, Fuel Venture Capital, Industrifonden, Telia and DIG. www.soundtrackyourbrand.com

• Deepchecks, an Israeli ML model validation startup, raised $14m in seed funding. Alpha Wave Ventures led, and was joined by Hetz Ventures and Grove Ventures. https://axios.link/45Zqt7b

• Kanastra, a Brazilian capital markets infrastructure startup, raised $13m in seed funding. Valor Capital and Quona Capital co-led, and were joined by QED Investors, Actyus, Collaborative, Crestone, Grão, Endeavor, Clocktower, Latitud and Norte. www.kanstra.com.br

• SpotHopper, a Milwaukee-based provider of restaurant marketing tech, raised $12m in Series B from insider TVC Capital. https://axios.link/43GAVyW

• Sparetech, a German provider of spare part management SaaS, raised €10m from Insight Partners and Headline. www.sparetech,io

• Majority, a Miami-based mobile banking service for migrants, raised $9.75m in Series B extension funding from insiders Valar Ventures and Heartcore Capital. https://axios.link/3N6GDTx

• EdgeTier, an Irish customer service startup, raised €6m in Series A funding. Smedvig Capital led, and was joined by Episode 1 and Act VC. ​​https://axios.link/3N9ksfy

• BoomFi, a London-based crypto payments startup, raised $3.8m in seed funding. White Star Capital led, and was joined by Passion Capital, Blockchain Founders Fund, Kraken Ventures, GSR, Aquanow and Mantle Network. https://axios.link/3X67Biz

• Masthead Data, a Toronto-based data observability platform, raised US$1.3m in pre-seed funding. Focal led, and was joined by SMOK Ventures, DEPOT Ventures, Monochrome and Alchemist Accelerator. www.mastheadata.com

• Freetrade, a British stock trading app backed by L Catterton and Left Lane Capital, is launching a crowdfunding campaign that would value it at £225m (65% discount to last VC round). https://axios.link/3qMpbMM

• Ares Management made an equity investment in Extreme Reach, a Dedham, Mass.-based "creative logistics" firm that's majority owned by Gamut Capital Management. www.extremereach.com

• Bain Capital offered to buy Swiss cloud software firm SoftwareOne (Swiss: SWON) for around $3.2b, a price that the company's board says "materially undervalues" the company. https://axios.link/3oXTTSB

• Capital Constellation, an investment platform of Wafra, made a minority investment in private equity firm Greenbelt Capital Partners. www.greenbeltcapital.com

• Lenskart, an Indian omnichannel eyewear retailer, raised $100m from ChrysCapital. https://axios.link/468NbKe

• The Riverside Company acquired Bishops, a Portland, Ore.-based provider of hair care services. www.bishops.co

• Ciner Group, the Turkish parent company of natural soda ash producer WE Soda, scrapped plans for a London IPO that had been expected to raise at least $800m at a $7.5b valuation. https://axios.link/46hHQ3l

• Bain Capital is planning to sell a 0.7% stake in listed Indian lender Axis Bank, which could fetch around $267m, per CNBC-TV18. https://axios.link/43GmZ81

• Informatica (NYSE: INFA) agreed to buy Privitar, a London-based data privacy software startup that had raised around $150m from firms like Accel, HSBC, Citi, Salesforce and Warburg Pincus. No financial terms were disclosed. https://axios.link/43Rprs8

• Peak XV Partners (fka Sequoia Capital India) sold its remaining 10.18% stake in Indian fashion company Go Fashion. https://axios.link/42EFYhG

• Bell Media plans to sell three AM radio stations and close six others. This is part of a major reorg at parent company BCE (TSX: BCE), which also plans to cut 1,300 jobs. https://axios.link/42F3jQG

• Boustead, a Malaysian conglomerate, is seeking a buyer for its Malaysia gas stations for upwards of $432m, per Bloomberg. https://axios.link/3JhofWO

⚡ Earthstone Energy (NYSE: ESTE) agreed to buy Oklahoma City-based Novo Oil & Gas for $1.5b from EnCap Investments. https://axios.link/3PeRCgs

⚡ Eni (Milan: ENI), the Italian energy group, is in talks to sell between a 5% and 15% stake in renewables and retail unit Plentitude, per Reuters. https://axios.link/3CrNhyV

⚡ Gibson Energy (TSX: GEI) agreed to buy the South Texas Gateway oil terminal from Buckeye Partners for $1.1b. https://axios.link/42X27s5

• Fanatics acquired Fexpro, a Panama-based licensee for several major U.S. sports leagues and European soccer clubs. https://axios.link/3Csu1B7

• MOBA Networks (STO: MOBA) of Sweden agreed to buy Wargraphs, a one-person maker of a League Of Legends companion app, for upwards of €50m (half upfront). https://axios.link/3N26KuQ

⚡ Patterson-UTI Energy (Nasdaq: PTEN) agreed to buy NexTier Oilfield Solutions (NYSE: NEX) in an all-stock deal that creates a $5.4b oil services firm. https://axios.link/3qGfcs5

⚡ Shell (NYSE: SHEL) is seeking to sell its Pakistan business. https://axios.link/462OaLO

• U.K. antitrust regulators launched an investigation into LKQ Corp.’s (Nasdaq: LKQ) proposed $2.1b acquisition of Canadian auto parts and pain distributor Uni-Select (TSX: UNS). https://axios.link/3CxG1Bo

🚑 Calera Capital raised $750m for a single-asset continuation fund for ImageFirst, a provider of linen, laundry and hygiene services for the health care industry. www.caleracapital.com

• Canva, a visual communications unicorn, launched a $50m corporate venture fund to support app developers on its new dev platform. https://axios.link/43MgQHy

• Discover (NYSE: DFS) launched a $36m VC fund focused on personal financial wellness startups. https://axios.link/3X7K6px

• Peakview Capital raised $145m for its fourth vehicle, which makes direct and indirect VC investments. www.peakview.capital

• TA Associates, a Boston-based private equity firm, raised $16.5b for its 15th fund. www.ta.com

• Deutsche Bank hired Marie-Soazic Geffroy (ex-Perella Weinberg) and Chris Williams (ex-Credit Suisse) as global co-head of its financial institutions group and EMA FIG chair, respectively, per Bloomberg. https://axios.link/3Xf9ytd

🚑 Joe Papa, former CEO of Bausch & Lomb, joined Water Street Healthcare Partners to focus on specialty pharma investments. www.waterstreet.com

• Paul Todd, former EVP and CFO of Global Payments, joined TTV Capital as a venture partner. www.ttvcapital.com

The Federal Reserve yesterday declined to raise interest rates for the first time in over a year.

• Axios' Courtenay Brown writes that the central bank is gaining confidence that its Goldilocks scenario might come true.