Manish Lachwani is co-founder and former CEO of mobile app-testing company HeadSpin, which once was valued at more than $1 billion by venture capitalists. He's also about to become a federal inmate.

Driving the news: Lachwani on Friday was sentenced to 18 months in prison, after pleading guilty to two counts of wire fraud and one count of securities fraud.

• He also will be required to serve three years of supervised release after leaving prison and pay a $1 million fine. A hearing on restitution is scheduled for July 31.

Catch up quick: Lachwani was charged in 2021 with lying to investors, both to raise capital and to enrich himself.

• He inflated company financials, lied about customer contracts, and altered invoices.
• HeadSpin used this bogus info to help raise around $117 million from firms like Google Ventures, Iconiq, Dell Technologies Ventures, Felicis, Battery Ventures, and Tiger Global.
• At one point, Lachwani sold around $2.5 million of personal shares.

The big picture: The defense argued for a lighter sentence because HeadSpin backers were later offered their money back, minus lost opportunity costs, but neither the judge nor prosecutors were in a forgiving mood.

The bottom line: This is a stark reminder that "fake it 'till you make it" cannot include providing false information to investors, even if those investors are later made whole.

• It's also an indirect indictment of diligence-light venture capital, as documented by the NY Times' Erin Griffith.

CVC Capital Partners set an IPO range that could value the private equity firm at up to $16 billion, with plans to begin trading Friday in Amsterdam.

Why it's the BFD: This would be the largest private equity firm to go public since TPG in early 2022, and comes ahead of an expected listing later this year from General Atlantic.

• CVC also would become Europe's second most-valuable PE firm, behind EQT.

The bottom line: "The decision to announce pricing is the latest step towards a long-awaited IPO that was delayed twice by difficult market conditions, first caused by the war in Ukraine and then by the conflict in the Middle East." — Will Louch, FT

• Midas, a Turkish retail investing platform, raised $45m in Series A funding. Portage led, and was joined by IFC, Spark Capital, Earlybird Digital East Fund, and Revo Capital. getmidas.com

🚑 Rubedo Life Sciences, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based developer of therapies targeting senescent cells that cause chronic atopic dermatitis and chronic psoriasis, raised $40m in Series A funding. Khosla Ventures and Ahern Innovation Capital co-led, and were joined by Hevolution, R42, Modi Ventures, Cerigo Investments, Shanda Group, Refactor Capital, LongeVC, and Italian Angels for Growth. rubedolife.com

🚑 AccessHope, a Duarte, Calif.-based cancer care startup, raised $33m in Series B funding form City of Hope. myaccesshope.org

• Payflows, a Paris-based SaaS for finance teams, raised €25m in Series A funding. Balderton Capital led, and was joined by Headline and Ribbit Capital. payflows.io

🚑 Smart Reporting, a German medical reporting platform, raised €23m. TVM Capital Life Science led, and was joined by Bayern Kapital and insiders like Yabeo Capital. axios.link/4d8QBjj

🌎 Accacia, a decarbonization platform for real estate and infrastructure, raised $6.5m. Illuminate Financial led, and was joined by AC Ventures, Accel, and B Capital. accasia.ai

🚑 Pelvital USA, an Eagan, Minn.-based developer of a device for stress urinary incontinence, raised $2.3m in seed funding led by Boomerang Ventures. flytetherapy.com

• BettrData, a Lakewood, Colo.-based provider of no-code/low-code tools for data professionals, raised $2.2m in seed funding. Range Ventures led, and was joined by SaaS Ventures and Greater Colorado Venture Fund. bettrdata.io

• Arcline Investment Management completed its $1.8b take-private buyout of Kaman, a Bloomfield, Conn.-based aerospace and defense firm. axios.link/3U0Jj8w

🎵 Blackstone bid $1.5b for music rights investment group Hipgnosis Songs Fund, topping a $1.4b offer from Apollo-backed Concord. axios.link/447APRS

• Cyber Advisors, a Maple Grove, Minn.-based portfolio company of Goldner Hawn, acquired S&L Computer Services, a Fargo, N.D.-based IT service provider for small businesses. cyberadvisors.com

• Eurazeo agreed to acquire a majority stake in Eres Group, a French provider of employee profit-sharing and retirement solutions, from IK Partners. eres-group.com

• KKR and Global Infrastructure Partners entered the bidding for XpFibre, a French fiber-to-the-home infrastructure firm, per Bloomberg. It could fetch around €7b (including debt). Altice France owns a 50.1% stake, while the remainder is held by a group that includes OMERS, Allianz Capital Partners, and AXA IM Real Assets. axios.link/44dhD5k

⚡ LanzaJet, a Deerfield, Ill.-based sustainable aviation fuel developer, is raising around $100m in new funding, per Axios Pro. In February it raised $30m from Southwest Airlines. axios.link/49HNVGJ

🚑 MBK Partners is in talks to buy South Korean wholesale drug distributor Geo-Young from Blackstone for over $1b, per Reuters. axios.link/3Wdj3KX

• TDR Capital is in talks to buy Zuber Issa's 22.5% stake in British supermarket group Asda, which would give TDR a majority stake, per Bloomberg. axios.link/3JuD34f

• Valsoft, a Canadian software acquirer backed by Coatue and Viking Global Investors, acquired Trendex, a Canadian provider of software for industrial gases and welding supplies distributors. valsoftcorp.com

Three major IPOs expected this week on U.S. exchanges: Rubrik, Marex Group, and Loar Holdings.

• ShipBob, a Chicago-based e-commerce logistics company, picked JPMorgan to lead its IPO, per Bloomberg. The company has raised around $330m from firms like Bain Capital Ventures, SoftBank, Menlo Ventures, Hyde Park Venture Partners, Hyde Park Angels, and SVB. axios.link/4d4ha9r

• Viking Holdings, a cruise operator backed by TPG, set IPO terms to 44m shares at $21-$25. It would have a $10.2b fully diluted valuation, were it to price in the middle, and plans to list on the NYSE (VIK). axios.link/4d861UX

• GP-Act III Acquisition, a SPAC backed by GP Investments and Boxcar Partners, filed for a $250m IPO. It originally filed for a $350m IPO in 2021 that it later withdrew. axios.link/4d8Nfx2

• Partners Group is weighing options for Form Technologies, a Charlotte, N.C.-based industrial manufacturer that had $900m in debt coming due next year, per Bloomberg. axios.link/3xLUqeh

• TA Associates and LEA Partners are weighing a sale of Chaos Group, a German maker of 3D video software that could fetch up to €1b, per Bloomberg. axios.link/3W8rreQ

⚡ Eversource Energy (NYSE: ES) agreed to sell its 50% stake in the 924-megawatt Sunrise Wind project in New York to Denmark's Ørsted. axios.link/3w292Wg

• Express, a Columbus, Ohio-based clothing retailer, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The move will facilitate a sale to WHP Global, Simon Property Group, and Brookfield Properties. axios.link/3W4eD9f

• Kroger (NYSE: KR) and Albertsons Cos (NYSE: ACI) amended their divestiture agreement with C&S Wholesale Grocers, by adding 166 stores, as they fight the FTC's efforts to block their proposed merger. axios.link/3w5eaZL

• Quanex Building Products (NYSE: NX) agreed to buy British windows and doors supplier Tyman (LSE: TYMN) for around $1.1b. axios.link/4d42Ai9

• Salesforce (Nasdaq: CRM) abandoned efforts to buy data management software provider Informatica (NYSE: INFA), after the companies couldn't agree on terms, per Reuters. axios.link/3UqTgh7

⚡ Sapura Energy of Malaysia agreed to sell its 50% stake in oil and gas upstream company SapuraOMV to TotalEnergies (Paris: TTEF) for $705m. axios.link/49IB0UJ

• Vista Outdoor (NYSE: VSTO), a Minnesota-based sporting goods and ammunition manufacturer, said it will engage in discussions with MNC Capital, a Dallas-based family office that offered to buy Vista for $3b. It also advised MNC to up its price. Vista has an existing agreement to sell its firearms and ammo division to Prague-based Czechoslovak Group for $1.91 billion, in a deal that's drawn U.S. national security scrutiny.

🌎 GEF Capital Partners, a Washington, D.C.-based private equity firm focused on climate change and pollution mitigation, raised $325m for its second fund. gefcapital.com

🌎 Nuveen is raising up to $400m for its second "climate inclusion" PE fund, with around $150m already committed, per an SEC filing. axios.link/4aEhtpQ

• Sweden became the 24th country to become a limited partner in the NATO Innovation Fund. axios.link/3W5sOe3

• TLcom Capital, an Africa-focused VC firm, raised $154m for its second fund. axios.link/44bywgp

• Peter Aliprantis joined EQT as head of Americas private wealth management. He previously was with TPG Angelo Gordon. axios.link/4aZXq4Q

• Asante Capital Group, a London-based PE placement firm, promoted Laura Leyland to partner. asantecapital.com

• Barclays named Ihsan Essaid as sole head of global M&A, while former co-head Gary Posternack becomes chair of global M&A. It also named Stephen Pick (ex-UBS) as head of EMEA M&A, Pier Luigi Colizzi as EMEA M&A chair, and Asim Mullick as head of EMEA financial sponsors M&A. . axios.link/3UnmX2x

• Eric Brook left Deutsche Bank to join RBC as vice chair of consumer and retail I-banking, per Bloomberg. axios.link/4d41aV1

• Shalei Holway joined RTX Ventures as head of portfolio development, Axios has learned. She previously was a Biden administration appointee as senior advisor to the SBIC program. axios.link/49KT7cP

• Andy Lipsky and Haidee Lee are leaving JPMorgan Chase, per Reuters. Lipsky was vice chair of I-banking and is heading to Morgan Stanley in a similar role, while Lee was co-head of strategic investor group M&A and is returning to Goldman Sachs. axios.link/4d3lLbT

• Tilli Dias Passi is leaving Morgan Stanley, where she's North America head of consumer and retail ECM, per Reuters. axios.link/3JubcBe

• Tonya Zweier (ex-Riverside Co.) and Jeff Silverman (chief revenue officer at Qualifacts) joined Inverness Graham as a financial operating partner and growth operating partner, respectively. invernessgraham.com