Former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin is returning to the dealmaking world, joining venture studio Red Cell Partners as a partner, chairman and board member, he tells Axios exclusively.

• Youngkin stepped down as Carlyle co-CEO in 2020 to run for governor.

Zoom in: Youngkin, who considered running for president in 2024, is expected to have a broad swath of responsibilities.

• He will help with LP relationships, government relations, and business partnership relationships. Youngkin notes that Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca, and Amazon announced investments in Virginia during his gubernatorial administration.
• Youngkin sees similarities between Red Cell's current trajectory, and his his experience with Carlyle's growth. He joined Carlyle in 1995, some eight years after its founding. "When I joined Carlyle, Carlyle was not a big firm and was growing rapidly," he says.

The big picture: Youngkin has previously said that he has no plans to run for president in 2028, and this step back into the private sector is a sign that he hasn't changed his mind.

• The Red Cell role is expected to take up one to two days a week, says Youngkin — which I point out leaves him five days a week to other projects.
• But he tells Axios: "The bottom line is, I don't have a team. I'm not organizing a big campaign. I am really focused on some of these commitments that I've made."

Red Cell invests in defense, healthcare, and cyber. It's named after the CIA's post 9/11 Red Cell unit, which evaluated potential national security threats from a non-traditional point of view.

• It's in the process of raising a second fund, a source tells Axios. Red Cell's first fund raised $91.2 million, and the new fund has already surpassed that total.

It also has a separate $150 million in a holding company that it uses to incubate companies, the source says. Part of the funding in the holding company has already been deployed.

• Red Cell's investments include Trase, an AI operating system which shares a CEO with Red Cell, and Claros, a startup minimizing energy waste at data centers.

PayPal received an acquisition offer from Stripe and Advent valuing the payment giant at over $53 billion, Reuters reports.

Why it's the BFD: It would be the largest fintech acquisition ever — and a rare case of a venture-backed company buying an S&P 500 company.

By the numbers: Stripe and Advent are offering $60.50 per PayPal share, a 28% premium to the company's Tuesday closing price. They also have some $50 billion in committed financing from banks.

• PayPal, Stripe and Advent declined to comment.

Between the lines: Stripe and PayPal's Braintree business compete directly, but PayPal's Venmo business would be strategically new to Stripe and give it a direct avenue into consumer's wallets.

Reality check: PayPal has struggled to monetize Venmo, despite its ubiquity.

• DeepSeek, the Chinese LLM developer, is seeking to raise $1.5b at a $71b valuation, per Bloomberg. It may file for an IPO as soon as this year. axios.link/453hNNG

🚑 Neko Health, a Stockholm-based whole-body scan company, raised $700m in Series C funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. O.G. Venture Partners, Atomico, General Catalyst, Lakestar, Liberty City Ventures, BDT & MSD, and Positive Sum joined. The deal values it at $7b, up from $1.8b, a source tells Axios. axios.link/453hNNG

🚑 AdvanCell, an Australia-based radiopharmaceutical company focused on cancer, raised $315m in Series D funding led by Ally Bridge Group and Alpha Wave, joined by Bain Capital Life Sciences, Fidelity Management & Research Company, T. Rowe Price Associates, Eventide Asset Management, and Velosity Capital. axios.link/4wDZOcn

• Miles Wang, an OpenAI researcher leaving to found an AI model company for drug discovery, is in talks to raise $200m $2b valuation. Lightspeed is in discussions to lead, per TechCrunch. axios.link/4aWc67L

• Emergent, an SF-based vibe coding startup, raised $130m at a $1.5b valuation, per Axios Pro. Creaegis and Claypond led. Khosla Ventures, SoftBank, Lightspeed, Sentinel Global and Y Combinator joined. axios.link/451R4kz

• Brinc, a Seattle-based 911 drone maker, raised $125m in funding. Motorola Solutions led, joined by Index Ventures. axios.link/4wJpLY9

• TerraFirma, an Austin, Texas-based interplanetary construction startup, raised $115m, including a $100m Series A. Kleiner Perkins led, joined by Bain Capital Ventures, Glade Brook Capital Partners, BANNER VC, Saga Ventures, Trust Ventures, Definition, PEAK6, Magnetar Capital, and Ravelin Capital. axios.link/4wIGGdw

• Lumin, a San Ramon, Calif.-based digital bank, raised $115m at a $1.6 billion post-money valuation, per Axios Pro. Light Street Capital led. axios.link/4fy3ve1

• Spectro Cloud, an AI infrastructure company that helps manage token costs, raised $100m at an over $1b valuation. Growth Equity at Goldman Sachs Alternatives led, joined by AMD, Ericsson, LG, and Maximus. axios.link/3QUn9Yn

• Flex, an SF-based AI banking platform for mid-sized business owners, raised $70m in Series B1 funding. Halo Fund led, joined by returning investors Portage Ventures and Crosslink Capital. The round valued Flex at about $1.2b, per Reuters. axios.link/4bIdc7f

• Senra Systems, a wire-harness startup, raised $65m in Series B funding co-led by Interlagos and Lowercarbon, per Axios Future of Defense. Alumni Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund and General Catalyst joined. axios.link/4w0yJ3d

• Oak, an Israel-based identity governance company, raised $60m in seed funding. Accel, CRV, and Greylock Partners co-led, joined by AlphaDrive Ventures and Hetz Ventures. axios.link/4bDokCj

• Auger, a Bellevue, Wash.-based supply-chain software startup, raised $50m in Series B funding. Eclipse led, joined by returning investor Oak HC/FT. axios.link/4vZ4N7H

• TYLsemi, a San Jose, Calif.-based chiplet platform, raised a $43m round. Matter Venture Partners led, joined by Viola Ventures, GHOVC, and Egis Technology. axios.link/450F56P

• Velocity, a London-based stablecoin treasury and settlement platform, raised $38m in Series A funding led by Dragonfly and FirstMark, joined by Activant Capital, Capital One Ventures, QED Investors, Coinbase Ventures, Wintermute Ventures and Ripple. axios.link/4faaJU5

• Risk Ledger, a London-based supply chain security startup, raised $32m in Series B funding led by Axiom Equity. Mercia Ventures joined. riskledger.com

• Feathery, an SF-based decisioning system for financial services, raised $30m in seed and Series A funding. Investors include Portage Ventures, Index Ventures, Allstate Strategic Ventures, Clocktower Ventures, Erie Strategic Ventures, and Bain Capital Ventures. feathery.io

• Adapter, a developer tool and API maker, raised $17.8m from investors including GV, Bond Partners, Hillspire, and Byers Capital. axios.link/4fggFv0

• Meticulous, a code review and testing platform, raised $15m in Series A funding. Chemistry led, joined by Menlo Ventures, Arash Ferdowsi (Co-founder of Dropbox), Scott Belsky (former CPO of Adobe), Lachy Groom (formerly of Stripe). axios.link/4hep30s

• Cytronic, an SF-based automated fulfillment startup, raised a $13.5 million seed from Slow Ventures, per Axios Pro. Geek Ventures, Failup Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Spacecadet Ventures, Weekend Fund, Mana Ventures, Rice Capital and Script Capital joined. axios.link/3SXctsB

• Skalar, a Munich-based AI tax and accounting firm, raised €12m in pre-seed and seed funding. Headline led joined by futurepresent, QED Investors, Repeat, MS&AD and Foreword. axios.link/3RhjILp

• Pure, an SF-based infrastructure platform for peer-to-peer games, raised an $8m seed led by Hidden Capital. MaC Venture Capital, Ludlow Ventures, Goodwater Capital, SignalFire, Z Fellows, Jake Brooks, and Alex Pall. purepoker.us

🚑 Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) invested in Oura, a smart ring maker. axios.link/3TBJ5Ip

🚑 Inflexion agreed to acquire Primed Group, a German provider of medical consumables and sterilization services. axios.link/3SV9SiR

• Infrastructure Consulting & Engineering USA, a Godspeed Capital Management-backed company, acquired Southeastern Land Co., a right-of-way and easement acquisition and project management firm. ice-eng.com

⚡️ ePointZero, an Abu Dhabi-based energy investor, closed its acquisition of Traverse Midstream Partners, a U.S.-based portfolio company of The Energy & Minerals Group, for $2.25b. axios.link/4vnkhkF

• Francisco Partners is in late-stage negotiations with Thoma Bravo to buy a controlling stake in Command Alkon, a construction software maker, for as much as $1.3 billion, per Bloomberg. axios.link/4w2YcJn

• Gridiron Capital invested in Centroid Systems, a Troy, Mich.-based Oracle Cloud solutions services company. VSS Capital Partners exited. centroid.com

⚡️ Indonesia's PT Barito Renewables Energy offered to buy Energy Development Corp., a geothermal company backed by First Gen Corp., for more than $5b, per Bloomberg. axios.link/4pmOA9Y

• KKR will buy a 51% stake in Thomson Reuters' legal and tax publishing business, Global Print, in a $500m deal. Thomson Reuters will hold onto the other 49%. axios.link/4pl75LG

🚑 VetnCare, backed by Great Point Partners, acquired Holistic Veterinary Care, a Oakland, Calif.-based holistic medicine and rehabilitation veterinary hospital. axios.link/4hcBdXC

• Lionsgate Studios Corp. is exploring a possible sale. It's held discussions with Bolloré Group, per Reuters. axios.link/3TA8132

• Uber (NYSE: UBER) is in advanced talks to acquire Delivery Hero (DE: DHER), a German food-delivery company. axios.link/4w6xqzU

• Cribl, an analytics software developer, acquired Israeli startup CardinalOps, an agentic detection platform for reportedly about $100m. CardinalOps' backers included Viola Ventures, Glilot Capital, Battery Ventures, In Venture, XT Hi-Tech, and Gefen Capital, Symbol. axios.link/4yCzMIy

• Wafra closed Constellation Generation V at $2b. axios.link/4f2uKxh

• Greylock announced Greylock 18 with $1.5b. axios.link/4fhiDeE

• Future Standard appointed Edwin Conway as CEO. axios.link/4vzrzln

• Gigascale Capital hired Simran Arora as head of finance. She was previously at SemperVirens Venture Capital. axios.link/3R9g863

• Paradigm promoted Katie Biber to COO. axios.link/4wIEx1s