Let's empty out the notebook to kick off the week...

↔️ Trading places: Sam Teller is becoming a partner with Thrive Capital, after having left Valor Equity Partners in 2023, Axios has learned.

• Teller had previously spent five years as Elon Musk's chief of staff, and has known Thrive founder Josh Kushner since the two were undergrads at Harvard. He also co-founded Launchpad LA.
• As an aside, I've begun to think that Kushner may go down as the most or least successful venture capitalist ever. His bets have been bigger and brasher than anyone else's, with the possible exception of Masa Son.

⚖️ Getting ugly: The fight between HR software deca-corns Deel and Rippling gets more nasty and personal with each court filing.

• The latest is a Friday lawsuit from Deel, accusing Rippling of defamation, libel, and deceptive trade practices.
• This comes after Rippling essentially accused Deel of corporate espionage, bolstered by an affidavit from the alleged spy.
• Each company's CEO figures prominently in the complaints.
• There's a ton of money at stake here, with the two companies having raised more than $2 billion combined.
• Rippling's raised $1.4 billion from VC firms like Founders Fund and Kleiner Perkins, most recently at a $13.5 billion valuation. Deel has raised around $685 million from firms like Andreessen Horowitz and Spark Capital, most recently at a $12 billion valuation.

👻 Ephemeral message: Last week, a British crypto exchange called BitradeX announced via Business Wire that it had raised £12 million in Series A funding led by Bain Capital.

• Bain says it's never even heard of BitradeX, let alone invested in it.
• The release disappeared several hours after I rang Business Wire, but BitradeX hasn't returned requests for comment. Business Wire also didn't call back, possibly out of embarrassment.
• Here's the lesson for scammy startups: Don't use the name of a real firm. There are so many new VC shops out there, just make one up. Few will be the wiser.

🌎 Where in the world? Next week I'll be at the Milken Global Conference, moderating a Monday panel about private equity and a Tuesday panel on public market strategies.

• Disclaimer: I'm seeing AC/DC on Sunday night, so if seems that I didn't listen to what someone said, it's because I literally couldn't hear what they said.

DoorDash (Nasdaq: DASH) has offered to buy European food delivery company Deliveroo (LSE: ROO) for $3.6 billion in cash.

Why it's the BFD: This may be the rare horizontal acquisition in Europe that escapes antitrust scrutiny, because DoorDash doesn't currently operate in Deliveroo's markets.

Zoom in: Deliveroo this morning suspended a £100 million share buyback program it announced last month, and saw its stock price his a three-year high.

• DoorDash is required to submit a binding offer by May 23, per U.K. securities law.
• The 180-pence-per-share approach represents a 22.8% premium to Deliveroo shares closed on Friday.

The bottom line: Consolidation is as common as overpriced burritos in the food delivery space.

• Veza, a Redwood Shores, Calif.-based identity security startup, raised $108m in Series D funding. NEA led, joined by Atlassian Ventures, Workday Ventures, Snowflake Ventures and insiders Accel, GV, True Ventures, Norwest, Ballistic Ventures, JPMorgan, and Blackstone. axios.link/4cShwAo

• Lightrun, an Israeli developer observability startup, raised $70m in Series B funding. Accel and Lightspeed co-led, joined by Citi, Glilot Capital, GTM Capital, and Sorenson Capital. axios.link/42Qif06

• Nous Research, an open-source AI lab, raised $65m. Paradigm led, joined by Together AI, Distributed Global, North Island Ventures, Delphi Digital, and Solana co-founder Raj Gokal. nousresearch.com

• Minimus, an application security startup, raised $51m in seed funding from YL Ventures and Mayfield. axios.link/4cUMh7V

• Pliant, a German BB payments platform, raised $40m in Series B funding. Illuminate Financial and Speedinvest co-led, joined by insiders PayPal Ventures and Motive Ventures.​ axios.link/3GIJ8M4

• ARX Robotics, a German developer of autonomous unmanned ground systems, raised €31 million in Series A funding. HV Capital led, joined by Omnes Capital, NATO Innovation Fund and Project A. axios.link/44cU7at

🚑 Craif, a Japanese early cancer detection platform, raised $22m in Series C funding. X&KSK led, joined by Unreasonable Group, TAUNS Laboratories, Daiwa House Industry, and Aozora Bank. axios.link/3YfQpZZ

• OmniRetail, an Africa-focused B2B ecommerce fintech, raised $20m in Series A funding. Timon Capital led, joined by Ventures Platform, Aruwa Capital, Alitheia Capital, and Flour Mills. axios.link/3EQTFUZ

• LayerX, an Israeli browser security startup, raised $11m in Series A extension funding. Jump Capital led, joined by insiders Glilot Capital Partners and Dell Technologies Capital. layerxsecurity.com

• Cheehoo, an AI animation studio, raised $10m. Greycroft led, joined by Point72 Ventures, Basis Set, Headline Asia, Powerhouse Capital, Playground Productions, and Rideback. axios.link/4ix5Tjr

• Bain Capital and KPS Capital Partners each are circling the defense unit of Italian truckmaker Iveco Group (Milan: IVG), per Bloomberg. axios.link/4jLH04A

• CD&R and Nordic Capital are among those weighing bids for Clarivate's (NYSE: CLVT) IP unit, per Reuters. axios.link/4iLZ0uY

• Frontline Road Safety, a Denver-based portfolio company of Bain Capital, acquired PLP, a Bethel Park, Pa.-based pavement marking contractor. frontlineroadsafety.com

• SAMY Alliance, backed by Bridgepoint, acquired Intermate, a German influenencer marketing firm. axios.link/4jx7ZkK

• TA Associates is in talks to buy a "significant stake" in PE secondaries firm Kline Hill Partners, per Bloomberg. axios.link/4kciPwD

• TPG agreed to buy Sabre's (Nasdaq: SABR) hospitality solutions business for $1.1b. axios.link/3RABmq7

⚡X2 Resources, a Houston-based oil and gas asset acquisition platform, launched with equity commitments from EnCap, and Rice Investment Group. axios.link/4jtROEJ

• Columbus Circle Capital I, a blank check backed by Cohen & Co., filed for a $200m IPO. axios.link/44GziEA

• Kochav Defense Acquisition, a defense and aerospace SPAC led by Nukkleus CEO Menachem Shalom, filed for a $220m IPO. axios.link/3Ym0gNY

🚑 GTCR is seeking to sell Cedar Gate Technologies, a Greenwich, Conn.-based health-care data platform that could fetch more than $1b, per the FT. axios.link/4jA2DFw

⚽ Aston Villa, a Premier League club, is considering the sale of a 10-20% stake in its women's team at up to a £60m valuation, per Bloomberg. axios.link/4lR7m77

• Banijay (Ams: BNJ) is in early talks to acquire British broadcaster ITV (LSE: ITV), per the FT. axios.link/3YkFvlF

• CMA CGM of France agreed to buy the logistics and supply chain unit of Turkish conglomerate Borusan for $440m. axios.link/4322dS9

• Mediobanca (Milan: MBO) offered to buy Banca Generali (M: BGN) for €6.3b. in stock. axios.link/44czECM

🚑 Merck of Germany will pay $3.9b in cash to acquire SpringWorks Therapeutics (Nasdaq: SWTX), a Stamford, Conn.-based developer of therapies for cancer and severe rare diseases. axios.link/4jX06oG

🚑 Third Point, the hedge fund led by Dan Loeb, is building a stake in consumer health products maker Kenvue (NYSE: KVUE), per Reuters. axios.link/3ECco6M

• Aldea Ventures of Spain held a €50 first close on its second fund, which is targeting a total of €125m. axios.link/432E9yx

• Allied Industrial Partners, a lower midmarket PE firm, raised $300m for its debut fund. The firm was founded in 2019, and previously operated as a fundless sponsor. axios.link/4jwRiWG

• Banner Capital, a Utah-based growth equity firm led by Tanner Ainge, is raising its second fund, per an SEC filing.

• FPV Ventures, formed in 2022 by Wesley Chan and Pegah Ebrahimi, raised $525m for its second fund. axios.link/4m4MSrM

• NMS Capital is raising $750m for its fifth midmarket PE fund, per an SEC filing.

• StepStone Group raised $705m for its fourth growth equity fund. axios.link/42wVM9B

• Volution, a British VC firm focused on fintech and SaaS, launched a new $100m fund in partnership with Japan's SBI Investment. axios.link/44dRqFF

• Eric Haley at year-end will retire from OMERS, where he's a senior managing director and head of PE buyouts. axios.link/42KFngz

• Jason McBride joined AIX Ventures as a partner leading AI investments. He previously was with M12. axios.link/44dNbtI

• Phil Venables, former CISO of Google Cloud, joined Ballistic Ventures as a venture partner. axios.link/44dXf5Z

U.S. stock markets have recovered most of their tariff-tripped losses, after nearly four weeks of severe volatility that's frozen much of the capital markets.

• Japan's Topix Index has erased all Trump tariff-induced losses, aided by last Friday's report about Toyota's chairman proposing a buyout of Toyota Industries.
• London's FTSE 100 is off around 2.2% since April 2.