Napster today got bought for $207 million by Infinite Reality, a VC-backed metaverse unicorn.

• Yes, that Napster. Yes, it's 2025. No, it's not yet April 1.

Catch up quick: Napster didn't really disappear, although it's gone through a ton of ownership changes since pioneering what would evolve into music streaming.

• That included a 2022 purchase by Hivemind and Algorand, after which it raised funding from VC backers like Pegasus Tech Ventures, SkyBridge Capital G20 Ventures, Outpost Ventures, and F-Prime Capital.
• Now it will join Infinite Reality, which recently raised $3 billion at a $12.25 billion post-money valuation. The plan is to "redefine Napster from a music streaming service into a next-gen, interactive music platform," which is a fancy way of saying that they paid a professional marketer.

The big picture: Brand equity sometimes outlives its underlying business, particularly for internet platforms that once were popular with young users. And that can prove irresistible to dealmakers, as Axios' Sara Fischer and I report.

• Digg, an early news aggregator, earlier this month was repurchased by founder Kevin Rose and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.
• Tumblr was acquired in 2019 by WordPress parent Automattic, and remains somewhat active.
• One year earlier, SmugMug bought photo-sharing app Flickr.
• SoundCloud was put on the block early last year by owners Raine Group and Temasek.

Flashback: In 2000, I watched an on-stage interview with an early Napster investor at Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, who explained that the business model was to sell T-shirts and hats. Many in the dotcom-dazed audience nodded along.

The big picture: Old apps never die, they simply find a way.

Plenty, a Bay Area vertical farming company, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Why it's the BFD: Venture capitalists invested over $2.1 billion into four indoor farming companies — Plenty, Bowery, AeroFarms, and AppHarvest— all of which are went bankrupt.

Investors in Plenty included SoftBank, One Madison Group, JS Capital Management, Walmart, Ventioneers, Jeff Bezos, and Eric Schmidt.

• When Bowery went bust last fall, we said to watch "what happens with Plenty. ... Expect that call to ultimately be made by lead backer SoftBank."
• SoftBank appears to have hung up, unless it's the one that provided $20.7m in DIP financing that will help Plenty maintain some strawberry-growing operations.

The bottom line: "Changing the world seems like a good business plan, but it's often a lesson in why the world worked a certain way." — Daniel Kline, TheStreet

• Fleetio, an Alabama-based provider of fleet management software, raised $450m co-led by Elephant VC and Goldman Sachs Alternatives, per Bloomberg. Some proceeds will be used to buy British auto maintenance authorization platform Auto Integrate. axios.link/4hFF7oE

• TON Foundation, the Telegram-linked group behind The Open Network, raised over $400m via a token sale to VC firms like Sequoia Capital, Ribbit, Benchmark, and Kingsway. axios.link/41YENf1

• Amboss, a German knowledge platform for medical professionals, raised €240m from backers like Kirkbi, Lightrock, and M&G Investments. axios.link/4j2BUAB

• Walrus, an SF-based crypto infrastructure startup, raised $140m via a token sale at a $2b valuation. Standard Crypto led, and was joined by a16z crypto, Electric Capital and Franklin Templeton Digital Assets. axios.link/4hYs0iJ

🚑 Character Biosciences, a Jersey City, N.J.-based developer of drugs for polygenic diseases, raised $93m in Series B funding. aMoon and Luma Group co-led, and were joined by Bausch + Lomb, Jefferson Life Sciences and insiders Innovation Endeavors, Catalio Capital Management, S32, and KdT Ventures. characterbio.com

🚑 Hillstar Bio, a Boston-based immunology biotech focused on autoimmune diseases, raised $67m in Series A funding from Droia Ventures, Frazier Life Sciences, Novo Holdings, LifeArc Ventures, and Hummingbird Bioscience. axios.link/4j0Hl33

• n8n, a Berlin-based workflow automation platform, raised €55m at a €250m valuation, per TechCrunch. Highland Europe led, and was joined by HV Capital insiders Sequoia Capital, Felicis, and Harpoon. axios.link/41Yaa9p

🚑 Navina, a New York-based clinical intelligence startup, raised $55m in Series C funding. Goldman Sachs Alternatives led, and was joined by insiders Vertex Ventures Israel, Grove Ventures, and ALIVE. axios.link/4kUrx3L

• CamGraPhIC, a U.K. optical interconnect tech owned by 2D Photonics, raised €25m in Series A funding. CDP Venture Capital led, and was joined by NATO Innovation Fund, Sony Innovation Fund, Join Capital, Bosch Ventures, Frontier IP Group, and Indaco Venture Partners. axios.link/4hCfHs0

🌎 Sunday, a Boulder, Colo., maker of eco-friendly lawn products, raised $25m from S2G Investments. axios.link/424yre4

• EDGE Boost, a banking-as-a-service startup focused on "responsible gaming," raised $17.2m in seed funding. Bullpen Capital led, and was joined by StepStone Group, Suro Capital, Impulsum Ventures, Mantis VC, and Indicator Ventures. edgeboost.bet

• Sympera AI, an agentic AI platform for banking, raised $10m in seed funding co-led by Nyca Partners and Viola Ventures. sympera.ai

• Ai|coustics, a German audio enhancement startup, raised €5m in seed funding led by Partech. ai-coustics.com

🌎 Brevel, an Israeli producer of microalgae proteins, raised $5m in seed funding from NevaTeam Partners, Siddhi Capital, the EIC Fund, Good Protein Fund, The Food Tech Lab, and PVS Investments. axios.link/4j11whp

• Nace.AI, a developer of precision AI models for specific use-cases, raised $5m led by General Catalyst. nace.ai

• Feraset, a Turkish maker of mobile consumer apps, raised $4.5m in seed funding from Play Ventures and e2vc. axios.link/426bzLk

• Camber, an SF-based computing platform "to democratize scientific computing," raised $4m in seed funding led by Base10 Partners. cambercloud.com

🌎 ARK Capture Solution, a Belgian carbon capture startup, raised €2.2m in pre-seed funding co-led by Aperam Ventures and Seeder Fund. axios.link/4c2fI7w

• AmberSearch, a German AI search startup, raised €2.1m in seed funding from Ventech. axios.link/4hFXnyl

• Catchwise, a Norwegian developer of commercial fishing software, raised €1.3m in pre-seed funding. Dreamcraft Ventures led, and was joined by Sondo and Ocean Impact. axios.link/4iJFOyz

⚡ Gaia Turbine, a Swiss developer of small hydroelectric turbines, raised €1.2m from TiVentures. axios.link/4iXsUge

⚡ Ardian agreed to buy French renewables firm Akuo from Intermediate Capital Group at nearly €950m. axios.link/4c1Saj5

🚑 Audax invested in TCP Analytical, a South Carolina-based Riverarch Equity Partners portfolio company that makes chemicals and consumables for life sciences. tcpanalytical.com

⚡ Elk Range Royalties, backed by NGP Energy Capital, agreed to buy 250k net royalty acres in the DJ Basin from Occidental (NYSE: OXY) for $905m. axios.link/4c1PSjZ

• McGraw Hill, a portfolio company of Platinum Equity, acquired Essaypop, a cloud-based writing solution. axios.link/41UNyXr

🚑 PAI Partners invested in Nuzoa, a Madrid-based distributor of animal health products, from Abac Capital. axios.link/4kVCP7N

• Silver Lake and Davidson Kempner are battling for control of vacation rental marketplace Vacasa (Nasdaq: VSCA), which once was valued at billions of dollars but now has just a $120m market cap. axios.link/4hG05nv

• Yotta, a Waltham, Mass.-based digital experience optimization company whose backers include PSG and General Catalyst, acquired SpeedSense, a Canadian web performance consultancy. axios.link/4bZupIu

• Ategrity Specialty, a New York-based provider of excess and surplus insurance to SMBs, filed for a $100m IPO. It plans to list on the NYSE (ASIC). axios.link/4hNnZ0m

• eToro, a London-based no-fee trading app, filed for an IPO that Renaissance Capital estimates could raise $750m. It plans to list on the Nasdaq (ETOR), and reports $192m of net revenue on $12.64b in revenue for 2024. Backers include Spark Capital, BRM Group, and CM Equities. The company had planned to go public in 2021 via a SPAC, but the deal was later terminated. axios.link/4hGDjfa

• SmartStop Self Storage REIT, a Ladera Ranch, Calif.-based self storage REIT with 171 owned and managed properties, set IPO terms to 27m shares at $28-$36. It plans to list on the NYSE (SMST). axios.link/4cigr4J

🚑 Roper Technologies (Nasdaq: ROP) agreed to acquire CentralReach, a Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.-based autism therapy software provider, from Insight Partners for $1.65b. axios.link/4c4quu2

• Survitec, a U.K. portfolio company of Searchlight Capital Partners, is exploring a sale of its aerospace and defense business, per Bloomberg. axios.link/420v33N

• Cintas (Nasdaq: CTAS) ended efforts to buy work uniform provider UniFirst (NYSE: UNF). axios.link/4j0GwHv

⚡ Ithaca Energy (LSE: ITH) agreed to buy the U.K. unit of Japan Petroleum Exploration (Tokyo: 1662) for $193m. axios.link/421z9J5

• JLL (NYSE: JLL) agreed to acquire renewable investment banking firm Javelin Capital. axios.link/41VTX4B

🚑 Novo Nordisk is paying up to $2b for global rights to a weight loss drug from China's United Laboratories International (HK: 3933). axios.link/4iZGTlz

• PayU acquired a 43.5% stake in Mindgate Solutions, an Indian real-time payments firm. axios.link/4j24zpB

• Advent International is raising a continuation fund for London-based payments firm Xplor Technologies, which would be valued at $3b-$4b, per Bloomberg. axios.link/4iDQsad

• Daphni, a French VC firm, held a €200m first close for a new fund that's targeting up to €250m. axios.link/4kZwI2e

• Emergence Capital raised $1b for its seventh fund, per Fortune. axios.link/4iMPmsD

• Falfurrias, a midmarket buyout firm, raised $1.35b for its sixth fund. axios.link/4hNMhr4

• Felix Capital, a London-based VC firm, is raising its fifth flagship fund and third "Next" fund, per SEC filings. felixcap.com

• Mainsail Partners, an Austin, Texas-based growth equity firm, is raising up to $1.4b for its seventh fund, per an SEC filing.

• Dominic Ashcroft stepped down as head of EMEA leveraged finance at Goldman Sachs, to join Blackstone's private credit business. axios.link/420uwij

• Jim Murphy, former SVP of venturing and emerging growth at Coca-Cola Co., joined VC firm Greycroft as a partner of global strategic relationships. axios.link/41WkjDz

• Heather Viets joined law firm Proskauer, as a global finance partner focused on syndicated bank lending. She previously was with Weil, Gotshal & Manges. axios.link/41VWyeR

Limited partners have increased interest in venture capital funds and decreased appetite for impact investing, according to a recent survey from Adams Street Partners.

• The survey also showed the lowest interest in backing new managers since Adams Street began asking five years ago.