We've seen three giant deals in the past 24 hours, and they all have something in common: Ties to the Trump administration.

The big picture: This isn't to suggest coordination or impropriety, but rather that economic confidence grows stronger with greater proximity to political power.

• Plus, journalism school teaches that three of something makes a trend (or so I'm told ... I never went).

Deal 1: SoftBank agreed to acquire Silicon Valley chipmaker Ampere Computing for $6.5 billion in cash from Carlyle and Oracle.

• SoftBank CEO Masa Son appeared next to Trump just one day after the inauguration, as part of the Stargate announcement, just weeks after doing a similar standup at Mar-a-Lago.
• Oracle, meanwhile, is led by Trump donors Larry Ellison and Safra Catz, and reportedly is working with the White House on a TikTok deal.
• SoftBank is based in Japan, so the Ampere deal acquisition will require CFIUS approval.

Deal 2: QXO, a building products rollup platform led by Brad Jacobs, agreed to buy Beacon Roofing Supply for around $11 billion, or $124.35 per share.

• Beacon had rejected an earlier bid from QXO, which then went hostile before slightly raising its offer and returning to the table.
• QXO last summer raised $150 million from Affinity Partners, the private equity firm led by Jared Kushner (who joined the QXO board).

Deal 3: Elon Musk's X raised nearly $1 billion in new equity at around the same valuation at which he took the company private in 2022, per Bloomberg.

• Musk himself reportedly invested, making him the only insider to participate. Others include 1789 Capital, which recently added Donald Trump Jr. as a partner.

The bottom line: If you're trying to handicap America's M&A market, it might be smart to watch the White House visitor logs.

Kyivstar, the Ukrainian mobile operator that just agreed to list on the Nasdaq via a reverse merger, has agreed to buy local ride-hail and delivery firm Uklon for $155 million.

Why it's the BFD: This suggests some level of economic optimism for the besieged country, even as that giant minerals deal with the U.S. remains in limbo.

Catch up quick: Kyivstar, which is majority owned by Dubai-based Veon, earlier this week agreed to go public on the Nasdaq at an implied $2.2 billion valuation via Cohen Circle Acquisition, a SPAC led by blank-check vets Betsy and Daniel Cohen.

• It would be the first Ukraine-based business to list in the U.S., and the first non-fintech deal for Cohen Circle.

By the numbers: Uklon says it operates in 27 Ukrainian cities with more than 100,000 drivers on its platform. Last year it completed over 100 million rides and more than three million deliveries.

• Dataminr, a real-time information startup, raised $85 in equity and debt funding co-led by NightDragon and HSBC. axios.link/421P0XM

• Evroc, a Swedish cloud hyperscaler, raised €50.6m in Series A funding from Blisce, EQT Ventures, Norrsken VC, and Giant Ventures. axios.link/41HXuDy

• Cape, a privacy-focused mobile carrier, raised $30m in Series B extension funding from A*, Costanoa, Point72, and XYZ Ventures. axios.link/3RjbNtf

• Crossmint, an enterprise blockchain development startup, raised $23.6m. Ribbit Capital led, and was joined by Franklin Templeton, Nyca, First Round, Lightspeed Faction, and HF0. axios.link/3FBpLV3

• Multiply Mortgage, a provider of mortgages as an employee benefit, raised $23.5m in Series A funding. Kleiner Perkins led, and was joined by BoxGroup, A*, Mischief, and Workshop. axios.link/3RpHVvf

⚡ Coreshell, a San Leandro, Calif., silicon anode maker, raised $24m. Ferroglobe and Zeon Ventures co-led, and were joined by Lane Ventures, Entrada Ventures, Foothill Ventures, Helios Climate Ventures, Translink Investment, Trousdale Ventures, and Asymmetry Ventures. axios.link/42ddfUi

⚡ Theion, a German lithium sulfur battery developer, raised €15m in Series A funding. Team Global led, and was joined by Geschwister Oetker Beteiligungen and Enpal. theion.de

🚑 Jutro Medical, a Polish telehealth startup, raised €12m in Series A funding. KayaVC and RIO ASI co-led, and were joined by insider Inovo VC. axios.link/4kH2Rvq

🚑 Brain.space, an Israeli startup using neurological data to create large mental models, raised $11m in Series A funding. Toyota Ventures led, and was joined by Mangrove Capital Partners and The Group Ventures. brain.space

• ClearGrid, a MENA-focused debt collection startup, raised $10m in pre-seed and seed funding from Beco Capital, Nuwa Capital, and Raed Ventures. axios.link/41GTUtf

⚡ Novatron Fusion, a Swedish fusion energy developer, raised €10m in Series A1 funding. St1 led, and was joined by TomEnterprise, Unit E Limited, Axon Partners, and insiders Climentum Capital, Santander InnoEnergy Fund, Granitor, and Industrifonden. axios.link/4hgVYxW

• Tera AI, a spatial reasoning AI startup, raised $7.8m in seed funding from Felicis, Inovia, Caltech + Wilson Hill, and Naval Ravikant. tera-ai.com

• Yeet, a crypto casino and sportsbook, raised $7.8m led by Dragonfly. axios.link/43YULrZ

• Pluralis Research, a decentralized training startup, raised $7.6m in seed funding. USV and CoinFund co-led, and were joined by Topology, Variant, Eden Block, and Bodhi Ventures. axios.link/4iZQY1P

• BlueShift, a Boston-based minerals extraction startup, raised $2.1m in pre-seed funding from ConocoPhillips, Ridgeline, and the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center. axios.link/4hIJn6E

• Kaiko Systems, a German maritime shipping software provider, raised €6m in Series A funding. Hi inov and Flashpoint Venture Growth co-led, and were joined by insider Motion Ventures. axios.link/4hNIV7k

• Manifest, a startup bringing U.S. private equity real estate onchain, raised $2.5m in pre-seed funding. VanEck Ventures and Lattice Fund co-led, and were joined by Compound and SALT. manifest.finance

• PeopleIX, a a German HR data integration startup, raised €2.3m in pre-seed funding led by Earlybird X. axios.link/4ioPmPy

• 2X, a marketing-as-a-service startup, secured an undisclosed amount of secondary funding from Insight Partners. 2x.marketing

🚑 AGIC Capital completed its purchase of Solmete, a Northborough, Mass.-based provider of dental products, from Avista Healthcare Partners. solmetex.com

🚑 Berkshire Partners and Vistria Group sponsored a merger of Forcura, a health-care workflow management company, and Medalogix, a post-acute care clinical decision support provider. The combined company is valued at around $1b. axios.link/42hgwSs

• Bregal Milestone acquired Ridango, an Estonian provider of public transportation software, from BaltCap. ridango.com

⚡ Brookfield Asset Management is the frontrunner to acquire Colonial Pipeline, which could fetch more than $10b, per Bloomberg. axios.link/43Xz0J4

• CVC Capital Partners is interested in buying Fortress Investment Group from Mubadala, per Bloomberg. axios.link/41Er3pC

• Main Post Partners invested in Rebel Athletic, a Carrollton, Texas-based provider of cheerleading and other athletic apparel. rebelathletic.com

• Professional Triathletes Organisation raised $10m from Cordillera Investment Partners. axios.link/421IwZl

🚑 Qualified Digital, a Berkeley, Calif.-based digital consultancy backed by Stella Point Capital, acquired Xpediant Digital, a Houston-based content creation platform for pharma and life sciences. qualifiedigital.com

• CoreWeave, a Roseland, N.J.-based cloud computing platform, set IPO terms to 49m shares at $47-$55. It would raise $2.5b at a $29.1b valuation, were it ro price in the middle of its range. The company plans to list on the Nasdaq (CRWV) and reports an $863m net loss on $1.9b in revenue for 2024. Backers include Magnetar, Fidelity, and Nvidia. axios.link/4bIVijG

• Verisure, a Swiss fire and security alarm maker owned by Hellman & Friedman, picked Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley to lead its IPO, per Bloomberg. axios.link/4bIot6v

⚡ Carlyle is seeking a buyer for Colombian oil producer SierraCol, which could fetch around $1.5b, per Reuters. axios.link/4iIxVcr

• Credit Mutuel of France agreed to buy German lender OLB, which had been viewed as an IPO candidate, from backers like Apollo. axios.link/4ioQeUk

• Kraken is nearing a $1.5b acquisition of NinjaTrader, a Chicago-based retail futures trading platform owned by Long Ridge Equity Partners, per the WSJ. axios.link/4bIzwN9

• Lucinda Shen will interview Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi at the Axios What's Next Summit, next Tuesday in Washington, D.C.

🚑 Sanofi (Nasdaq: SNY) agreed to pay up to $1.9b (including $600m upfront) to acquire a targeted bispecific myeloid cell engager from Dren Bio, a San Carlos, Calif.-based biotech that's raised around $180m in VC funding from 8VC, Aisling Capital, HBM Healthcare Investments, Pfizer, ArrowMark Partners, Revelation Partners, SR One, Taiho Ventures, BVF Partners, Mission BioCapital and Alexandria Venture Investments. axios.link/4kyind3

• Ziff Davis (Nasdaq: ZD acquired TheSkimm, a newsletter aimed at young women that had raised $28m from backers like GV, Halogen Ventures, Human Ventures, Maywic Select Investments, NY Times, Goldman Sachs, 21st Century Fox, RRE Ventures, and Homebrew. axios.link/4kCMa4b

🚑 Cigna (NYSE: CI) completed the $3.3b sale of its Medicare Advantage business to Health Care Service Corp. (Nasdaq: HCSC). cigna.com

🚑 Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) raised £2.5b by selling its remaining shares in consumer health products company Haleon (LSE: HLN). axios.link/4hnavYT

• ICG raised €3b for its second European midmarket fund. icgam.com

• Susa Ventures raised $175m for its fifth fund. susaventures.com

• Weatherford Capital raised $300m for its second fund, per an SEC filing.

• Will Ventures of Boston is raising its third fund, per an SEC filing. It's currently investing out of a $155m fund.

• Sandeep Casi joined Antler VC as a Japan-based partner. He previously founded and led Videogram. axios.link/41AYBVA

• Michael Seibel is stepping down as a partner with Y Combinator after 12 years, and will become a partner emeritus. axios.link/4bOyUWg

🚑 Kieran Whitty is leaving BofA to join Barclays as co-head of EMEA healthcare banking. axios.link/4ib5iEN