Spent much of yesterday in NYC to film an interview with Kalshi's co-founders for a new episode of The Axios Show, which drops Thursday (first clip here). And then getting back to Boston (where it is now inexplicably snowing). In other words, notebook time:

💰 Fund scoop: D1 Capital Partners has quietly raised around $3 billion for its first closed-end private fund (including co-investment commitments).

• The firm, led by Daniel Sundheim, has traditionally operated a crossover hedge fund. Going forward, that fund will co-invest pro rata on private equities with the new vehicle — which already has backed Anthropic.
• D1 also has a lot riding on the upcoming IPO for SpaceX, in which it has a sizable stake. Overall, its private portfolio is valued at around $20 billion.

🌴 Private credit calm? Jamie Dimon yesterday wrote in his annual shareholder letter that private credit "probably does not present a systemic risk," although he also noted that "actual losses right now are already a little higher than they should be, relative to the environment."

• The JPM chief also expressed justifiable surprise that private equity firms haven't taken more companies public in recent years: "We have generally had nothing but a bull market since the great financial crisis — it's hard to imagine what will happen if and when we have an extended bear market."

🤭 Unintended consequences: Speaking of the IPO drought, a new research paper argues that the 2012 JOBS Act discouraged companies from going public — even though it was designed to do the exact opposite.

• University of Kansas law professor Alexander Platt writes that it caused more companies to pursue dual-track processes, with the IPO used as a stalking horse for acquisition.
• He concludes: "Policymakers who want to 'make IPOs great again' will not succeed by making IPOs more attractive; they must make IPOs more attractive relative to acquisitions."

💼 Trading places: Brian McGrath has become fulltime executive chairman at mortgage servicing startup Valon, after several years with venture firm Ribbit Capital as a general partner.

• He already had been on Valon's board, having written a seed check in 2019 and bringing his past experience running running the mortgage and asset-backed desk at Jefferies (where he also led fintech investing).
• McGrath tells me his role is to help fundraise and also talk to potential customers who "might want to use our software as we try to disrupt Black Knight, which is the incumbent."
• As for Ribbit and its founder Micky Malka: "He's easily the best investor I've ever met and I was thrilled [to work there] ... I don't want Micky to know this, but I probably would have done it for free."

🏀 Overtime: A source tells me that the reported figures for nonbinding bids on NBA Europe clubs were all in cash, and didn't include brand equity from existing teams.

🏆 Winner winner, husky dinner: Josh Kaplan, co-founder of Western Avenue Capital, is the big winner of our March Madness contest. Axios swag is on the way, and hopefully we'll all be hearing a bit from Josh in an upcoming issue.

Pershing Square Capital, led by Bill Ackman, has offered to buy Universal Music Group for around $63 billion.

Why it's the BFD: Universal is one of the world's three largest record labels, with such artists Taylor Swift and Bad Bunny, while Ackman has a sporadic suitor since 2021.

Zoom in: Per terms of the proposal, Universal by year-end would merge with a Pershing Square SPARC Holdings and shift its stock listing to the NYSE from Amsterdam. Michael Ovitz would serve as board chairman.

• The $60 billion figure makes a lot of assumptions, including the future trading value of Universal stock and the company's ability to sell its stake in Spotify for €1.5 billion.
• Pershing Square holds a small stake in Universal and Ackman was on its board from 2022 until last year.

The bottom line: Universal shares rose more than 10% on the news, after having been down more than 20% so far this year.

• Firmus, an Australian AI infrastructure company, raised US$505m at a $5.5b valuation led by Coatue, with Nvidia participating. axios.link/41jpxcz

• Hermeus, an El Segundo, Calif.-based maker of hypersonic military jets, raised $350m in Series C equity and debt funding. Khosla Ventures led the equity tranche, joined by Canaan Partners, Founders Fund, RTX Ventures, Bling Capital, In-Q-Tel, Cox Enterprises (via Socium Ventures), Destiny Tech100, Georgia Tech Foundation, 137 Ventures, and GSBackers. axios.link/4snJLx5

🚀 Starfish Space, a Tukwila, Wash.-based developer of robotic spacecraft that service satellites, raised $110m in Series B funding, per Axios Pro. Point72 Ventures, Activate Capital and Shield Capital led, joined by Industrious Ventures, NightDragon, Nomi Capital, Gaingels, Overlap, NFX, Munich Re Ventures, Toyota Ventures, and PSL Ventures. axios.link/41SN8RA

🚑 Stipple Bio, a Cambridge, Mass.-based oncology biotech, raised $100m in Series A funding from RA Capital Management, a16z, Nextech Invest and insiders Emerson Collective, GV, LoLa Capital Partners, and GordonMD Global Investments. axios.link/3OpKdwC

• Modus, which buys majority stakes in advisory entities affiliated with accounting firms, raised $85m in seed and Series A funding, per Axios Pro. Lightspeed led, joined by Comma Capital and Garry Tan. axios.link/4sPzESy

🚑 Endovascular Engineering, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based developer of a pulmonary embolism treatment device, raised $80m in Series C funding, per Axios Pro. Gilde Healthcare and Norwest led, joined by Santé Ventures, 415 Capital, S3 Ventures, Panakès Partners, and M&L Healthcare Investments. axios.link/4sVVbJg

• True Footage, an Austin, Texas-based real estate appraisal platform, raised $40m in Series C funding, per Axios Pro. Cox Enterprises' Socium Ventures led, joined by Nava Ventures, Roger Ferguson, Pilot Enterprises, Story Ventures, The Kraft Group, and PagsGroup. axios.link/4slGuOJ

• MTR, a Newark, Calif.-based developer of industrial membranes, raised $27m in Series B funding, per Axios Pro. Climate Investment led, joined by Hartree Partners. axios.link/4sf8TpH

• Mappedin, a Canadian indoor digital mapping startup, raised US$24.5m led by Edison Partners, with Betatron Venture Group participating, per Axios Pro. axios.link/4mfPxiz

• Natter, an enterprise AI conversation intelligence platform, raised $23m. Renegade Partners led, joined by Costanoa, Kindred Capital, Rackhouse Ventures, Village Global, and Asymmetric Capital Partners. axios.link/4mkPIJO

⚡️ Sora Fuel, a Cambridge, Mass.-based sustainable aviation fuel startup, raised $14.6m led by Spero Ventures and Inspired Capital, per Axios Pro. axios.link/4bYckfq

🚑 Beacon Biosignals, a Boston-based brain data startup, raised $11m in Series B extension funding from JSL Health, Palo Santo VC, Kicker Ventures, and Samsung Next. axios.link/4dt5Cze

• Covalo, a Swiss data platform for the personal care industry, raised €3.5m . Hi inov led, joined by insiders HTGF and seed+speed Ventures. axios.link/3O76PSo

• Ridge AI, a Seattle-based platform for building SaaS dashboards and data agents, raised $2.6m in pre-seed funding. Madrona led, joined by TheFounderVC. axios.link/4csLEnd

• nFuse, a B2B ordering platform for retail and hospitality, raised $2m from Eleven Ventures and LaunchHub. axios.link/47I7QqW

🚑 SV Health Investors acquired EpiVax, a Providence, R.I.-based bioanalytical CRO. axios.link/3OrxnxX

⚡️ AZZO, backed by Angeleno Group, acquired Qubits Energy, a Nashville, Tenn.-based data center-focused power and energy management company. axios.link/4c5vezJ

• Beacon Communications, a Littleton, Colo.-based provider of communications and security tech solutions, secured investment from Kelso & Co. and ARA Services Partners. axios.link/4sUohZz

⚡️ First Reserve acquired a majority stake in Lindsey Systems, an Azusa, Calif.-based provider of highly engineered solutions for transmission and distribution grid infrastructure. axios.link/4mfVewX

• Gamut Capital Management agreed to acquire Acousti Engineering, a specialty interiors contractor for the Southeastern U.S., from Ardian. axios.link/4t21tao

• Heartland Business Systems, backed by GenNx360 Capital Partners, agreed to acquire Applied Tech, a Madison, Wis.-based IT services provider. axios.link/4e3MFDo

• Frontenac acquired Bill Gosling Outsourcing, a Hampton, Va.-based BPO firm, from Owner Resource Group. axios.link/4vfQAmG

• Optimove, backed by Summit Partners, agreed to acquire Smartico, a Bulgarian gaming CRM. axios.link/4e7eM4F

• Supplier.io, backed by Norwest, acquired Tealbook, a Canadian supplier data management firm backed by Ten Coves Capital. axios.link/3PSN9Cp

🚑 National Healthcare Properties, a health-care REIT for outpatient medical and senior housing, filed for an IPO that Renaissance Capital estimates could raise $200m. It plans to list on the Nasdaq (NHP). axios.link/4crEQpP

🚑 Gilead Sciences (Nasdaq: GILD) agreed to acquire Tubulis, a German developer of antibody-drug conjugates for solid tumors, for $3.15b upfront and up to $1.85b in earnouts. Tubulis had raised over $600m in VC funding from firms like EQT Life Sciences, Andera Partners, Nextech Invest, Deep Track Capital, Fidelity, Janus Henderson, and Blackstone. axios.link/4vgX4BO

• KKR hired UBS to weigh a sale of Synergis, an Australian disability housing business that could fetch up to A$1b, per AFR. axios.link/47NgZhN

• Bureau Veritas (Paris: BVI) agreed to acquire Lotusworks, an Irish quality control business, for €375m. axios.link/4dxXZYh

• ING Groep (NYSE: ING) terminated an agreement to sell its Russian business to local firm Global Development JSC, saying it couldn't get regulatory approval. The Dutch bank still plans to exit Russia. axios.link/4vcx3Uk

⚡️ ArcLight, a Boston-based energy and infrastructure PE firm, raised $3.9b for its eighth fund. arclight.com

• Blackstone raised $10b for its fifth opportunistic credit fund. axios.link/4dRkJTt

• ZeroShot, a new VC firm led by OpenAI alums and Kelly Kovacs (ex-01A), is raising $100m for its debut fund, per TechCrunch. axios.link/3NQNzst

• H.I.G. Capital named Brian Schwartz as chief executive officer, with Sami Mnaymneh joining fellow firm co-founder Tony Tamer in an executive chairman role. The firm also promoted U.S. private equity head Doug Berman to co-president. axios.link/4sjNHi6

• Battery Ventures promoted Max Schireson and Roland Anderson to partners. axios.link/4sYX73Q

• Barclays has rehired Nick Fall from Goldman Sachs to co-head the firm's leveraged finance capital markets business. axios.link/41hlKN2

• David Cheng joined Costanoa as a general partner. He previously was with DCM. axios.link/4sXCchJ

🎵 Chad Doerge joined Round Hill Music as president and deputy CEO. He previously was CRO at Aiera. axios.link/4vbuj9X