Lots of breathless reporting yesterday on the TikTok divestiture drama, with Amazon, AppLovin and even the founder of OnlyFans throwing their hats into the ring as potential acquirers.

• This followed recent reports that both Andreessen Horowitz and Blackstone could serve as minority financiers, possibly alongside Oracle.

Let me shout this to the cheap seats: This is not a buyside problem! It's a sellside problem!

• TikTok has never had a suitor shortage, going back to when President Trump tried to ban the app in his first term.
• The problem has been Beijing and, to a lesser extent, TikTok's Chinese parent company ByteDance. And that still doesn't appear to have been resolved. With just days to go.

Several sources close to this process tell me that they've still not heard of direct discussions between the U.S. and Chinese governments on a particular proposal, even though Trump's extension expires on Saturday.

• It's possible that Trump will pick a "winner" and then China quickly capitulates, maybe in exchange for tariff relief, although the more likely scenario is that he simply grants another extension.

There were rumblings yesterday that Trump would include some mention of TikTok in his "Liberation Day" announcement from the Rose Garden, but it didn't happen.

The bottom line: The White House, led in this case by Vice President Vance, is working as matchmaker for a throuple. But so far only seems to be playing two sides.

Plaid, an SF-based platform that helps fintechs connect to bank accounts, completed a $575 million secondary sale at a $6.1 billion valuation.

Why it's the BFD: The valuation is less than half what Plaid fetched in 2021 from venture capitalists, and just 15% more than Visa's buyout offer in early 2020.

• The Visa acquisition faced antitrust opposition, but Plaid ultimately bailed because it thought the price was too low.

Zoom in: Secondary round investors include Franklin Templeton, Fidelity, BlackRock and insiders NEA and Ribbit Capital.

The bottom line: A bird in hand, something something.

• Runway, a New York-based AI video startup, raised $300m in Series D funding. General Atlantic led, joined by Fidelity, Baillie Gifford, NVIDIA, and SoftBank. axios.link/43ETW7K

• Unframe, an enterprise AI platform, raised $50m from Bessemer Venture Partners, TLV Partners, Craft Ventures, Third Point Ventures, SentinelOne Ventures, and Cerca Partners. unframe.ai

• Merama, an ecommerce acceleration company focused on Latin America, raised $45m from Advent International, SoftBank, Valor Capital, Balderton Capital, Marcel Telles, and Monashees Capital. It also secured $170m in debt. axios.link/3RBKryA

• SchoolAI, a Lehi, Utah-based AI platform for teachers, raised $25m in Series A funding. Insight Partners led, joined by insiders NextView Ventures, The General Partnership, and Peterson Ventures. schoolai.com

⚡ Syzygy Plasmonics, a Houston-based developer of low-carbon chemicals and fuels, raised $24.5m of a planned $35m bridge round, per Axios Pro. axios.link/4hZSfoP

• Actively AI, a New York-based GTM superintelligence startup, raised $17.5m in Series A funding led by Bain Capital Ventures and a $5m seed led by First Round Capital. axios.link/3XHqees

• Djamo, digital banking startup focused on Francophone West Africa, raised $17m led by Janngo Capital. axios.link/42euBix

• Maverick Metals, a San Antonio maker of specialty chemicals for critical metals recovery, raised $19m. Olive Tree Capital led, and was joined by YC, Hanwha Group, Liquid 2 Ventures, Nomadic Venture Partners, Soma Capital, and TechNexus Venture Collaborative. maverickmetals.com

• Roam, a New York assumable mortgage platform, raised $11.5m in seed funding led by Khosla Ventures. axios.link/4lc9WnS

🚑 Airvet, an LA-based pet telehealth provider, raised $11m in Series B-2 funding led by HighlandX with participation from HIPstr. airvet.com

• Lumai, a startup focused on cutting AI processing costs raised $10m. Constructor Capital led, and was joined by PhotonVentures, Journey Ventures, LIFTT, Qubits Ventures, State Farm Ventures, and TIS Inc. lumai.ai

• Fuse, a developer of infrastructure for cross-border payments in MENA and GCC, raised €6.6m. Northzone led, and was joined by Floiurish Ventures and Alter Global. fuse.me

🚑 Youlify, an SF provider of automation tools for health-care revenue cycle management, raised $4.3m in seed funding led by Bonfire Ventures. youlify.ai

🚑 Parallel, a French maker of AI agents for health-care providers, raised $3.5m in seed funding. FRST led, and was joined by YC, Bpifrance, Kima Ventures, and Better Angle. axios.link/4hWm3Tn

• Swedish Algae Factory, a maker of diatom-based materials, raised €3m led by insider Chalmers Ventures. axios.link/3FTmb8Q

🚑 Assura (LSE: AGRP) received a sweetened £1.5b cash-and-stock takeover bid from Primary Health Properties (LSE: PHP), which still falls below an offer from KKR and Stonepeak Partners. axios.link/41XTvUL

🚑 Brookfield Asset Management and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec are in talks to buy Illinois-based lab supplies maker Antylia Scientific from GTCR for around $1.4b, per Bloomberg. axios.link/3XLwsKm

• Centerbridge Partners is seeking to terminate its acquisition of Banca Progetto from Oaktree Capital Management, citing allegations that the bank provided loans to mafia-linked borrowers. axios.link/4i24TUl

🚑 Clearview Capital recapitalized Advantage Behavioral Health, a Laurel Springs, N.J.-based outpatient mental health treatment provider. abhealthnetwork.com

• Harrison Street and 1547 agreed to buy DRFortress, Hawaii's largest carrier-neutral data center, from GI Partners. axios.link/3R1M60s

• Jennmar, a Pittsburgh-based portfolio company of FalconPoint Partners, acquired the assets of All Tech Engineering, a Wyoming, Mich.-based provider of specialized automated machinery. jennmar.com

• Lockmasters, a portfolio company of Dominus Capital, acquired Signals Defense, a Maryland-based RF and IR shielding solutions. lockmasters.com

🚑 Novo Holdings invested in Sylvan, a KKR-owned maker of fungal biotech solutions. sylvan.bio

• Pollen Street Group is in advanced talks to buy Spanish real estate firm Hipoges Iberia from KKR, per Bloomberg. axios.link/4jzIQpl

• SEREGH, a sports and entertainment real estate development platform, raised funding from Delaware North and LionTree. seregh.com

• Summit Partners bought a majority stake in Simply.TV, a Copenhagen, Denmark-based video metadata provider. simply.tv

• SmartStop Self Storage REIT, a Ladera Ranch, Calif.-based self storage REIT with 171 owned and managed properties, raised $810m in its IPO after pricing at $30 per share ($28-$35 range). axios.link/4cigr4J

• Soulpower Acquisition, a New York-based SPAC targeting insurance services and retirement savings businesses, raised $220m in its IPO. axios.link/4iVSvqa

• Bowmark Capital hired Arma Partners to find a buyer for workforce management software developer Totalmobile, which could fetch more than £500m, per Bloomberg. axios.link/42guX8e

• I Squared Capital is weighing a sale of Amsterdam-based trailer-leasing business TIP Group, which could fetch more than €3b, per Bloomberg. axios.link/3XDjKxe

• PDI Technologies, an Alpharetta, Ga., convenience store software provider backed by Insight Partners, acquired P97 Networks, a provider of mobile commerce and digital marketing solutions that had raised over $100m from firms like Emerald Technology Ventures, Portage, and Accenture Ventures. p97.com

🚑 Siemens agreed to acquire Dotmatics, a Boston-based life sciences R&D software maker, from Insight Partners for $5.1b. axios.link/3QZsdHa

• Sitetracker, a VC-backed infrastructure asset management platform, hired Evercore to seek a buyer for around $1b, per Bloomberg. Investors include Energize Ventures, H.I.G. Growth Partners, National Grid Partners, NEA, Salesforce Ventures, Wells Fargo, and Clearvision Ventures. axios.link/42obBOO

• BHP Group (ASX: BHP), the mining giant, is weighing spinoffs of its Australian iron ore and coal units, per Reuters. axios.link/4jdIVyz

⚡ Eni (Milan: ENI) could get a €13b valuation (including debt) for renewables arm Plentitude, in which it's seeking to sell a minority stake, per Bloomberg. axios.link/3E4Ksbh

• InvestIndustrial raised €4b for its eighth flagship PE fund. axios.link/3E8Dt13

• Primary Venture Partners is raising $415m for its fifth flagship fund and $200m for its fourth select fund, per SEC filings. primary.vc

🌎 Suma Partners raised a €120m continuation fund for Gestcompost, a Spanish organic waste treatment firm. Partners Group served as cornerstone LP. axios.link/4iW28Fk

• Switch Ventures is raising $50m for its fourth fund, per an SEC filing.

• Pura Advisory was launched as a new midmarket bank by Richard O'Donnell (ex-Clearwater International), Gbolahan Ladipo (Deutsche Numis), and Dane Phillip (Gotham Street). axios.link/3E254B8

A majority of global VC dollars went to AI and machine learning companies in Q1 2025, according to new data from Pitchbook.

• That's up from 35.9% for all of 2024 and 25.2% for 2023.

But, but, but: This could be a short-lived phenomenon, because it's becoming much harder to identify "AI companies," as virtually every industry is integrating AI into their workflows and products.

• A bit reminiscent of "internet company" charts back in the late '90s...