Emptying out the notebook before boarding a flight out of Miami...

🏁 Starting line: Five things I learned yesterday, during Formula 1 events co-hosted by Axios and The Race Media:

1. Dorilton Capital has no plans to sell the Williams team, despite the massive value appreciation since buying out the Williams family in 2020. That's according to team principal James Vowles, who adds that there would be no shortage of buyer interest were Dorilton to change its mind.
2. Brandon Snow of RedBird Capital Partners wouldn't confirm or deny reports that a 24% stake in the Alpine team is on the block, but did note that RedBird could have interest in buying into another team. His firm is part of an Otro Capital-led group that bought the Alpine stake in 2023.
3. Will Ford, general manager of Ford Racing, noted that his great-great-grandfather launched Ford Motor Co. with money he made in an auto race, which means Ford Racing is now 125 years old while the car company is only 123 years old.
4. The Miami Grand Prix is five weeks after the last race, and Vowles said that gap has allowed Williams to make and add around 5,000 parts to its car. Which is just an amazing amount of hardware innovation and integration in such a short period of time.
5. F1 seems to wrestle with whether it wants to remain an exclusive, luxury brand or become something for the masses. So far it seems to be walking that fine line fairly deftly, thanks in part to its Apple TV media deal, but the struggle could become more pronounced as the dollars grow.

🌴 Miami exclusive: Francis Suarez, former Miami mayor, has joined the "Ambition Accelerated" campaign as a senior advisor.

• This is the effort launched by Stephen Ross and Ken Griffin to recruit more companies, CEOs and founders to Florida's "Gold Coast" corridor between West Palm Beach and Miami.
• Suarez tells me he has two basic pitches: For those currently in California or New York, it's about lower taxes. "You're being taken for granted in those jurisdictions."
• For those considering moves to Texas, it's about geographic appeal. "Nobody in Sao Paulo or Paris or Dubai can't wait to board flight to Texas, but they do want to come to Miami."
• He also pointed out recent property purchases by folks like Mark Zuckerberg, adding that it's "not inevitable" that a company like Meta wouldn't eventually follow its boss to Florida.

🥃 Glass half empty: Sazerac, the maker of Buffalo Trace bourbon and cinnamon-flavored Fireball, has yet to get much engagement from its $15 billion bid for Brown-Forman, the maker of Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey, Axios Pro's Ryan Barwick tells me via Slack.

• This comes after merger talks ended between Brown-Forman and Pernod Ricard.
• Yes, but: President Trump yesterday ended his tariffs on Scotch whisky — following a plea from Prince Charles — which could change everyone's math.

📈 Deal data: Global M&A volume is $1.73 trillion through April 30, per LSEG. That's up 42% year-to-date over 2025.

• U.S. M&A volume is up 59%. Global PE-backed volume is 53% higher, while U.S. PE-backed volume rose a whopping 63%.

🌍 Where in the world? I've discovered that lots of you think I live in New York. It was true right after college, but Boston has been home since sending my first newsletter in 2002 (jeez, that's a long time).

ADW Capital, an activist hedge fund, has offered to buy Meineke owner Driven Brands (Nasdaq: DRVN) for nearly $3 billion, per the WSJ.

Why it's the BFD: This is a direct shot at the operational abilities of Roark Capital, which formed Driven and still owns nearly a 62% stake — just as it's considering an IPO for a restaurant portfolio that includes Arby's, Dunkin' and Subway.

• In fact, ADW argues that Roark has taken its eye off of Driven because of its restaurant-related ambitions.

Zoom in: ADW, led by Adam Wyden, holds around a 3.7% stake in Driven and last month urged the company to explore a sale or breakup plan.

• Driven went public in early 2021 at $22 per share, but has traded well below that mark for years.
• ADW reportedly is offering $18 per share, around a 40% premium to where Driven was trading before the WSJ report.

🚑 Iterative Health, a clinical trial infrastructure startup, raised $77m in Series C funding. Intrepid Growth Partners and GV led, joined by EDBI, Insight Partners, and Obvious Ventures. axios.link/4cESp5C

• Fun, an NYC-based payments platform, raised $72m in Series A funding led by Multicoin Capital and SignalFire. axios.link/4em7V7M

🚑 KymaThera, a San Diego-based precision therapeutics startup, is raising $75m in Series B funding, per Axios Pro. axios.link/4w4Qv5I

• Standard Intelligence, a model that trains on video rather than text, raised $75m at a $500m valuation. led by Sequoia Capital and Spark Capital. axios.link/426GEim

• Versana, an NYC-based loan market infrastructure company, raised $43m. BNP Paribas led, joined byFitch Ventures, MassMutual Ventures, Motive Partners, Apollo and insiders BofA, Barclays, Citi, Deutsche Bank,JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, U.S. Bancorp, and Wells Fargo. axios.link/49l563f

⚡️ DISA Technologies, a Casper, Wyo.-based uranium remediation and resource recovery company, raised $33m. Galvanize led, joined by BHP Ventures. axios.link/3Rb0F4O

• Sahi, an Indian stock trading platform, raised $33m. Accel Growth led, joined by Elevation Capital and Accel India. axios.link/4tIrEmN

🚑 Moleculent, a Swedish cell communication mapping startup, raised $26m. Rubicon Healthcare Partners led, joined by Arch Venture Partners and Eir Ventures. axios.link/4upKbEC

• Creati Gen AI, an SF-based AI video-editor, raised a $20m round led by Redpoint Ventures. axios.link/42JLmTa

• Fence, a fintech for asset-backed markets, raised $20m. Galaxy Ventures led, joined by ParaFi Capital and Crane Ventures Partners. axios.link/4tDL24k

• Chord, the AI platform for commerce operations, raised $7m. Equal Ventures led, joined by M13, Chingona Ventures, and CEAS Investments. axios.link/4tCnRYa

• Belo, an Argentine crypto app, raised $14m in Series A funding. Tether led, joined by Titan Fund, The Venture City, Mindset Ventures, and G2. axios.link/42KVJWR

• StudentCrowd, a U.K. student housing startup, raised £7m in Series A funding. YFM Equity Partners led, joined by the Midlands Engine Investment Fund II. axios.link/4cZ4PEm

• Allworth Financial, a Folsom, Calif.-based wealth manager with $35b in AUM, secured new funding from Integrum, Lightyear Capital, and Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan. axios.link/4n1p9tj

• Arcus Infrastructure Partners agreed to acquire TrueNoord, a Dutch regional aircraft lessor, from Freshstream. axios.link/4egkqBL

⚽ Avenue Sports Fund invested $40m into the North Carolina Courage, a National Women's Soccer League club. axios.link/49k7Qhi

⚡ Clearlake completed its buyout of Qualus, a Lake Mary, Fla.-based power and electric grid services platform, from New Mountain Capital. axios.link/47msAnV

• DAZN, a sports media group backed by Access Industries, agreed to buy ViewLift, a provider of streaming and digital solutions for content owners, for around $100m. ViewLift had raised over $50m from firms like NEA and Comcast Ventures. axios.link/4nd8fIf

• Fenceworks, a Gemspring Capital portfolio company, acquired Mansfield, Texas-based fencing firm T-Bar Fence. axios.link/4vY1UVb

• GTCR formed Avelis, a data and analytics platform for the global commodity and industrial markets. axios.link/4ejOYTd

• Inflexion acquired a minority stake in Marktlink Capital, a Benelux private markets investment platform. axios.link/4td6Q5H

⚽ KKR invested in MLS NEXT Pro, a program for emerging soccer players and coaches. axios.link/4egke5v

• Neuberger Private Markets invested in Flow Control Group, a Charlotte, N.C.-based provider of technical flow control and industrial automation distributors. axios.link/4tQ0Gty

⚡ T2Y Capital acquired a majority stake in Ackermann, a German high-voltage testing firm. axios.link/4cGVQc1

🌍 CH4 Natural Solutions Acquisition, a SPAC targeting companies that could benefit from methane mitigation, raised $200m in a downsized IPO. It was formed by Impact Ag, Riverstone's David Leuschen, and Overview Capital's Lauren Singer. axios.link/4huPlJ1

• Quantum Leap Acquisition, a tech SPAC led by Kervin Pillay (ex-Cisco), raised $200m in its IPO. axios.link/4qqAQcX

🚑 Hemab Therapeutics, a Copenhagen-based blood disorder biotech, raised $302m in its IPO. It priced 16.8m shares at $18, versus plans to offer 11.8m at $16-$18, for a $764m market cap. The Phase 3 company will list on the Nasdaq (COAG) and had raised around $346m from firms like RA Capital Management (17.6% pre IPO stake), Novo Holdings (15.2%), Access Industries (13.8%), Sofinnova (8.7%), Deep Track Capital (8%), SCWF (7.9%), Healthcap (6.9%), and Avoro Ventures (6.6%). axios.link/4mWol8X

🚑 Seaport Therapeutics, a Boston-based developer of neuropsychiatric medicines, raised $255m in its IPO. It priced 14.2m shares at $18, versus plans to offer 11.8m shares at $16-$18. The Phase 2 biotech will list on the Nasdaq (SPTX) and had raised around $330m from firms like PureTech Health (42.9% pre-IPO stake), Arch Venture Partners (13.4%), General Atlantic (8.6%), Sofinnova (7%), and Third Rock Ventures (5.3%). axios.link/3Qzbg9A

🚀 Blue Owl sold around half its SpaceX stake at a $1.25b trillion valuation. axios.link/42FQaJh

• Recharge, a subscription management platform valued by VCs at over $2b, acquired smaller rival Skio for around $105m. Skio had raised $8m from firms like Adjacent. axios.link/4tV5UEn

🚑 Spring Health, a VC-backed mental wellness platform for businesses and employees, completed its acquisition of Alma, an NYC-based membership network for therapists to build their practices. Alma had raised $225m from firms like Thoma Bravo, Cigna Ventures, Insight Partners, Optum Ventures, Tusk Venture Partners, Primary Venture Partners and Sound Ventures. axios.link/466SHOU

⚡ Arcadia, a Washington, D.C.-based utility data and energy solutions platform that's raised over $600m, agreed to acquire sustainable resources group Engie Impact from Engie (Paris: ENGI), per Axios.

• Brown Advisory invested in RockCreek, a provider of multi-asset and outsourced chief investment officer solutions. brownadvisory.com

• Uber (NYSE: UBER) agreed to buy Hong Kong-based FlyTaxi. axios.link/4tNskaH

• Boyne Capital, a Miami-based lower midmarket PE firm, raised over $400m for its third fund. axios.link/4cHX4np

• Plug and Play Japan raised around $38m for its debut fund. axios.link/4t8Bq0r

• Relentless, a seed firm led by Damir Becirovic (ex-Index Ventures), raised $80m for its debut fund. axios.link/42HaxWA

• Reverence Capital Partners raised a single-asset CV for Osaic, a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based wealth manager. axios.link/4upLpQe

• Lindsay Barca joined McDermott Will & Schulte as a partner in the law firm's restructuring practice. She previously was with Ropes & Gray. axios.link/4w54ybu

• Mac Hofeditz joined Riverwood Capital as a managing director of capital formation. He previously was with Vector Capital Management. axios.link/3OMYVOB

• Chris Mihok joined JPMorgan Chase as a managing director of financial institutions, per Bloomberg. He previously was with KBW. axios.link/3Pdny7a

• Fred Storz joined Beach Point Capital Management as a managing director focused on IR and capital formation. He previously was with Energy Capital Partners. axios.link/49l6lPX

• Kayla Tausche, a former CNBC and CNN correspondent, joined RedBird Capital Partners as a managing director. axios.link/4up2NVe