Clearing out the notebook to kick off the week...

🧾 Status quo: House Republicans this weekend released a preliminary draft of upcoming tax legislation, and private equity must be breathing a giant sigh of relief.

• Carried interest wasn't mentioned. Neither were increases to top individual rates.
• In fact, PE largesse flowed the other way — with a permanent increase to the pass-through income deduction to 22% from 20%.

Yes, but: This is far from final legislative language, and also didn't include anything about taxes on tips, overtime, or Social Security benefits. Nor the SALT deductions. So it's possible that the details will get more devilish as time goes on.

• In the meantime, PE/VC fund formation lawyers already are working on new structures — and ways to restructure existing funds if Congress kills the carry loopholes without grandfathering.
• In short, few GPs seem ready to just accept smaller take-home. We'll dig deeper later this week.

🏀 Score update: Bill Chisholm is said to now have a fully financed bid to buy The Boston Celtics, and would be the deal's largest single investor.

• That means that Sixth Street won't need to provide the full $1 billion it committed, which enables Chisholm's offer to meet NBA ownership rules for private equity.
• We've also learned that Chisholm quietly sold a small stake in his private equity firm, STG Partners, to Petershill Partners prior to the Celtics announcement in March. This was the second time he'd generated liquidity via Petershill, following an initial minority stake sale in 2021.

➡️ Trading places: Doug Keller has stepped down as head of global alternatives at T. Rowe Price to become CEO of permanent capital and wealth at RedBird Capital Partners.

• His role will be to develop new evergreen solutions for many of the firm's longer-term investments.

👀 New fund alert: Jennifer Campbell, a former partner with Founders Fund, is said to be targeting around $300 million for a new early-stage fund.

• Campbell joined FF in 2023 from Coinbase, which had acquired a crypto prime brokerage she cofounded called Tagomi. Before that, she spent time with Union Square Ventures.

💰 ICYMI: The Treasury Department last week announced plans to establish a fast-track process for CFIUS approvals, including the creation of a "known investor portal."

• It will begin as a pilot process and is aimed at increasing foreign investment in the U.S. No further details were disclosed.

Rippling, an SF-based provider of HR software, raised $450 million in Series G funding at a $16.8 billion valuation.

• The company also agreed to repurchase around $200 million in shares from current and former employees at the same valuation (which is up from $13.5 billion one year ago).

Why it's the BFD: Venture capitalists apparently don't care too much about Rippling's explosive legal battle with rival Deel, or perhaps believe that Rippling has the upper hand.

Zoom in: New investors were Elad Gil, Sands Capital, GIC, Goldman Sachs Growth, Baillie Gifford, and Y Combinator.

• Existing backers include Founders Fund, Coatue, Bedrock Capital, Greenoaks, Kleiner Perkins, and Sequoia Capital.

The bottom line: Rippling founder and CEO Parker Conrad suggested to CNBC that an IPO isn't coming anytime soon, arguing that the company would need to be closer to profitability.

• Classiq, an Israeli quantum software company, raised $110m in Series C funding. Entrée Capital led, joined by NVP, NightDragon, Hamilton Lane, Clal, Neva SGR, Phoenix, Team8, IN Venture, Wing, HSBC, Samsung Next, and QBeat. classiq.io

• X-Bow, a Seattle-based provider of solid-rocket motors, raised $105m in Series B funding from Razor's Edge Ventures, Crosslink Capital, Balerion Space Ventures, and Capital Factory Ventures. axios.link/453ubys

• Farmley, a healthy snacks brand in India, raised $42m in Series A funding. L Catterton led, joined by insider DSG Consumer Partners. axios.link/3GLBP6r

• Nawy, an Egyptian proptech startup, raised $29m in Series A funding led by Partech Africa (plus $23m in debt). axios.link/3YFWfnL

• Zapia, a WhatsApp-based AI executive assistant for Latin America, raised $7.25m in new seed funding. Prosus Ventures led, joined by Endeavor Catalyst, Anthos Capital, Factory HQ, and SnR. zapia.com

• TensorStax, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based AI platform for data engineering, raised $5m in seed funding. Glasswing Ventures led, joined by Bee Partners and S3 Ventures. tensorstax.com

• S4labour, a U.K.-based workplace management software provider, raised £4m from YFM Equity Partners. axios.link/3Sl3PRb

• Egune AI, a Mongolian foundational AI startup, raised $3.5m in equity funding from Golomt Bank. egune.com

🚑 Bain Capital is in talks to buy Philadelphia-based PCI Pharma Services for more than $10b from Kohlberg & Co., Partners Group, and Mubadala, per Bloomberg. axios.link/42Rb4WX

• Bain also agreed to sponsor a $756m management buyout of Japanese logistics company Nissin (Tokyo: 9066).

• Blackstone agreed to acquire TaskUs (Nasdaq: TASK), a New Braunfels, Texas-based provider of outsourced digital services and customer experience solutions, for around $2b, or $16.50 per share. axios.link/3GLFFwn

• Concord, a music firm backed by Apollo, acquired Broadway Licensing Global. axios.link/3SD111z

🚑 Cressey & Co. invested in Paradigm Health, an Indianapolis-based provider of hospice and palliative care services. myparadigmhealth.com

• Hub International, a Chicago-based insurance broker owned by Hellman & Friedman, raised $1.6b in minority equity funding at a $29b enterprise value co-led by T. Rowe Price, Alpha Wave Global, and Temasek. axios.link/44tmzoK

⚡ Macquarie agreed to buy Iberdrola's (Madrid: IBE) U.K. smart meter rentals business for nearly £900m. axios.link/4j1juzD

• TSG Consumer Partners agreed to acquire EoS Fitness, a Phoenix-based gym chain. axios.link/3F520EO

eToro is the only major IPO expected this week on U.S. exchanges.

⚡ CATL, a Chinese EV manufacturer listed in Shenzhen, plans to raise $4b in a Hong Kong listing. axios.link/42UAkM7

• Cobalt Holdings, which buys and holds physical stock of cobalt, disclosed plans for a London IPO that could raise around $230m. axios.link/43mBEY9

🚑 Omada Health, an SF-based chronic care management platform, filed for an IPO. It reports a $47m net loss on $170m in revenue for 2024, versus a $68m net loss on $123m in revenue for 2023, and plans to list on the Nasdaq (OMDA). Omada raised around $450m in VC funding from Revelation Partners, USVP, a16z, Cigna Ventures, aMoon, and NVP. axios.link/4kdjhue

⚡ One Power, a Findlay, Ohio-based industrial power company, withdrew its January registration for a $100m IPO. It previously planned to go public via SPAC but terminated the deal last July. Backers include Ecofin Investments. axios.link/3CkZV6n

• TA Associates is weighing the sale of its majority stake in Pittsburgh-based cloud engineering firm Accion Labs, which could fetch around a $1b valuation, per Bloomberg. axios.link/4m7PeGp

• Veritas Capital is weighing a sale of Anthology, a Boca Raton, Fla., education software provider, per Bloomberg. axios.link/43brKam

• Church & Dwight (NYSE:CHD) agreed to acquire the Touchland brand of hand sanitizers for $700m in cash and stock, plus up to $180 in earnouts. churchdwight.com

• Pan American Silver (TSX: PAAS) agreed to buy smaller rival MAG Silver (TSX: MAG) for $2.1b. axios.link/4j4g3sf

• Santander (Madrid: SAN) rejected an £11bn bid for its U.K. unit from NatWest (LSE: NWG). axios.link/3YEulZ8

⚡ Aligned Climate Capital raised over $240m for its sixth fund focused on community solar projects, per Axios Pro. axios.link/4j23yNz

• Matchpoint Ventures, a Florida-based firm led by Brian Yeh (ex-DG Ventures), is raising $30m for its debut fund, per an SEC filing.

• Pemberton raised a total of €8.4b for three direct lending funds. pembertonam.com

🚑 DW Healthcare Partners promoted Michael Barulich to principal. axios.link/4kdGVqD

• Henry Hemaya joined PE firm Infinedi Partners as a VP and head of biz dev. He previously was with Diversis Capital. infinedi.com

• MPE Partners promoted Joshua Liebow to partner. axios.link/4ek0c6g

• Stephan Scholl, former CEO of Alight Solutions, joined Advent International as an operating partner. axios.link/4j4jRK3

The Senate last week failed to move a landmark stablecoin bill out of committee, although moves were made that would allow it to come up for another vote.

• The GENIUS Act had early bipartisan support, but Democrats (and some Republicans) fell away at the last minute. Possibly to emphasize their disagreement with how President Trump's family is profiting from crypto ventures — a concern that only will be heightened this morning.

What we're watching: How this legislative stall impacts the planned IPO of USDC stablecoin issuer Circle.