Kicking off a new week by cleaning out the notebook...

✍️ Alts ubiquity: The line between public and private markets today got even smudgier.

• Robinhood registered for a publicly traded fund that will be packed full of privately held startups, giving retail investors yet another way to play venture capitalist.
• President Trump suggested that public companies no longer should be required to report quarterly earnings, but instead report every six months, thus making them much more opaque (and possibly encouraging more private companies to IPO).

🏎️ Speaking of which: Carlyle last week signed a sponsorship deal with Oracle Red Bull Racing, meaning that the firm's branding will be on the F1 Racing team's kits, pit wall, and garage.

• It's not the first private markets firm to have its branding in a pro sports environment. Platinum Equity, for example, has a logo on the Detroit Pistons' home court, although that's because both are owned by Tom Gores.
• But this clearly is Carlyle trying to increase its profile for a retail audience. Expect others to follow suit.

🚑 The Trump administration is seeking to crack down on direct-to-consumer drug marketing, leading to ROI questions for a series of recent private equity deals in the sector, as Axios Pro recently reported.

• Recent deals have included Vitruvian Partners investing $637 million into DeepIntent, Advent International agreeing to acquire PatientPoint for over $1.4 billion, and GIC and Linden Health buying Klick Health for $2.5 billion.
• The bull case is that these sorts of companies will be needed more than ever, as pharma clients seek to navigate the new rules.
• The bear case is that Trump is basically trying to kill DTC drug marketing, possibly by requiring more disclosures than could fit in a 30-second ad.

⌚ TikTok clock: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent today said that the U.S. and China have the "framework" for a deal that would see ByteDance divest control of TikTok, with Trump later adding that he'll discuss the matter on Friday with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

• The current divestiture deadline is Wednesday.

🤖 Coming attractions Wednesday also is our Axios AI+ Summit in D.C., where I'll be interviewing Sriram Krishnan.

• He's currently the White House senior policy advisor on AI. Before that, he was a partner with a16z and an exec at such companies as Facebook, Snap, and Twitter.
• The livestream will be here, and be sure to email me with what you'd like me to ask.

Brookfield Asset Management is in talks to buy Yes Communities, a Denver-based developer of manufactured home communities, from GIC for more than $10 billion, per the FT.

Why it's the BFD: This would be a big bet on American home prices and rents continuing to climb, despite some economic softening.

• It also would be Brookfield's return to the lower end of the U.S. residential real estate market, after last year selling nearly 80 mobile home parks for around $1.6 billion.

The bottom line: "Yes oversees a portfolio of tens of thousands of manufactured homes in around 300 communities across the US, particularly in regions such as the Midwest and Southeast ... The company rents homes and also offers purchase options for customers, in which they buy their unit over time but lease the land from the company." — The Financial Times

• Lila Sciences, a Cambridge, Mass.-based developer of AI tools for scientific discovery, raised $235m in Series A funding at a $1.23b pre-money valuation. Braidwell and Collective Global led, joined by Altitude Life Science Ventures, Alumni Ventures, ARK Venture Fund, Common Metal, Flagship Pioneering, General Catalyst, March Capital, Mathers Foundation, Modi Ventures, NGS Super, State of Michigan Retirement System, and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. axios.link/4gv8riU

• Hala, a Saudi fintech, raised $157m at a reported $900m valuation led by TPG and Sanabil. axios.link/3VeoSWX

• Arch, a developer of a "Charles Schwab for private markets," raised $52m in Series B funding. Oak HC/FT led, joined by Menlo Ventures, Craft Ventures, and Quiet Capital. axios.link/3Vi8pkE

• GreenLite, a New York construction permitting startup, raised $49.5m in Series B funding. Insight Partners led, joined by Energize Capital and insiders Craft Ventures, LiveOak Ventures, and Chicago Ventures. greenlite.com

• Terra Security, a New York-based provider of web app penetration testing, raised $30m in Series A funding, per Axios Pro. Felicis led, joined by Dell Technology Capital and SVCI. axios.link/4n2rbbI

• Kredete, a fintech for African immigrants to build credit and access financial services, raised $22m in Series A funding. AfricInvest and Partech led, joined by Polymorphic Capital. kredete.io

🚑 Doctronic, a New York-based health guidance tech startup, raised $20m in Series A funding, per Axios Pro. Lightspeed led, joined by USV, Tusk Ventures, Mantis VC, Seven Stars, and Fei-Fei Li. axios.link/4ndiWK3

• Spara, a New York-based developer of go-to-market AI agents, raised $15m in seed funding led by Radical Ventures and Inspired Capital. axios.link/4n3lRVt

🚑 Inbox Health, a New Haven, Conn.-based patient billing startup, raised $10m in equity funding led by Ten Coves Capital, per Axios Pro. It also secured $10m of debt from SVB. axios.link/3K0C2o5

🚑 Sophont, a Sacramento-based developer of medical foundation models, raised $9.2m in pre-seed and seed funding. Kindred Ventures led, joined by Upfront Ventures and Delphi Ventures. axios.link/46mHNEb

⚡ Encentive, a German platform for cutting industrial energy bills, raised €6.3m. General Catalyst led, joined by insiders Summiteer, SIVentures, Vireo Ventures, and HelloWorld. axios.link/41Pz63J

⚡ Dig Energy, a Hopkinton, N.H.-based geothermal drilling startup, raised $5m. Azolla Ventures led, joined by Conifer Infrastructure Partners, Suffolk Technologies, Mercator Partners, Koa Labs, and Baukunst. axios.link/41QSopn

• Pascal AI Labs, a Bangalore-based platform for agentic investment research workflows, raised $3.1m in seed funding. Kalaari Capital led, joined by Norwest, Infoedge Ventures, and Antler. pascalailabs.com

⚡ CVC Capital Partners and Trafigura Group are among potential suitors for French fuel distributor Rubis (Paris: RUI), per Bloomberg. axios.link/46qBRdn

• GTCR agreed to acquire SimpliSafe, a Boston-based residential security company, from Hellman & Friedman. simplisafe.com

• IK Partners acquired part of PwC's Norwegian audit and advisory group. axios.link/46E8AwM

• Lone View Capital invested in Jumpmind, a Westerville, Ohio-based provider of POS retail tech solutions. axios.link/4gpvkUM

• Platinum Equity agreed to acquire PlayPower, a Huntersville, N.C.-based maker of recreational and outdoor living systems, from Littlejohn & Co. playpower.com

• Riverspan Partners acquired United Titanium, a Wooster, Ohio-based maker of fasteners and precision components. unitedtitanium.com

• Thoma Bravo completed its $2b take-private buyout of restaurant SaaS provider Olo. axios.link/44dnZmN

Four companies plan to go public on U.S. exchanges this week: StubHub, Netskope, Pattern, and WaterBridge.

• Alliance Laundry Systems, a Ripon, Wis.-based laundry equipment manufacturer owned by BDT & MSD Partners, filed for an IPO. It plans to list on the NYSE (ALH) and reports $48m of net income on $837m of revenue for the first six months of 2025. Bloomberg reported in early 2024 that the company was for sale for around $5b. axios.link/3K3hLy6

🚑 Ottobock, a German prosthetics maker, said it's prepping a Frankfurt IPO. axios.link/3In4IqQ

• Apax Partners hired Nomura and UBS to find a buyer for London-based life insurance consolidator Gamalife, which could fetch around €600m, per Bloomberg. axios.link/46hP5Ja

• MoonPay, last valued by VCs at $3.4 billion in 2021, acquired Meso, a crypto payments startup that had been seeded by firms like Ribbit Capital and Solana Ventures. axios.link/46qypiJ

• Corteva (NYSE: CTVA), an Indianapolis agricultural giant, may split up its seed and pesticides businesses into separate companies, per the WSJ. axios.link/3I1deMa

• Hearst is increasing what it will pay to buy Dallas Morning News publisher DallasNews (Nasdaq: DALN) to $15 per share in cash from $14 per share. dallasnews.com

• Rheinmetall, a listed German defense group, agreed to buy Lürssen's warship unit. axios.link/4gIF2St

• Sainsbury's (LSE: SBRY) ended talks about selling U.K. retailer Argos to JD.com (Nasdaq: JD). axios.link/41SEVNS

• Asterion Industrial Partners, a Spanish infrastructure investor, raised €3.4b for its third fund. asterionindustrial.com

• Grid Capital, an Illinois-based pre-seed firm, is raising up to $25m for a new fund, per an SEC filing. gridcap.com

• ICG raised €3.15b for its secnd European infrastructure fund. icgam.com

• Octave, an early-stage VC firm, is raising up to $30m for its third fund, per an SEC filing. octave.fund

• Scout Ventures of Austin is raising up to $125m for its fifth fund, per an SEC filing. scout.vc

• True Ventures is raising up to $300m for its ninth flagship fund and up to $100m for its fifth select fund, per SEC filings. trueventures.com

• Sam Tidswell-Norrish joined Access Holdings as a partner and head of fundraising and IR. He previously was with Motive Partners. axios.link/4n40tzv

• Rose Yuan and James Colgan joined Cathay Innovation as an investment director and operating partner, respectively. Yuan previously was with Generation Investment Management, while Colgan is a former product exec with companies like Microsoft and Slack. cathayinnovation.com

Tesla shares surged higher this morning after Elon Musk disclosed that he'd purchased around $1 billion in new stock.

• This returns the automaker to positive territory for 2025, after massive declines earlier this year tied to both tariffs and consumer blowback over Musk's political activities.