Get private equity investors on a conference stage, and they'll be fairly stoic about the industry. Rising rates, economic uncertainty, etc.

• Get them on bar stools, and they're almost giddy.

The big picture: These could be salad days for private equity dealmaking.

Zoom out: The biggest change between 2023 and the past several years is that pricing has fallen down to ... well, maybe not Earth, but at least to a lower altitude. And unlike when the stock market correction began in 2022, many sellers have finally accepted the new normal.

• But wait, there's more.
• Recession fears and stock price sags are sparking a wave of corporate divestitures (i.e., non-core asset sales). There's also a slew of other amenable targets, including the glut of companies that went public via SPAC and now need lifelines.
• The rapid rise of private credit not only means that a new source of debt financing is readily available, but leveraged lenders are now cutting their own rates to compete.
• Private equity has traditionally been at a disadvantage to strategics — primarily given their sources of capital — but that gap has shrunk because private equity doesn't (yet) have antitrust challenges in the U.S. or elsewhere.
• The industry still has near-record levels of dry powder, having slowed its new investment activity. And it may have just fought off yet another effort to change the tax treatment of carried interest.

The bottom line: This isn't to dismiss very real challenges, including rising debt service costs for existing portfolio companies and Washington, D.C.'s economic kamikaze act. But private equity's tailwinds are stronger than the headwinds.

Source: Giphy

Shutterstock (NYSE: SSTK) agreed to buy Giphy, a platform of sharable animated images and microvideos, from Meta (Nasdaq: META) for $53 million in cash.

Why it's the BFD: This is the first time Meta has ever been forced by antitrust regulators to sell an asset.

Backstory: Meta, then still known as Facebook, paid around $400 million to buy Giphy in 2020. At the time we suggested the deal might run into antitrust scrutiny, which it ultimately did in the U.K.

• Shutterstock's deal is expected to close next month, and Meta entered into an API agreement so that Giphy's content can continue to appear on its platform.

The bottom line: Shutterstock got a three-alarm fire sale price, both due to the regulatory mandate and the fact that Giphy's business has been in prolonged limbo while the situation played itself out.

• Anthropic, a SF-based AI research firm, raised $450m in Series C funding. Spark Capital led, and was joined by Google, Salesforce Ventures, Sound Ventures and Zoom Ventures. The company's prior round, a $580m Series B infusion last April, had been led by Sam Bankman-Fried with Caroline Ellison also participating. https://axios.link/3BQWQXD

• Builder.ai, a London-based modular app development platform, raised $250m in Series D funding. Qatar Investment Authority led, and was joined by Iconiq Capital, Jungle Ventures and Insight Partners. Earlier this month it announced an undisclosed amount of funding from Microsoft. https://axios.link/3BO4ORB

• Tyme, a South African digital bank majority owned by African Rainbow Capital, raised $77.8m co-led by Norrsken22 and Blue Earth Capital. https://axios.link/43hWODY

• Chalo, an Indian bus commute tech startup, raised $45m in Series D funding (plus $12m in debt). Avataar Ventures led the equity, and was joined by insiders Lightrock India, WaterBridge Ventures and Amit Singhal. https://axios.link/45hSpTv

• ClearMotion, a Billerica, Mass.-based software-defined car chassis company, raised $32m from NewView Capital, Acadia Woods, BAI Capital, NIO Capital and Liberty Street. www.clearmotion.com

• Logik.io, a Highland Park, Ill.-based commerce logic engine, raised $16m in Series A funding. Emergence Capital led, and was joined by ServiceNow Ventures and Salesforce Ventures. www.logik.io

🚑 Lifeforce, a Santa Monica, Calif.-based wellness platform, raised $12m in Series A funding, per Axios Pro. Peterson Ventures and M13 co-led, and were joined by Ridgeline Ventures, Rosecliff Ventures, and Seaside Ventures. https://axios.link/43nnnYe

• Volition, an SF-based industrial parts marketplace for hardware developers, raised $11m in seed funding co-led by Newark Venture Partners and Quiet Capital. https://axios.link/3IAB8v0

• CyberVadis, a French cyber risk management platform, raised €7m in seed funding led by Zobito AB. https://axios.link/45jFdxn

• Ballerine, an open-source risk decisioning platform, raised $5m in seed funding led by Team8. www.ballerine.com

🚑 LeadOptik, a San Jose, Calif.-based medical imaging startup focused on early cancer detection, raised $5m in seed funding. MetaVC Partners led, and was joined by SOSV, Sony Innovation Fund, TSVC and ENEA. www.leadoptik.com

• Minoa, an SF-based provider of enterprise SaaS value and pricing management solutions, raised $2.7m in pre-seed funding led by 468 Capital. www.minoa.io

🚑 Smartbax, a German developer of antibiotics against multi-drug resistant bacteria, raised €1.2m in seed funding from BIVF and High-Tech Gründerfonds. www.smartbax.de

⚡ Antin Infrastructure Partners, KKR and InfraVia Capital Partners each are vying to buy French renewable project developer Akuo Energy, which could fetch more than €3b, per Bloomberg. https://axios.link/3q7lCA7

• BerlinRosen, a portfolio company of O2 Investment Partners invested in Boston-based communications firm Inkhouse. www.inkhouse.com

• Primat Group, an Italian portfolio company of Tendercapital, acquired a control stake in Curtis, a Michigan-based metal finishing firm previously owned by HCI Equity Partners (which retains a stake). www.primatgroup.com

• Standard General's efforts to buy local television broadcaster Tegna (NYSE: TGNA) for $5.4b are over, as a key financing deadline expired yesterday. https://axios.link/3MsYgMT

• NextTrip, a Sunrise, Fla.-based travel tech incubator, agreed to go public via Genesis Growth Tech Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: GGAA), a SPAC led by Eyal Perez (Genesis Advisors) that had terminated a prior deal with French digital health company Biolog-id. https://axios.link/3MOtvU2

• ESH Acquisition, an entertainment, sports and hospitality SPAC, cut its IPO target to $100m from $300m. It’s led by James Francis (ex-CEO of Chesapeake Lodging Trust) and Allen Weiss (ex-Disney), while Magic Johnson is vice chair. https://axios.link/3MuoFKv

🌎 Silver Sustainable Solutions, a clean tech SPAC backed by Guggenheim Partners and led by former U.S. Energy Department loan program chief Jonathan Silver, withdrew registration for a $250m IPO. https://axios.link/43mlH1u

• H.I.G. Capital hired Harris Williams to find a buyer for Recochem, a Canadian specialty chemicals distributor that could fetch more than C$1.5b, per Reuters. https://axios.link/41WIHCR

⚡ I Squared Capital is in talks to sell Peru-based power producer Inkia Energy for around $2b to China's State Power Investment Corp., per Bloomberg. https://axios.link/45qNhwb

⚡ Partners Group is considering an IPO or sale process for Techem, a German metering firm that could be valued at €8b, per Bloomberg. https://axios.link/3IzS9FD

• Reverence Capital Partners hired William Blair & Co. to find a buyer for Transact, a Phoenix-based college payment processing company that could fetch more than $1b, per Fortune. www.transactcampus.com

🚑 Freenome, an SF-based multi-omics platform that's raised over $800m, will pay £13m to acquire two subsidiaries of Oncimmune (LSE: ONC), a British maker of early cancer diagnostics https://axios.link/3WxiGcf

🚑 Ironwood Pharma (Nasdaq: IRWD) agreed to buy Swiss GI drugmaker VectivBio (Nasdaq: VECT) for around $1b, or $17 per share. https://axios.link/3osS0wD

• Miax, a Princeton, a N.J.-based digital exchange, completed its acquisition of digital asset options exchange LedgerX, as part of the FTX bankruptcy. https://axios.link/3WpGRta

• Mizuho Financial Group (Tokyo: 8411) agreed to buy investment bank Greenhill & Co. (NYSE: GHL) for $550m, or $15 per share. https://axios.link/42XUmma

🚑 Novartis (NYSE: NVS) is paying $87.5m to buy a gene therapy candidate from Avrobio (Nasdaq: AVRO). Earlier reports were that Novartis was considering a total takeover of Avrobio. https://axios.link/3q3Cec8

• TCS Capital Management is calling on service recommendation site Yelp (Nasdaq: YELP) to seek a buyer, per the WSJ. The activist investment firm has around a 4% stake in Yelp. https://axios.link/3OCNtT4

🌎 E3LCEF, an Africa-focused climate tech fund managed by E3 Capital and Lion’s Head Global Partners, held a $48.1m first close on its $100 target. https://axios.link/3Iw8aMv

• GTCR raised $11.5b for its 14th flagship buyout fund, per Reuters. https://axios.link/45tFnCb

• Matrix Partners India has closed on $518m for its fourth fund, per an SEC filing. https://axios.link/431YzVZ

🌎 NGP Energy Capital of Dallas raised $700m for its fourth energy transition fund and $527m for its second mineral rights and royalties fund. https://axios.link/3oiHHvn

• Rothschild & Co. (Paris: ROTH) is launching a private markets group, which will be led by Jessica Sellam. https://axios.link/45oeuzH

• Vivriti Asset Management of India is raising $250m for private credit investment in asset-backed securities. https://axios.link/42Zscre

🚑 Wellstar Health System of Georgia launched a $100m fund focused on early-stage health care startups. https://axios.link/3of0XJW

🚑 David Floyd, former global president of DePuy Orthopaedics, joined Permira as a senior adviser to its global health care group. www.permira.com

• Thomas Malone and David Penna both left Latham & Watkins to join Davis Polk as partners in the law firm’s M&A and finance practice, respectively. www.davispolk.com

• Grant Saul (ex-Moelis & Co.) and Louis Kleist (Credit Suisse) joined placement agency Eaton Partners as directors. www.eaton-partners.com

• Randal Stephenson joined M&A advisory FE International as head of investment banking. He previously was with GLC Advisors. www.feinternational.com

• Bull City Venture Partners promoted Michael Lee to principal. www.bcvp.com

The Axios Harris 100 poll of brand reputation among America's 100 most visible companies was released this morning, with some big gainers like Costco and big losers like Tesla and Disney. Dig into the full results.