Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz yesterday became the highest-profile venture capitalists to announce their financial support of Donald Trump's campaign, earning both kudos and scorn from peers.

They framed their decision as strictly about believing Trump would be better than Biden on issues impacting tech startups, to the exclusion of all other issues (an endorsement strategy the pair mapped out last year).

• Most of their 97-minute video was focused on crypto and AI regulation, with zero mention of immigration policy.
• In short, they argue that Biden has been irrationally hostile to crypto, whereas Trump has found religion (Trump once called bitcoin a "scam"). On AI, they worry that Biden's executive order will help incumbents build fortresses.

But Andreessen also acknowledged that the "final straw" for him was tax policy. Specifically a Biden proposal to tax unrealized capital gains.

• We previously discussed that taxes are really at the heart of Biden's tech elite defectors. Particularly this proposal, a version of which was first floated by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) several years ago.
• Ironically, both Andreessen and Horowitz donated to Wyden last year.

Taxing unrealized capital gains introduces perverse investment incentives, would be difficult to implement, and may sound fundamentally unfair (i.e., taxing monies that aren't actually in the bank).

• In short, it was an unforced error by the Biden administration to include something in its FY24 and FY25 budgets that had almost no chance of becoming law, for the sake of campaign rhetoric about making billionaires "pay their fair share."

But it's also not the startup founder death knell that Andreessen suggests.

• The Biden proposal, which you can find on page 83 of this document, doesn't cover all unrealized capital gains. Most startups founders and employees would be unaffected.
• First, it only applies to those with $100 million in wealth (defined as assets minus liabilities). Second, even for that group, it only would apply if 80% or more of the person's wealth comes from liquid assets (i.e., not startup stock).
• If an individual is considered illiquid — e.g., a startup founder with $100 million in wealth, but $90 million of that in their company's stock — they could defer the unrealized tax payments until exit (and then it's only up to a cumulative 10% of unrealized gains).

The bottom line: There have been suggestions that Andreessen and Horowitz made this move to ingratiate themselves with a transactional frontrunner, and that may well be true. But there's no reason to claim that they don't believe in their arguments, even if the tax tipping point is overstated.

EssilorLuxottica (Paris: EL), the European glasses and lenses giant, has agreed to buy streetwear brand Supreme from North Face owner VF Corp. (NYSE: VFC) for $1.5 billion in cash.

Why it's the BFD: This is EssilorLuxottica's first major move outside of eyewear, where it owns brands like Ray-Ban and Oakley, plus retail chain GrandVision.

Catch up quick: VF bought New York-based Supreme from Carlyle and Goode Partners for $2.1 billion in 2020.

The bottom line: "A person close to the deal said the group had not been planning to expand into apparel but the acquisition of Supreme offered it a 'great opportunity' to tap 'an exclusive community' of younger consumers around the world." — Financial Times

• Tekion, a Pleasanton, Calif., cloud platform for auto retailers, raised $200m from Dragoneer at a $4b valuation. tekion.com

🚑 Scorpion Therapeutics, a Boston precision oncology company, raised $150m in Series C funding. Frazier Life Sciences and Lightspeedco-led, and were joined by Willett Advisors, Omega Funds, Vida Ventures, Atlas Venture, Abingworth, Fidelity, Boxer Capital, EcoR1 Capital, Surveyor Capital, Invus, Wellington Management, Nextech Invest, OrbiMed, Logos Capital, Woodline Partners, and Casdin Capital. axios.link/3y0r3oZ

• Aven, an SF provider of consumer credit cards backed by home equity, raised $142m in Series D funding. Khosla Ventures and General Catalyst co-led, and were joined by Caffeinated Capital, Electric Capital, Founders Fund, and The General Partnership. aven.com

• Kandji, an Apple endpoint management and security platform, raised $100m in Series D funding led by General Catalyst at an $850m valuation. axios.link/3Wr3q2c

• Matera, a Brazilian banking software provider, raised $100m from Warburg Pincus. matera.com

🚑 Thyme Care, a Nashville cancer care enabler, raised $55m in equity funding from CVS Health Ventures, Town Hall Ventures, a16z, AlleyCorp, Echo Health Ventures, Frist Cressey Ventures, and Foresite Capital. It also secured $30m in debt funding. thymecare.com

🌎 Again, a Danish startup that makes chemicals out of carbon dioxide, raised $43m in Series A funding co-led by GVand HV Capital. axios.link/4f8hvco

• Indie Campers, a Lisbon-based RV rental platform, raised €35m. Indico Capital Partners led, and was joined by Cedrus and GED Ventures. axios.link/3y4GOez

• Infinitium, an Austin, Texas developer of air-core motors, raised $35m in Series E funding from Marunouchi Innovation Partners and Rice Investment Group. goinfinitium.com

🚑 Novocuff, a developer of devices to decrease preterm births, raised $26m in Series A funding, per Axios Pro. AXA IM Alts led, and was joined by Laerdal Million Lives Fund, Laborie, RH Capital, Avestria Ventures, and March of Dimes. axios.link/3Y8eD9o

• Leya, a Swedish legal AI startup, raised $25m in Series A funding. Redpoint Ventures led, and was joined by insiders Benchmark, YC, and Wayfinder Ventures. leya.law

• Arcee AI, a developer of small language models, raised $24m in Series A funding. Emergence Capital led, and was joined by Arvadia Capital and insiders Long Journey Ventures, Scott Banister, Flybridge, Centre Street Partners. acree.ai

• NetLex, a Brazilian contract lifecycle management platform, raised $24m led by Riverwood Capital. netlex.io

• Exa, developer of a "Google for AI," raised $17m in Series A funding. Lightspeed led, and was joined by NVentures and YC. axios.link/3S9rZOA

• Bioniq, a London provider of personalized supplements, raised $15m in Series B funding co-led by HV Capital and Unbound. bioniq.com

🚑 Eden, a Mexico City radiology tech startup, raised $10m in Series A funding, per Axios Pro. Sierra Ventures led, and was joined by Kaszek, Alt Capital, YC, and Khosla Ventures. axios.link/3WtLPHa

• CultureAI, a British cyber risk management startup, raised $10m in Series A funding. Mercia Ventures and Smedvig Ventures co-led, and were joined by insiders Passion Capital and Senovo. axios.link/4cZqo5S

• Essentialist, a Spanish digital travel service, raised around $10m in Series A funding led by Iris Ventures. essentialist.com

• Mira, a decentralized AI infrastructure platform, raised $9m in seed funding. Bitkraft Ventures and Framework Ventures co-led, and were joined by Accel, Crucible, Folius Ventures, Mechanism Capital, and SALT Fund. mira.foundation

• Merly.ai, a Palo Alto, Calif., autonomous AI code software startup, raised $6.8m in seed funding. Greycroft and IBM Ventures co-led, and were joined by Jazz Venture Partners. merly.ai

⚡ Itselectric, a Brooklyn-based EV curbside charging startup, raised $6.5m in seed funding co-led by Failup Ventures and Uber. itselectric.us

🌎 Earthshot Labs, a carbon project marketplace, raised a $5.5 million Series A funding, per Axios Pro. Acorn Pacific Ventures led, and was joined by Earth Foundry, Future Ventures, Resilient Earth Capital, One Small Planet, Sand Hill Angels, and Orca Capital. axios.link/469ghJI

• Echo Chunk, developer of an online chess game, raised $1.4m in pre-seed funding from a16z, Mark Pincus, South Park Commons, Eric Wu, and Stef Corazza. axios.link/3W57jIW

• Lemonado, a Swedish co-code app builder, raised $1.4m in seed funding led by Node. axios.link/3WpFvA8

🚑 Briefly Bio, a developer of AI to help scientists reproduce complex experiments, raised $1.2m. Compound VC led, and was joined by NP Hard and Tiny VC. axios.link/3Y0RmGe

🍷 Accolade Wines, an Australian portfolio company of Bain Capital, agreed to buy most of Pernod Ricard's (Paris: PERP) wine portfolio. axios.link/3LrsmQR

• Apollo Global Management agreed to buy The Travel Corp., a portfolio of 18 travel brands. axios.link/4fgsWPg

• Ardian entered into exclusive talks to buy a majority stake in French culinary equipment makers Robot-Coupe and Magimix. axios.link/3Wod4m6

• Avenue Sports Fund acquired a minority stake in Trackhouse Entertainment Group, a NASCAR team founded by ex-driver Justin Marks. Other shareholders include Pitbull. axios.link/4cHauxj

⚡ Blackstone agreed to acquire Trystar, a Faribault, Minn., electrical equipment supplier for backup power systems. axios.link/3WpjZvu

• Blackstone and CVC Capital Partners are weighing takeover bids for StandardAero, a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based aircraft maintenance company owned by Carlyle that could fetch $10b, per Bloomberg. axios.link/4bHdbxz

• Carlyle and KKR agreed to buy a $10.1b portfolio of prime student loans from Discover Financial Services(NYSE: DFS). axios.link/4d5kali

• Charlesbank Capital Partners invested in business advisory and accounting firm Aprio. aprio.com

• CTERA, an Israeli provider of hybrid cloud data management solutions, raised $80m in primary and secondary funding from PSG Equity. ctera.com

• Francisco Partners and TA Associates agreed to become co-control shareholders of Orisha, a French provider of industry-specific ERP software in which TA had been majority shareholder since 2021. orisha.com

🚑 Lumerity Capital acquired a majority stake in health care IT consulting firm Ellit Groups. lumerity.com

• Mod Op, a Miami portfolio company of Alterna Equity Partners, acquired Evans Hunt, a Canadian digital marketing agency. axios.link/3Y9c7PZ

• Thompson Street Capital Partners invested in National Arbitration & Mediation, a New York provider of dispute resolution services. namadr.com

• Wafra invested in Triple Private Equity, a London-based firm focused on European small and midcap software and data companies. axios.link/468diBe

• Expectation Acquisition, a SPAC led by Wanjiao Pu (Beijing Medlinker Tech), filed for a $60m IPO. axios.link/4f0mdc5

• GSR III Acquisition, a SPAC led by Gus Garcia (ex-BofA) and Lewis Silberman (Oppenheimer), filed for a $200m IPO. axios.link/4d2iUPN

• Ocean Capital Acquisition, a SPAC led by Simon Wong (Hermitage Capital HK), withdrew registration for a $60m IPO. axios.link/4fa7Kui

• GitLab (Nasdaq: GTLB), an SF-based provider of software dev tools with around an $8b market cap, is exploring a sale after receiving acquisition interest, per Reuters. Shareholders include GV, Khosla Ventures, and Iconiq. axios.link/4cHasFW

• Palladium Equity Partners completed the sale of its majority stake in Trachte, an Oregon, Wis., provider of equipment protection and control buildings, to nVent Electric (NYSE: NVT) for $695m. trachteusa.com

• Allianz (ETR: ALV) agreed to buy a 51% stake in Singapore's Income Insurance for around US$1.64b. axios.link/3Lthq5m

⚡ Aurora Solar, an SF solar sales and design software firm valued by VCs at $4b, acquired Lyra, a Santa Cruz, Calif., developer of solar permitting software. axios.link/3LqZCYp

⚽ Willow Bay, dean of the USC Annenberg School, and her husband, Disney CEO Bob Iger, agreed to acquire women's pro soccer team Angel City FC at a $250m valuation. axios.link/3LrzSv3

• Darty (Paris: FNAC) offered to buy Italian electronics retailer Unieuro (Milan: UNIR) for €249m. axios.link/3Y7hj7c

• Eastward Partners, a executive search firm, acquired Press and Associates, a search firm known for working with PE-backed portfolio companies. eastwardpartners.com

• Pets Choice, a British petfood maker, acquired vegan dog-food brand Hownd. axios.link/4bO4XUx

• CCMP Growth Advisors, a midmarket PE firm, raised $500m for its fourth fund. ccmpgrowth.com

• Menlo Ventures announced a $100m fund to back startups leveraging Anthropic's tech and AI models. menlovc.com

• Ankit Dalal joined Moelisas a managing director in its capital structure advisory group. He previously was with Evercore. www.moelis.com

• Matthew Sabben-Clare joined Marlborough Partners as a senior advisor. He previously was Cinven's chief administrative officer and head of capital markets. axios.link/4d04Gie

• Warburg Pincus named Jeffrey Perlman as CEO. He succeeds Chip Kaye, who becomes c-chair alongside Tim Geithner. axios.link/467xEdQ

Rumors of the death of U.S. economic buoyancy have been greatly exaggerated, writes Axios Macro's Neil Irwin and Courtenay Brown.

• There have been emerging signs of weakness over the past few weeks. Those cracks are real and the future uncertain, but the overall picture remains one of robust economic activity.
• Go deeper.