Emptying out the notebook (again) before boarding the ferry:

💰 New funds alert: Lachy Groom has quietly raised a pair of $300 million VC funds, one for early-stage deals and one for even earlier-stage deals, Axios has learned.

• Groom is one of venture's most active solo GPs, despite his day job as co-founder of Physical Intelligence, an AI robotics startup that raised money earlier this year at an $11 billion valuation.
• Including the new committed capital, the onetime Stripe exec and current Sun Valley denizen has raised just over $2 billion.
• And all without hosting a podcast.

🪙 Crypto futures: Coinbase yesterday announced major changes to its legal team, one year after the Genius Act was passed and as the Clarity Act appears close to following suit.

• Paul Grewal has stepped down as chief legal officer, to be succeeded by Molly Abraham, with legal VP Ryan ​VanGrack named vice chair and head of corporate affairs.

This effectively makes VanGrack, a veteran of both Citadel Securities and the Obama administration, the company's No. 2 executive, and we spoke briefly yesterday about the state of crypto regulation. Two excerpts from our conversation:

Dan: Do these changes reflect Coinbase's belief that Clarity is as good as done?

Ryan: "First, it means we're in a materially different environment than we were just a year or two ago. Both Coinbase as a company and crypto as an industry have made significant strides in ending the war on crypto and getting more guidance from our regulators. But that doesn't mean the job is done.

• "Clarity is on the one-yard line and I've seen nothing to suggest that the bipartisan group of senators working on it won't get it across the finish line. But to borrow a quote from Teddy Roosevelt: Nothing in the world is worth doing unless it means effort, pain, and difficulty."

If Democrats win the midterms, what would that change for the crypto industry?

• "It would in some fashion change the dynamics in Congress, but it's important to remember that crypto remains one of the most bipartisan issues ... There's a growing body of Democrats who recognize that 21st century finance shouldn't run on 20th century rails."

Do the revelations about how much money Trump has made from crypto, plus the memecoin mess, harm crypto's reputation?

"I believe the opposite — crypto's reputation writ large has never been stronger. We're still seeing broader adoption within the U.S. and global base, and more innovation. Maybe some headlines are negative, but the overall direction is positive."

🤦🏻‍♂️ If not now, when: Anduril CEO Brian Schimpf yesterday told CNBC that this would be a "bad time" to go public, because defense tech is "in the middle of a hype cycle."

• So ... Companies don't want to go public when the IPO window is closed. Or even semi-closed. And now they don't want to go public when it's wide open?
• Schimpf makes a commendable point about wanting to ensure that investors can generate long-term returns, but why not just go out at the same price that Anduril is raising money in the private markets? Or is he saying those investors also fell victim to hype-cycle overpaying?

🤖 Coming attractions: When dealmakers tell me they aren't concerned about being replaced by AI, I often ask: "Why won't the future be my AI agent negotiating a deal with your AI agent?" And it usually prompts a head-shaking laugh of disbelief.

• That may soon change: Bloomberg reports that Lyzr, a VC-backed startup that helps enterprises build AI agents, is using its own product to raise a $100 million Series B round.
• Yes, it's a bespoke proof-of-concept, but also suggests that those personal relationships may be worth less than dealmakers believe.

Apollo has offered to buy EasyJet (LSE: EZJ) for £5.7 billion, topping a £5.2 billion bid from Castlelake.

Why it matters: This could set up a bidding war for one of Europe's largest airlines, and its second-largest budget carrier.

Zoom in: Apollo is offering £7.15 per share, with EasyJet stockholders given the option to either take cash or to roll their shares over into stub equity.

Catch up quick: Castlelake began circling in May, when surging jet fuel prices were threatening budget airline economics.

• It made four different offers for EasyJet, which kept rejecting what it viewed as vulture offers. But the fifth was the charm, with EasyJet signing on Monday at £6.90 per share.
• EasyJet's board has now switched sponsors, saying it supports Apollo.

The bottom line: "In the first half of 2026, EasyJet's losses widened as it reported a pre-tax loss of £552 million, down from a loss of £394 million for the same period the previous year. It said its performance in the second half of the year so far had been impacted by the Middle East conflict, with higher fuel costs and lower forward visibility weighing on operations." — Chloe Taylor, CNBC

• Databento, a Salt Lake City-based data market platform for finance, raised $97m in Series B funding. NEA led, joined by DRW Venture Capital, Redpoint Ventures, and Tribe Capital. axios.link/4pbajBF

• Skapion, an Israeli air defense and counterswarm startup, raised $36m in seed funding. UP Partners and Khosla Ventures led, joined by Fusion VC, Stratos Ventures, TBD VC, and q Fund. axios.link/4gu2TqT

🥬 Hippo Harvest, a Pescadero, Calif.-based organic greens grower, raised $30m in Series C funding. Cox Farms led, joined by Congruent Ventures, Hawthorne Food Ventures, Collaborative Fund, and the Fresh Investment Club. axios.link/4f7XymH

• Marker, a London-based collaborative authoring platform, raised a $13m seed round. Index Ventures led, joined by LocalGlobe and angel investors. axios.link/4vZVnc4

• Kapture CX, an Indian customer service startup, raised $10m. Bajaj Finserv Ventures led, joined by insiders Cactus Venture Partners and India Alternatives. axios.link/4pdp2Mo

🚑 Advent International, EQT, and KKR are among those circling Qiagen (Paris: QIA), a European molecular testing company, per Bloomberg. axios.link/4ysIhWy

🚑 Apollo is investing €3b for a minority stake in Bayer's long-acting contraceptives business. axios.link/4vnWSzA

🚑 Avid Health at Home, a Havencrest Capital Management portfolio company, acquired Tech Medical Home Care, a home care services provider focused on Kentucky and Ohio. axios.link/4fbrY7G

• Belle Brands, backed by Windsong Global, acquired skincare and makeup brand Versed. axios.link/4fqTA9Y

🚑 Blackstone is in talks to buy Australian med-tech company Device Technologies from Navis Capital, per The Australian. axios.link/4ftj2M5

🚑 CenterGate Capital invested in Canadian Dental Labs, a maker of dental prosthetics and orthodontic appliances. axios.link/4wxuZWP

• Charlesbank Capital Partners invested in Toronto-based secondaries investment firm Overbay Capital Partners. axios.link/4pigfsI

🚑 Decathlon Capital Partners invested in Amprion, a provider of neurodegenerative disorder diagnostics. axios.link/4vwtB68

⚡ EQT agreed to buy Copia Power, a Dana Point, Calif.-based data center power and infrastructure firm, from Carlyle for $2.6b. axios.link/4vgaQU5

• StoneTree Investment Partners invested in Hauppauge, N.Y.-based swimming pools maker Wilbar Group. axios.link/44GmtJr

• Vytex, a Graycliff Partners portfolio company, acquired Vinyl Kraft, a Laurel, Md.-based maker of vinyl windows and doors. axios.link/4eTKfHK

• Mercator Acquisition, the fifth SPAC formed by Hondius Capital Management, raised $250m in its IPO. axios.link/4aYZfRn

• Shein, the fast-fashion giant, received Chinese regulatory approval for its Hong Kong IPO. axios.link/4wEpRAr

⚡ XGS Energy, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based geothermal developer, hired Morgan Stanley to explore an IPO, per Axios Pro. XGS has raised over $50m from firms like Aligned Climate Capital, Anzu Partners, ClearSky, Climate Innovation Capital, Volo Earth Ventures, and WovenEarth Ventures. axios.link/3RsqVIv

• Mercor, a data-labeling firm valued last year by VCs at $10b, acquired Deeptune, an NYC-based developer of reinforcement learning environments that had raised $42m from a16z, Seven Seven Six, Pentas Ventures, Inspired Capital, and Abstract Ventures. axios.link/4h1O4fd

• Mercor also reportedly is raising new funds at a $20b valuation.

• Paylocity (Nasdaq: PCTY) acquired Aidora, an SF-based provider of leave management compliance software that raised around $3m from Team Ignite Ventures and Fractal Software. axios.link/4yf1Ktt

• Spectrum Safety Solutions, a Sentinel Capital Partners portfolio company, sold its Autronica Fire and Security unit to MSA Safety (NYSE: MSA) for $550m. axios.link/4wAzccm

• CCC Intelligent Solutions (Nasdaq: CCC), a Chicago-based workflow software firm with a $3.3b market cap, hired Morgan Stanley to explore a sale, per Reuters. axios.link/4weE5bv

• DST Global is raising its 11th fund, per an SEC filing.

• HarbourVest Partners raised $4.75b for its seventh co-investment fund. axios.link/3R1WicU

• Horsley Bridge is raising nearly $2b for its 16th VC fund-of-funds, per an SEC filing.

• Serent Capital, a PE firm focused on founder-led software and tech-enabled services companies, raised $1.3b for its sixth fund. axios.link/4aJJ1fC

• TJC (fka The Jordan Co.) is targeting $8.5b for its seventh flagship midmarket PE fund, per public pension docs. axios.link/4wumrju

• Blue Wolf Capital Partners promoted Anne Bailey to lead operating partner. axios.link/44QtOWG

• Nandan Nilekani, co-founder of Infosys, is stepping down as a GP with Indian venture firm Fundamentum as it begins to raise $200m for its third fund, per TechCrunch. axios.link/4wsunSi

• Ilana Wisby, founding CEO of Oxford Quantum Circuits, joined Cambridge Innovation Capital as an entrepreneur-in-residence. axios.link/44o5prh

South Korean memory chipmaker SK Hynix last night raised $26.5 billion in its U.S. float, pricing shares at a 3% premium to where they'd closed in Seoul. They'll begin trading today on the Nasdaq.

• It's the second-largest U.S. equity offering ever, behind SpaceX's IPO and ahead of Alibaba's IPO, and comes as memory has become a new AI bottleneck.