Happy Monday. Here’s what we’ve got today…

• A look EQT’s acquisition strategy

• Plus, a $900 million nuclear Series A

Buy-and-build:

EQT expects a wave of private capital consolidation and is ready to jump in as a buyer.

Chief Executive Christian Sinding says the firm is building an inorganic strategy focused on a handful of verticals, including secondaries, growth equity, and healthcare sector specialists. The reasoning, says Sinding, is a mix of known gaps in the current platform—secondaries in particular—and areas of white space where the firm thinks it can accelerate its internal efforts.

EQT says it’s actively evaluating potential purchases. Looking opportunistically at inbound deal flow, Sinding says targets that fall within the firm's thematic priorities are being considered based on "track record, strategic fit, and cultural fit."

Within healthcare, the firm has been working to build out its offerings across stages and geographies to take advantage of global demand growth from aging populations. Recent launches include new healthcare growth and venture strategies to complement existing later-stage teams.

But it’s early days for those projects. “There are still geographies and capabilities that we don’t have, both in growth investments and in private equity,” said Sinding in a recent Financial Times interview. “If we woke up one day and found a great healthcare growth business in the United States, that could be something for us.”

The secondaries story is similar. Sinding sees a chance to service growing institutional portfolio liquidity needs, but internal offerings are immature.

"We're seeing demand for everything from private IPOs to continuation vehicles," he told investors on this quarter’s earnings call, noting the firm plans to focus on GP-led deals rather than LP secondaries outside its core expertise.

More assets will be coming to market (as many as 1 in 6 firms by 2027, according to PwC’s latest market update) as competition drives a new inflection point for the industry.

"If you go [to fundraise] and don't have a succession plan, or you don't have an edge, or haven't scaled your capabilities, people aren't going to give you capital," Sinding told the FT.

• Nippon Paint agreed to acquire AOC, a manufacturer of coatings, colorants, and composite resins, for $2.3 billion from Lone Star Funds.

• J.C. Flowers & Co. agreed to acquire Consulbrokers, an Italian insurance broker.

• BT Group has hired Citigroup to explore the sale of its Radianz unit, a connected network platform for financial services, which could be worth in the low hundreds of millions of pounds, per the Financial Times.

• Blackstone is in advanced talks to acquire minority stakes in EQT Corp's (NYSE: EQT) interstate natural gas pipelines for around $3.5 billion through its credit and insurance businesses, per Reuters.

• Permira acquired a 40 percent stake in K-Way, a French outdoor apparel brand, at a €505 million enterprise value.

• Solventum (NYSE: SOV) is exploring the sale of its purification and filtration business unit and has retained bankers to gauge market interest, per the WSJ.

• Egen, a portfolio company of Recognize, agreed to acquire Qarik, a Google Cloud Premier Partner providing cloud transformation and AI services.

• DigitalBridge Group is considering the sale of Scala Data Centers, a Brazilian data center operator

Tech, Vertical SaaS, & Misc. Enterprise

• Filigran, a Paris-based open-source threat intelligence startup, raised $35 million in Series B funding led by Insight Partners, with participation from Accel and Moonfire.

• Speckle, an open-source data hub for architecture and construction, raised $12.5 million in Series A funding led by Addition, with participation from Foundamental, Frontline Ventures, Matrix Partners, and Foreword.

• Voze, a Salt Lake City-based provider of industrial sales software, raised $12 million in Series A funding co-led by Origin Ventures and Mercury Fund, with participation from Album VC and Pipeline Capital Partners.

• Reactiv, a mobile app development platform for e-commerce brands, raised $5 million in seed funding led by Bonfire Ventures, with participation from Foxe Capital, Anthemis, Daher Capital, and Alumni Ventures.

Fintech

• Fondo, an all-in-one accounting platform for early-stage companies, raised $4.8 million in pre-seed funding from Y Combinator, GMO Venture Partners, Liquid2 Ventures, Transmedia Capital, and Capchase.

Consumer & Media

• Caldera + Lab, a premium men’s skincare brand, raised $6 million in Series A funding led by HIPstr.

Healthcare

• Kivu Bioscience, a developer of antibody-drug conjugates, raised $92 million in Series A funding led by Novo Holdings, with participation from Gimv, Red Tree Venture Capital, HealthCap, BioGeneration Ventures, and M Ventures.

• Pharos, a hospital quality reporting platform, raised $5 million in seed funding led by Felicis, with participation from General Catalyst, Moxxie, and Y Combinator.

Industrials, Greentech, & Other

• Pacific Fusion, a nuclear fusion energy startup, raised $900 million in Series A funding led by General Catalyst, with participation from Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Elad Gil, Eric Schmidt, John Doerr, Ken Griffin, Lightspeed, Lowercarbon Capital, Patrick Collison, Reid Hoffman, and Trousdale Ventures, among others.

• Simbe Robotics, a developer of autonomous inventory scanning robots, raised $50 million in Series C funding led by Goldman Sachs Growth Equity, with participation from Eclipse Ventures and Valo Ventures.

• LGT Capital Partners raised €750 million for its sixth European small-cap buyout fund.

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