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

• A look at State Street’s BNPL deal and the wider consumer credit opportunity

• Plus, Bausch + Lomb considers options as Blackstone pushes back on valuation

Consumer credit:

Sixth Street announced a new commitment of up to $4 billion to buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) platform Affirm through a forward flow arrangement—an agreement to purchase future loans before they have been originated.

Under the three-year agreement, Affirm will offload new loans to a dedicated Sixth Street vehicle, which the San Francisco-based fintech says will provide enough off-balance sheet funding capacity to generate more than $20 billion in total originations.

Affirm, founded by PayPal co-founder Max Levchin, has already grown its funding capacity by more than 50 percent over the past two years. Behind that growth is a financing operation that taps more than 130 different investors across channels including warehouse facilities, securitizations, and forward flow.

Private capital and consumer BNPL might seem like an odd match, but it's a surprisingly symbiotic relationship. For fintechs like Affirm, such deals let the company move loans off its books and free up capital for fresh originations without inflating the balance sheet.

Forward flow agreements do have higher pricing than standard warehouse lending facilities, but the added capital efficiency more than makes up for it.

For lenders, it’s welcome exposure to a large and growing asset class with attractive risk-adjusted yields—particularly when taken in the context of an increasingly competitive traditional private credit market.

These types of nonbank-originated assets—not just limited to BNPL—have quickly become a key growth lever. The menu of options includes things like consumer installment loans, credit card receivables, and more esoteric specialty portfolios like solar panel financings.

In all, nonbank offerings are an $800 billion chunk of the total $5 trillion private funding opportunity in consumer credit, according to research from S&P.

Other recent activity includes Affirm competitor Klarna’s £30 billion deal to sell its UK loan portfolio to Elliott Investment Management and KKR’s exclusive deal with PayPal to buy up to $44 billion of its BNPL loans. Castlelake and Blue Owl have each struck similar deals with personal loan platform Upstart, while Fortress signed its own loan-flow arrangement with SoFi.

After consumer, SMB could be up next.

Historically underbanked because of scale and risk profiles, Affirm sees the bottom end of the B2B market as its next big BNPL growth opportunity. The fintech has already launched a pilot program with Amazon Business, which it said exceeded expectations.

• Bausch + Lomb (NYSE: BLCO) confirmed it’s considering options after reports that Blackstone and TPG's joint takeover bid may fall apart over valuation concerns.

• Ardian and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund acquired a combined 37.75 percent stake in Heathrow Airport from Ferrovial for €2 billion.

• Bain Capital, KKR, and Japan Industrial Partners are among seven bidders considering offers for stakes in a new intermediate holding company that will control 7-Eleven parent Seven & i Holdings' non-core operations, including supermarket chain Ito-Yokado and York-Benimaru.

• Macquarie Asset Management is considering an acquisition of edotco Group, Axiata Group's telecom infrastructure unit that operates 55,000 towers across Asia, which could be worth around $3.5 billion.

• MetLife and General Atlantic formed Chariot Reinsurance, a Bermuda-based life and annuity reinsurance company, with an initial combined equity investment of over $1 billion.

• Triton Partners acquired Bosch’s security and communications division for around $735 million, per Bloomberg.

• Story3 Capital Partners offered to acquire medical apparel maker Figs (NYSE: FIGS) at a valuation of around $1 billion.

• Amulet Capital Partners acquired Theoria Management, a provider of value-based primary care services to senior living facilities.

• Clear Peak Capital acquired ITsynch, a provider of fleet management software solutions for the maritime industry.

• LexisNexis Risk Solutions agreed to acquire IDVerse, an Australian provider of AI-powered document authentication and fraud detection solutions.

• Comcast Business agreed to acquire Nitel, a network-as-a-service provider, from Cinven.

• Schroders (LSE: SDR) is exploring the sale of its Indonesian investment management unit, per Reuters.

• Lonza is planning a 2025 exit of its Capsules & Health Ingredients business as part of a restructuring to become a pure-play CDMO.

• Iberdrola is exploring the sale of its UK smart metering business and has hired RBC to advise on the potential £1 billion exit, per Reuters.

• Bain Capital submitted a A$2.7 billion non-binding offer to acquire Insignia Financial (ASX: IFL), an Australian financial services firm.

• SoftwareOne is in advanced talks to acquire Crayon Group, a Norwegian software licensing distributor, in an all-stock transaction that values Crayon at around $1.1 billion, per Bloomberg.

• Disruptive Capital and Pension SuperFund Capital are in talks to acquire a 40 percent stake in De La Rue (LSE: DLAR), a British banknote printer, at £1.25 per share in a deal worth £98 million.

• Warburg Pincus agreed to acquire a minority stake in UK specialty lender United Trust Bank for around £520 million.

• TZP Growth Equity invested $40 million in TruVideo, a provider of AI and AR-powered video communication tech for automotive dealerships.

• Stellantis, United Airlines, Wellington Management, and 2PointZero invested $430 million in Archer Aviation (NYSE: ACHR), a developer of vertical take-off and landing aircraft.

• AlpInvest and Sixth Street led a €900 million recapitalization of drugmaker Essential Pharma.

• Broad Sky Partners acquired Frontline Managed Services, a provider of managed IT and RCM solutions for law firms, from BV Investment Partners.

• Shore Capital Partners launched Agentis Longevity, a Nashville-based human longevity healthcare platform.

• Gravity Oilfield Services, backed by Clearlake Capital Group, agreed to sell its midstream division to Delek Logistics Partners (NYSE: DLK).

• Revolution Sustainable Solutions, backed by Arsenal Capital Partners, acquired Island Plastics, a Michigan-based film plastic recycler.

• HomeTown Ticketing, a portfolio company of Nexa Equity, acquired SchoolFundr, a digital fundraising platform for K-12 schools.

• The Riverside Company agreed to acquire CRTM/Dastex, a provider of cleanroom and contamination control products.

Tech, Vertical SaaS, & Misc. Enterprise

• Crusoe, an AI infrastructure provider, raised $600 million in Series D funding led by Founders Fund, with participation from Fidelity, Long Journey Ventures, Mubadala, NVIDIA, Ribbit Capital, and Valor Equity Partners.

• Twelve Labs, a video understanding AI platform, raised $30 million in new funding from Databricks, Snowflake Ventures, SK Telecom, HubSpot Ventures, and In-Q-Tel.

• Flare, a cybersecurity threat exposure management platform, raised $30 million in Series B funding led by Base10 Partners, with participation from Inovia Capital, White Star Capital, and Fonds de solidarité FTQ.

• NeuBird, a developer of AI-powered IT operations automation software, raised $22.5 million in seed extension funding led by M12, with participation from Mayfield, StepStone Group, and Prosperity7 Ventures.

• Vapi, a developer platform for deploying AI voice agents, raised $20 million in Series A funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners, with participation from Abstract Ventures, AI Grant, Y Combinator, and Saga Ventures.

Fintech

• CarDekho SEA, a Singapore-based auto financing marketplace, raised $60 million in Series A funding co-led by Navis Capital Partners and Dragon Fund.

• Jiko, a provider of programmatic access to U.S. Treasury bills, raised $29 million in Series C funding led by Upfront Ventures, with participation from Airbus Ventures, Red River West, and Radicle Impact.

• Atlas Card, a NYC-based members-only concierge service and charge card, raised $27 million in Series B funding led by Marathon.

• Truewind, an AI-powered accounting and bookkeeping platform, raised $13 million in Series A funding led by Rho Capital, with participation from Thomson Reuters Ventures.

• Waterfall Network, a layer-1 blockchain platform for smart contracts, raised $11.6 million in new funding led by Bolt's Capital, with participation from Alpha Token Capital and Enflux.

Healthcare

• Capstan Medical, a developer of robotic-enabled heart valve implants, raised $110 million in Series C funding led by Eclipse, with participation from Yu Galaxy, Intuitive Ventures, and Gideon Strategic Partners.

• Pleno, a clinical multi-omics diagnostics startup, raised $25 million in Series B funding from Deerfield Management, Foresite Capital, and Medical Excellence Capital.

• Qnovia, a developer of inhaled smoking cessation therapies, raised $16 million in Series B funding led by Blue Ledge Capital, with participation from Evolution VC Partners, Vice Ventures, and Gaingels.

• 1m, a healthcare risk management platform, raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Banner Health, with participation from Cleveland Clinic, Stanford Health Care, St. Charles Health System, Carle Foundation, and First Derivative Capital.

Industrials, Greentech, & Other

• Fleet Space Technologies, an Australian developer of satellite-enabled mineral discovery technology, raised $100 million in Series D funding led by Teachers' Venture Growth, with participation from Blackbird Ventures, Hostplus, Horizons Ventures, Artesian Venture Partners, and Alumni Ventures.

• Anybotics, a Swiss developer of autonomous inspection robots, raised $60 million in Series B extension funding co-led by Qualcomm Ventures and Supernova Invest, with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners, NGP Capital, Swisscanto, Swisscom Ventures, TDK Ventures, and Walden Catalyst.

• Terradot, a Stanford-based enhanced rock weathering startup, raised $54 million in Series A funding led by John Doerr, with participation from Microsoft's Climate Innovation Fund, Floodgate, Kleiner Perkins, Acre Venture Partners, Gigascale Capital, Valor Capital, and Ponderosa Ventures.

• BECIS, a Singapore-based energy-as-a-service provider, raised $53 million in new funding from FMO, KLP Norfund Investments, Pula Investments, and Siemens Financial Services.

• Aisti, a Finnish developer of wood fiber-based acoustic tiles, raised €29 million in Series A funding from Voima Ventures, Maki.vc, and Valve Ventures.

• One Bio, a UC Davis spinoff developing tasteless fiber ingredients from agricultural waste, raised $27 million in Series A funding led by AlphaEdison, with participation from Leaps by Bayer, Mitsui E12, Morado Ventures, ReMY, DSM, iSelect, Skyview Life Sciences, Collaborative Fund, and Acre Venture Partners.

• Electrified Thermal Solutions, a Boston-based developer of thermal energy storage systems, raised $19 million in new funding from Holcim MAQER Ventures, Vale Ventures, TechEnergy Ventures, EDP Ventures, Tupras Ventures, GVP Climate, Clean Energy Ventures, Starlight Ventures, Mass Ventures, and Clean Energy Venture Group.

• Carlyle Group raised $7.1 billion for its third opportunistic credit fund.

• Scientifica raised €200 million for its debut fund focused on Italian quantum computing, AI, and frontier technology startups.

• Positive Sum raised $185 million for its debut early-stage venture fund.

• Redesign Health raised $175 million for a new fund to launch and scale healthcare companies.

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