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Politicians of both parties are furious with Silicon Valley Bank, and the SVB executives whose lax risk management sent the entire banking sector into turmoil.

• Bipartisan agreement is refreshing. But don't expect it to accomplish much, beyond some cable-ready sound bites and finger-pointing during congressional hearings.

The big picture: The word "accountability" is being said a lot in D.C., including by President Biden. However, it doesn't apply to SVB in the same way it did in past business scandals like FTX.

• In short, there's no allegation of fraud.
• It's possible that there could be legal efforts to claw back proceeds from stock sales and bonuses, but even that may be difficult given that those payouts were scheduled long before SVB's collapse.

Zoom out: Democrats have talked a lot about reinstating the $50 billion threshold for defining a "systemically important" bank, after it was pushed up to $250 billion in 2018 (with the support of SVB, among others).

• But few Republicans seem to have much of an appetite for such a thing, particularly given that they pushed deregulation in the first place.
• And it remains unclear whether lower limits would have preemptively identified and remedied SVB's failures, given that the bank already was under Fed supervision.
• Republicans, therefore, seem content to blame most of this on Democratic fiscal policies, which they argue are causing the inflation that's driving Fed monetary policies. Except for the few who've decided that SVB was caught in a web of "wokeness."

The bottom line: The best thing that could happen now would be for the banking sector to continue stabilizing. And it seems to be heading in that direction, with the FDIC agreeing to split up the SVB sale process and active talks to find a private market solution for First Republic.

• Unfortunately, such stability could come at the cost of politicians developing creative solutions to stave off future banking crises.

Macro, a TV and film studio focused on stories told by and about people of color, announced over $90 million in equity funding led by BlackRock Alternatives.

Why it's the BFD: This reflects growing investor interest in independent film studios, which is expected to intensify following the Oscar domination of A24's Everything Everywhere All At Once.

Details: Macro, founded by former WME partner Charles D. King, has produced such films as Judas and the Black Messiah, Just Mercy and Really Love. The LA-based company also includes a brand marketing agency.

• Other investors in the round include HarbourView Equity Partners and Goldman Sachs.

The bottom line: Macro's films have garnered 15 Academy Award nominations, and three wins, plus an Emmy win. Last year it signed a first-look film deal with Amazon Studios.

• Gravie, a Minneapolis-based employer health benefits company, raised $179m. General Atlantic led, and was joined by insiders FirstMark Capital and AXA Venture Partners. www.gravie.com

🚑 Artera, a Santa Barbara, Calif.-based developer of AI tests to personalize therapy for cancer patients, raised $90m, per Axios Pro. Backers include Coatue, Johnson & Johnson, Koch Disruptive Technologies, Walden Catalyst Ventures, TIME Ventures, Breyer Capital and The Factory. https://axios.link/3JSK0Nw

• OP3N, a web3 chat superapp, raised $28m in Series A funding. Animoca Brands led, and was joined by Dragonfly, SuperScrypt, CAA, Connect Ventures, Republic Crypto, Avalanche, Galaxy Interactive and Warner Music Interactive. www.op3n.world

• Wingtra, a Zurich-based maker of commercial VTOL drones, raised $22m in Series B funding from DiamondStream Partners, EquityPitcher Ventures, Verve Ventures, Ace & Co., EIC Fund and John L. Steffens. https://axios.link/3JyMJKB

• DragonflyDB, an in-memory datastore for cloud environments, raised a total of $21m in seed and Series A funding led by Redpoint Ventures and Quiet Capital, respectively. www.dragonflydb.io

• Luma AI, a Sunnyvale, Calif.-based provider of 3D capture software, raised $20m in Series A funding. Amplify Partners led, and was joined by NVIDIA, General Catalyst and insiders Matrix Partners and South Park Commons. www.lumalabs.ai

• Illumix, a low-code augmented reality startup, raised $18m in Series A finding from LightShed Ventures, Henry Kravis, Matthew Ball, Mark Cuban, Maveron, Lightspeed, Sony Innovation Fund, RW3 Ventures, OV, Visible Ventures and Xavier Niel. www.illumix.com

• Two, a Norwegian B2B payments startup, raised €18m in Series A funding. Shine Capital and Antler co-led, and were joined by Sequoia Capital, Day One Ventures, Alumni Ventures, LocalGlobe, The Visionaries Club and Alliance VC. www.two.inc

• Numbers Station, an Austin, Texas-based startup for incorporating AI into data stacks, raised $17.5m in Series A funding. Madrona led, and was joined by Norwest Venture Partners and Factory. https://axios.link/40fIBpw

• Aembit, a Silver Spring, Md.-based workload identity and access management startup, raised $16.6m in seed funding from Ballistic Ventures and Ten Eleven Ventures. https://axios.link/3JzK4Ai

• Mecanizou, a Brazilian auto parts marketplace, raised $14.5m in Series A funding. Monashees led, and was joined by Alexia Ventures, FJ Labs and Dalus Capital. https://axios.link/3Z8t7mi

• Coactive AI, a San Jose, Calif.-based visual content analytics and search platform, raised $14m. Andreessen Horowitz and Bessemer Venture Partners co-led, and were joined by SV Angel, AME Cloud Ventures, Cloud All Star Fund and Next Play Capital. www.coactive.ai

• Sifflet, a French data observability startup, raised €12m in Series A funding led by EQT Ventures. https://axios.link/3nctYoD

• IPRally, a Finnish patent search engine, raised €10m in Series A funding. Endeit Capital led, and was joined by Join Capital, Spintop Ventures and Icebreaker.vc. https://axios.link/3Z5WJRp

• StructShare, an Austin, Texas-based construction procurement and inventory platform, raised $8m. KOMPAS led, and was joined by SeedIL and CEMEX Ventures. www.structshare.com

• Togal.AI, a Tampa, Fla.-based provider of construction estimating software, raised $5m via a SAFE round led by Florida Funders. www.togal.ai

• Loupe, an Atlanta-based art streaming startup, raised $3m in seed funding. Aliavia Ventures led, and was joined by CityRock Ventures, Goal Ventures, Phoenix Capital Ventures, Sound Media Ventures, Yolo.io and Atlanta Technology Angels. www.loupeart.com

• Monite, a German embedded B2B payments platform, raised $5m in seed funding. Third Prime led, and was joined by S16, Audeo Ventures, and Longrun Capital. https://axios.link/3ZZDdqX

🚑 Pinkie, a New York-based maker of period pads for tweens and teens, raised $1m in seed funding from firms like Amboy Street Ventures. https://axios.link/3JwQ24S

• Filmustage, a Wilmington, Del.-based AI startup focused on film pre-production, raised $550,000 from Flyer One Ventures, Geek Ventures, Vesna Capital and Imaguru. https://axios.link/3n7yq8j

How can board members comply with environmental, social and corporate governance regulatory requirements in various jurisdictions?

In Cross-Border ESG Trends, a recorded webinar, Cooley practitioners address changes in the ESG landscape and considerations for multinational companies.

• Carnegie, a Westford, Mass.-based portfolio company of New Heritage Capital, acquired community college marketing company Clarus Corp. www.carnegiehighered.com

• ELMC, a New York-based portfolio company of J.C. Flowers, sold several reinsurance and auditing units to NSM Insurance Group, a Conshohocken, Penn.-based portfolio company of Carlyle Group. www.nsminc.com

• Flexpoint Ford led a structured investment in Canadian music label Nettwerk Music Group, alongside existing Nettwerk investors Beedie Capital and Vistara Growth. www.nettwerk.com

⚡ KKR agreed to sell its 50% stake in X-ELIO, a Madrid-based renewable energy developer, to joint venture partner Brookfield Renewable. https://axios.link/3lsIiZM

• Regent agreed to buy Pearson Online Learning Services from Pearson (LSE: PSON). https://axios.link/3JxCINJ

• Rotunda Capital Partners acquired Bron Tapes, a Denver-based distributor and converter of pressure sensitive tapes and adhesives. www.brontapes.com

• Ziyad Brothers, a Cicero, Ill.-based portfolio company of Peak Rock Capital, Ares Management and Barings, acquired Vintage Food Corp., a distributor of branded Turkish, Middle Eastern and Eastern European foods. www.ziyad.com

• IXL Learning acquired Teachers Pay Teachers, an online marketplace of educator-created instructional content and digital tools, from backers like Spectrum Equity, Tiger Global and True Ventures. www.teacherspayteachers.com

• Mastercard (NYSE: MA) acquired Baffin Bay Networks, a Swedish cybersecurity company backed by EQT Ventures. www.baffinbaynetworks.com

🚑 Australian Clinical Labs (ASX: ACL) offered to buy larger rival pathology company Healius (ASX: HLS) for A$1.58b. https://axios.link/3Z2TgmC

• Pernod Ricard (Paris: RI) agreed to buy a majority stake in Skrewball, the San Marcos, Calif.-based company that ruins whiskey by adding peanut butter flavoring. https://axios.link/3JUVgZz

🚑 Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE: TMO) and South Korea's Celltrion are among those bidding on Baxter International's (NYSE: BAX) biopharma solutions unit, which could fetch more than $4b, per Reuters. https://axios.link/3ZjabBD

• Bullnet Capital, a Spanish deep-tech investment firm, held a €40m first close on its fourth fund, which is targeting a total of €80m. www.bullnetcapital.com

🚑 Scott Kremeier joined Piper Sandler as a managing director of health care investment banking. He previously was with Houlihan Lokey. www.pipersandler.com

• Adam Lerner joined Angeles Equity Partners as an operating partner. He previously was VP of sales at KIK Custom Products, and is a former operating partner at Marlin Equity Partners. www.angelesequity.com

• Claudia Levan joined Lightspeed Venture Partners as VP of fundraising. She previously was with General Atlantic. www.lsvp.com

• Jim Miller, former CTO of Wayfair, joined Ethos Capital as an executive partner. www.ethoscapital.com

🌎 Josépha Montana joined Partech as chief sustainability officer. She previously was with Turenne Capital. www.partech.com

• Picus Capital promoted Sebastian Schäfer to partner. www.picuscap.com

Digital World Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: DWAC), the SPAC seeking to acquire Truth Social parent company TMTG, saw its shares soar 11% yesterday.

• The apparent driver was former President Trump's claim of his impending arrest, which investors seem to believe could make Trump's sagging social media platform more popular.
• Bloomberg recently reported that TMTG laid off some staffers, including its CTO.
• Trump, who recently hit the five million follower mark on Truth Social (after more than a year in operation), is now reinstated on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. He still hasn't tweeted, but has posted on Facebook and YouTube.

Balance sheet: DWAC last May said in a regulatory filing that TMTG's $15.36 million in new bridge financing meant that it "will have sufficient funds to meet its liabilities as they fall due for the 12-month period ending April 30, 2023."

• Axios emailed TMTG to inquire about about the company's financial viability after April.
• The reply from TMTG spokesperson Shannon Devine: "By failing to see that our forecast was a standard 12-month projection up to April 2023, Axios reporters are either pretending to be illiterate or demonstrating their actual illiteracy."

What does it take to grow a technology-focused VC fund from the ground up?

Cooley spoke with Kate McAndrew, co-founder and general partner at Baukunst, to discuss recent VC financing trends — and the opportunities and challenges that may arise when launching an inaugural fund.

Read the Q&A.

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