Good morning! Fresh off raising a record $228 billion last year, Apollo Global Management wants to explore new sources of capital beyond institutional investors, report Luis Garcia and Adriano Marchese.

Last week's AI-related turmoil among software companies also has potential implications for venture-capital firms' bets on the sector, reports Jon Leckie.

Congress is pushing back against President Trump's proposal to ban Wall Street firms from buying single-family homes, Rebecca Picciotto reports.

Now onto the news ...

Apollo Global Management expects to keep expanding beyond traditional private-equity and credit funds for institutional investors, after tapping some of those new pools to raise a record $228 billion in fresh capital last year, report Luis Garcia and Adriano Marchese for Pro. Chief Executive Marc Rowan said these new markets include individual investors and their 401(k) retirement plans, and said the firm saw a nearly 50% annual increase in capital flowing into strategies dedicated to individual investors.

The software selloff that rocked the stock market much of last week wasn’t only a problem for public companies, WSJ Pro's Jon Leckie writes. Some aging venture-capital funds also have reason to worry. Levels of unspent capital in venture funds have been stubbornly high over the past five years. That cash is often stuck in funds raised to invest in software startups, a sector that has been upended by the advances in artificial intelligence.

The White House is at loggerheads with Congress over one of President Trump’s signature housing proposals, a ban on Wall Street investors buying single-family homes, the Journal reports. Trump officials pressured Congressional Republicans in recent weeks to include the investor ban as an amendment in either of the major housing bills currently winding through the House and the Senate, according to people familiar with the matter. But lawmakers in both chambers have resisted adding the investor ban, which traditional free-market advocates, Wall Street executives and the home-builder industry generally oppose.

Advent International in Boston and strategic investor FedEx are leading a group that is buying Polish parcel-locker services provider InPost for more than $9 billion, Dominic Chopping reports for the Journal. The group is paying €7.8 billion, or about $9.22 billion, for the Amsterdam-listed business, offering €15.60 a share – a roughly 17% premium to Friday's close. Advent and FedEx will each hold a 37% stake in the company, while Czech investment firm PPF will hold 10% while InPost Chief Executive Rafal Brzoska’s investment vehicle A&R is set to have 16%.

Mubadala and Thomas Tull's TWG Global are acquiring billboard company Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings in an all-cash transaction that values the business at about $6.2 billion, Josh Beckerman reports for Dow Jones Newswires. The buyers have agreed to provide as much as $3.3 billion of equity to the company as well as as much as $3.37 billion in debt commitments, a securities filing shows. Apollo Global Management is providing support through a purchase of preferred equity in the company. The firms are joined by Wade Davis, a media and technology executive who is expected to become the company's executive chairman once the deal closes. The buyers are offering $2.43 a share to Clear Channel Outdoor investors, representing a roughly 12% premium to Friday's close in New York. Tull and Mark Walter lead TWG. Clear Channel Outdoor reported carrying around $7.22 billion in long-term debt at the end of last year's third quarter.

Private markets firm CVC Capital Partners is buying the animal nutrition and health operations of Dsm-Firmenich at an enterprise value of about €2.2 billion, or roughly $2.6 billion, including earnouts potentially worth up to €500 million, Adrià Calatayud reports for the Journal. The seller is retaining a 20% stake. The Swiss operation provides feed and other products to livestock companies. CVC is paying about seven times the business's adjusted pre-tax earnings.

Blackstone led a $10 billion debt financing investment in Australian artificial intelligence infrastructure company Firmus, joined by Coatue Management. New York-based Blackstone is investing through multiple strategies, including its tactical opportunities and credit and insurance arms. The fresh capital is expected to help fuel Firmus's development of what it calls AI Factories in sites around Australia, with thousands of Nvidia data-processing chips planned for the projects.

Investment manager Challenger and a KKR-controlled holding company have offered to take private non-bank lender Pepper Money at a valuation of 1.16 billion Australian dollars, or about $810.5 million, David Winning reports for Dow Jones Newswires. KKR-controlled Pepper Global Topco holds roughly 61% of Sydney-listed Pepper Money, after taking the company public in 2021. KKR first backed the business in 2017 through a A$655 million take-private deal. The new take-private transaction calls for KKR to retain at least as much equity as it controls now and Challenger obtaining a stake of no more than 25%.

Goldman Sachs' growth-investment arm, Neuberger Berman, the Qatar Investment Authority and Glade Brook Capital joined other investors in a $5 billion equity investment in San Francisco-based software and database services company Databricks at a $134 billion valuation. The capital infusion also included $2 billion in fresh financing led by existing backer JPMorgan Chase.

Brian Sheth's Haveli Investments is buying children's entertainment producer Budge Studios from General Atlantic. Montreal-based Budge's brands include Bluey and PAW Patrol and are offered through mobile apps with over 2 billion downloads. Sheth started Austin, Texas-based Haveli in 2022 and closed the firm's first software fund last year with $4.5 billion. General Atlantic backed Budge in 2021.

Entrepreneurial Equity Partners is selling Furlani Foods, a commercial supplier of garlic breads, toast and breadsticks, to Arbor Investments, according to an emailed news release. The Mississauga, Ontario-based company sells frozen and fresh products to retailers and food-services providers from four production sites. Entrepreneurial Equity has backed the business since May 2023.

One Equity Partners has agreed to acquire Bozzetto Group, a global specialty chemicals company based in Bergamo, Italy, for 265 million to 271 million Canadian dollars, or roughly $195.5 million to $199.9 million. Bozzetto offers more than 2,300 products to approximately 1,500 customers in over 90 countries.

Infrastructure investor Morrison's Chrysalis Renewables has agreed to acquire projects or construction-ready sites prepared by Hanwha Renewables, including some already in operation. Chrysalis initially aims to buy more than 3.5 gigawatts of solar and battery storage capacity in North America, with the ability to expand into Australia, Italy and Japan.

Midmarket investor Gauge Capital in Southlake, Texas, is backing property and casualty insurance broker Affordable American Insurance. The firm recapitalized the agency and provided growth capital to expand its operations beyond the 40 states where it already supports around 100 other brokerages.

European buyout firm EQT led a $39 million growth investment in biotechnology company Aerska.

Our add-on deal interactive tool allows you to sort and analyze volumes of add-on deal data compiled by WSJ Pro. View more.

Permira in London and Warburg Pincus in New York are selling their interests in wealth manager Evelyn Partners to U.K. banking firm NatWest, which is paying about £2.7 billion, or roughly $3.67 billion for the overseer of £69 billion, Justin Cash reports for sister publication Financial News in London. Permira first invested in what became Evelyn in 2014. Warburg came in in 2020. The deal will leave NatWest with assets under management or advisory of about £127 billion through its private banking and wealth management arm.

Mobile phone company Odido, which is backed by Apax Partners and Warburg Pincus, has put off a planned initial public offering of shares, Reuters reports, citing two sources close to the matter. The Dutch company was expected to float its shares by late last month with an offering worth about €1 billion, or $1.18 billion, but didn't get the investor response it was looking for and backed off, the news services said. The two private-equity firms bought the company in 2021 at an enterprise value of about €5.1 billion. 

CVC Capital Partners is selling a stake in surgical ophthalmic products maker Rayner to  investment holding company Groupe Bruxelles Lambert, or GBL, for about €500 million, or around $590.8 million. The deal gives GBL a co-controlling minority stake in the business. CVC first backed the company in 2021.

Prysm Capital-backed Clear Street Group plans to sell about 23.8 million shares priced from $40 to $44 each in an initial public offering, expected this week, according to market watcher Renaissance Capital. Princeton, N.J.-based Prysm holds about 66% of the New York company's Class A shares and doesn't plan to sell any in the IPO, the filing shows. The IPO would raise about $1.05 million at the top of the expected price range and give the company a market value of over $13 billion, according to Renaissance figures.

Audax Group in Boston has sold distributor Colony Hardware to strategic buyer White Cap. The Orange, Conn.-based company has about 1,100 employees and distributes construction materials direct to job sites in 19 states. Audax acquired Colony in November 2018, investing through its private-equity strategy.

Boston-based SCS Capital Management, the family office and outsourced chief investment office affiliate of Focus Financial Partners, has raised at least $1.12 billion so far for its latest fund of funds, Private Equity X, according to a regulatory filing. SCS invests its private equity offerings across a mix of the following categories: buyouts, venture capital, growth equity and coinvestments, according to the firm’s registered investment adviser filing.

Tayeh Capital Group has appointed Yumee Song as a managing director, investing alongside investment team leaders Dave Tayeh and Jon Ang. Song joined the firm when it was formed last year, backed by GCM Grosvenor's Elevate fund.

J.F. Lehman & Co. has elevated three executives to partner amid a slew of other personnel moves, including new hires. The new partners are Michael Friedman, William Hanenberg and David Thomas, who joined the firm in 2007, 2008 and 2010, respectively.

Gemspring Capital in Westport, Conn., has appointed Aron Grossman and Zubin Malkani as co-heads of investments. Grossman joined the firm in 2017 while Malkani came aboard in 2022.

Apollo Global Management-backed New Catalyst Strategic Partners is investing in Ferghana Investment Partners, a midmarket hybrid capital firm launched by Hadley Ma. Ma is a veteran of MGG Investment Group, Sixth Street Partners and Oaktree Capital Management. Ferghana, which has made its first investment in a global licensor of large-scale lagoon systems to municipalities and resort operators, is the second emerging manager New Catalyst has backed. Last year, New Catalyst backed Ironleaf Capital, a technology-focused healthcare private-equity firm founded by T.J. Rose, a former partner at Veritas Capital and Abry Partners.

Former General Atlantic co-president and Layer Global founder Anton Levy has set up his new firm in New York, according to a post on his LinkedIn profile, and is reportedly looking to raise $1 billion or more for a fund to invest in fast-growing technology companies. His team includes Zachary Kaplan, Roger Gao, Jeffrey Gelfand, Arash Rebek and Yury Yakubchyk, according to the LinkedIn post.

Apollo Global Management and fellow asset manager Schroders in London are partnering to offer products to the U.S. and U.K. wealth markets, including some designed for 401(k) retirement savers in the U.S.

Emerging manager investor MPowered Capital is backing A1A Investment Partners with capital and strategic support to help the healthcare-focused lower midmarket firm expand, according to an emailed news release. MPowered is investing in the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., firm through its GP Structured Partnership strategy and its multiplier program.

Half of midmarket business leaders have turned to alternative financing, such as private equity and private credit, to help finance growth, according to Capital One. The Capital One Middle Market Strategic Investments study surveyed more than 1,000 U.S. midmarket financial decisionmakers from companies with revenues of $20 million to $2 billion on Oct. 13-24. Twenty-six percent of respondents said they had secured alternative financing in the last year and 24% more said they were actively pursuing. Another 24% of respondents said they were considering seeking alternative funding, but had not yet pursued it. The largest percentage of companies that secured alternative financing said they received $50 million to $100 million in the past 12 months, the bank said.

Send us your tips, suggestions and feedback. Write to:

Maria Armental; Ted Bunker; Chris Cumming; Luis Garcia; Laura Kreutzer; Isaac Taylor; Chitra Vemuri.