Term Sheet -- Thursday, May 24

BIG BET

Big news out of the daily fantasy sports world.

Just a week after the Supreme Court cleared the way for states to legalize sports betting, Ireland-based gaming company Paddy Power Betfair agreed to acquire daily fantasy company FanDuel.

Under the agreement, Paddy Power will merge its U.S. assets with FanDuel and provide a further $158 million in cash. The capital will allow FanDuel to pay down its existing debt of $76 million.

In terms of the ownership structure, Paddy Power will own 61% of the combined entity, and it has options to increase its ownership to 80% after three years and 100% after five. The deal reportedly values the combined business at more than $1 billion.

“The talks have been ongoing well before the Supreme Court decision,” FanDuel CEO Matt King told Term Sheet. “We’ve had a relationship with the company for a long time.”

(FanDuel co-founder Nigel Eccles was an early employee at the company that would eventually become Paddy Power Betfair. Here’s a quick explainer on that relationship.)

The goal here, King said, is to create the largest gaming operator in the U.S. FanDuel has 7 million registered users and more than a 40% share of the U.S. daily fantasy sports market. In 2017, it had revenue of $124 million and 1.3 million active users. The combined Paddy Power and FanDuel businesses will have online revenue in the U.S. of $265 million, making it larger than rivals such as DraftKings.

One interesting thing to note is that Draft, the fantasy sports platform acquired by Paddy Powers Betfair for $48 million last year, may be caught in the crosshairs of this merger. It appears the Draft team will be part of the combined entity.

“Draft has carved out an attractive segment of the marketplace,” King said. “We both compete for same users, but it’s a different product offering. We’ll continue to offer both FanDuel and Draft game formats for the time being, but what form it takes and how we link the businesses — that’s the part where we have some work to do.”

There are still quite a few unknowns. It’s unclear who will serve as the chief of the combined entity, what the management team looks like, and how the assets will be fused together. According to sources familiar with the situation, there is “excitement but also anxiety” about the transition.

The merger is the first in a new wave of possible U.S. deals involving gambling companies. FanDuel already has plans to capitalize on this new opportunity by launching its sports betting offering as soon as this NFL season.

Could we expect to see this combined entity make more acquisitions in the coming months? “No comment,” King said.

THE LATEST FROM FORTUNE...

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• How JPMorgan Chase Learned to Love the Blockchain (by Robert Hackett)

•Uber's Revenue Spiked 70% Last Quarter. But It Still Lost Tons of Money

•Coinbase Acquires Paradex Exchange, Retires GDAX Name (by Jeff John Roberts)

…AND ELSEWHERE

SoftBank to sell Flipkart stake to Walmart. Canada blocks Chinese takeover of Aecon on security grounds. U.S. home values are rising at their fastest pace in 12 years.

VENTURE DEALS

• CareZone, a Seattle-based smartphone service for managing chronic health conditions, raised $50 million in Series D funding. NEA led the round.

• Conga, a company focused on Intelligent Document Automation, raised $47 million in funding. Investors include Insight Venture Partners and Salesforce Ventures.

• Reltio, a Redwood Shores, Calif.-based provider of enterprise data driven applications, raised $45 million in Series D funding. Investors include New Enterprise Associates, Crosslink Capital, .406 Ventures, and Sapphire Ventures.

• Platform.sh, a France-based provider of the idea-to-cloud application platform that aims to simplify cloud infrastructures, raised $34 million in Series C funding. Partech led the round, and was joined by investors including Idinvest Partners, Benhamou Global Ventures (BGV), SNCF Digital Ventures and Hi Inov.

• OM1, a Cambridge, Mass.-based health outcomes and technology company, raised $21 million in Series B funding. Polaris Partners led the round, and was joined by investors including General Catalyst and 7wire Ventures.

• Sentry, a San Francisco-based provider of APM for developers, raised $16 million in Series B funding. Investors include New Enterprise Associates and Accel.

• Abstract, a San Francisco-based design and workflow platform, raised $16 million in Series B funding. Scale Venture Partners led the round, and was joined by investors including Amplify Partners and Cowboy Ventures.

• Amuse, a Sweden-based mobile record company, raised $15.5 million in Series A funding. Investors include Lakestar and Raine Ventures.

• Hometap, a Cambridge, Mass.-based data-driven, home equity investment platform, raised $12 million in Series A funding. G20 Ventures led the round, and was joined by investors including General Catalyst, American Family Ventures and Pillar.

• eLichens, a France and Sunnyvale, Calif.-based provider of an air quality analysis and prediction platform, raised 7 million euros ($8.2 million) in funding. Investors include Demeter, Sofimac Innovatio, Business Angels Networks, Aereco, Fonds Ville de Demain and BNP Paribas Développement.

• Verifly, a NY-based company that delivers on-demand insurance by the job, raised $7 million in funding. Investors include Slow Ventures, OpenOcean, and the founders of Kayak and HotelTonight.

• Lidya, a Nigeria-based digital financial services platform focused on improving access to credit for micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises in Africa, raised $6.9 million in Series A funding. Omidyar Network led the round, and was joined by investors including Alitheia Capital, Bamboo Capital Partners, Tekton Ventures, Accion Venture Lab and Newid Capital.

• First.io, a tech startup that uses artificial intelligence to help real estate agents, raised $5 million in Series A funding. Investors include MATH Venture Partners, Nine Four Ventures, Thad Wong and Mike Golden.

• Plus One Robotics, a San Antonio, Texas-based 3D vision and controls developer for robotic automation in the logistics and e-commerce markets, raised funding of an undisclosed amount. Schematic Ventures led the round, and was joined by investors including Lerer Hippeau, ff Venture Capital, First Star and Dynamo.

HEALTH AND LIFE SCIENCES DEALS

• Strata Oncology, an Ann Arbor, Mich.-based precision oncology platform company, raised $26 million in Series B funding. Investors include Pfizer Ventures, Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, Deerfield Management and Renaissance Venture Capital Fund, Arboretum Ventures and Baird Capital.

• Lava Therapeutics, a Netherlands-based biotech company, raised 16 million euros ($18.7 million) in funding. Gilde Healthcare and Versant Ventures led the round, and were joined by investors including MRL Ventures Fund, Lupus Ventures and Biox Biosciences.

• Kronos Bio Inc, a New York City and Cambridge, Mass.-based developer of “therapies against historically intractable targets,” raised $18 million in seed funding. Investors include Omega Funds, Vida Ventures LLC and BellCo Capital.

PRIVATE EQUITY DEALS

• SIRVA, Inc, an Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.-based relocation and moving service provider, agreed to be acquired by Madison Dearborn Partners. Financial terms weren't disclosed.

• The Riverside Company made an investment in Destiny Solutions, a Canada-based provider of student lifecycle management software for higher education institutions. Financial terms weren't disclosed.

• Sumeru Equity Partners invested in GoGuardian, an edtech software provider. Financial terms weren't disclosed.

• Ranch Creek Partners LLC and Hillstar Capital made an investment in Patriot Erectors LLC, a Dripping Springs, Texas-based provider of structural and miscellaneous steel. Financial terms weren't disclosed.

• ACG Materials, a portfolio company of H.I.G. Capital LLC, acquired Kitsap Reclamation and Materials Inc, a Washington-based miner and processor of aggregate products. Financial terms weren't disclosed.

• Hg Saturn Fund and Intermediate Capital Group made an investment in IRIS, a U.K.-based provider of software and services for the UK accounting, education and business market. Financial terms weren't disclosed.

IPOs

• Adyen, a Dutch fintech firm, filed for an IPO in Amsterdam. The company is expected to be valued at between $7 billion to $11 billion. Index Ventures and Iconiq Capital back the firm. Read more.

• MTN Group, Africa’s largest mobile-phone company by subscriber, plans to raise $754 million in an IPO of a third of its Ghanian unit, Bloomberg reports citing sources. Read more.

• Leong Hup International, a Malaysian poultry producer, is planning to raise $600 million in an IPO, Reuters reports citing sources. The firm has hired Malayan Banking, Credit Suisse, and J.P. Morgan. Read more.

• Autodis, the French car parts maker, shelved IPO plans that could have valued the firm at 1.2 billion euros ($1.4 billion). Bain Capital backed the firm. Read more.

• Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals, a Lexington, Mass.-based firm creating products for autoimmune conditions, said it plans to raise $153 million in an IPO of 8.48 million shares priced at $18, an upsized IPO in the middle of its $17 to $19 range. Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan are underwriters in the deal. Baker Bros. Advisors backs the firm. The firm plans to list on the Nasdaq as “KNSA.” Read more.

• Aptinyx, a Evanston, Ill.-based clinical stage biotech treating brain and nervous system disorders, filed for a $80 million IPO. The company posted revenue of $4,962 in 2017 from collaborations and grants. Adam Street Partners (14.9%), New Leaf Ventures (11.6%), Longitude Venture Partners (11.6%), Frazier Life Sciences (11.6%), and Bain Capital (7%) back the firm. J.P. Morgan, Cowen, Leerink Partners, and BMO Capital Markets are underwriters in the deal. Read more.

EXITS

• Anthem, Inc. (NYSE:ANTM) agreed to acquire Aspire Health, a Nashville, Tenn.-based non-hospice, community-based palliative care provider. Financial terms weren't disclosed. Aspire had raised approximately $53.5 million in venture funding from investors including Oak HC/FT, GV, BlueCross BlueShield Venture Partners and Sandbox Industries.

PEOPLE

• Colin Greenspon joined Revolution as a partner on the Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, and Alex Shtarkman joined as an associate on the Revolution Ventures fund.

• New Enterprise Associates promoted Carmen Chang and Ali Behbahani to general partner.