Walgreens is working with LiveRamp to give its advertisers hands-on access to data from its 101 million loyalty program members.

Through the partnership, Walgreens Advertising Group—or WAG—is offering a clean room solution that lets advertisers target customized groups of Walgreens customers across walled gardens and the open web. Advertisers can then connect that targeting data back to Walgreen’s sales data, giving a clearer picture of which ads work.

Using LiveRamp’s conversion APIs, advertisers can see “real incremental sales—not attributed sales—on over 450 offsite platforms,” said Abishake Subramanian, group vp of customer marketing and media monetization at Walgreens.

WAG is one of many retail media networks partnering with tech companies to improve their pitch to advertisers as the retail media landscape gets more crowded and more competitive.

“For advertisers to want to continue to spend money—or spend money in the first place—they should have access [to] and understanding of who they’re targeting, why they’re targeting them, and the effectiveness,” Kevin Dunn, svp of brands and agencies at LiveRamp, told ADWEEK.

In addition to improving measurement tools to capture incremental return on ad spend, the LiveRamp deal helps WAG get its clients’ ads into the market faster and allows for more efficient audience targeting and secure data integration, Dunn said.

“The power of retail media is they have the transactions, and so they can really show you—at least within WAG—are you growing a category? Are you getting a new buyer?” Dunn said.

Story Continues

Good morning, Hubsters! Rafael Canton here with the US edition of the Wire from the New York newsroom.

Let’s kick off the Wire with college sports. After a settlement in the House vs. NCAA, college athletes can be directly compensated by schools. That could open opportunities for PE firms to invest. We’ll dive into what we know so far.

We’ll look at how deal value has risen so far despite deal count dropping according to HarbourVest’s 2025 Midyear Market Outlook.

Also, in a deal announced yesterday, Verlinvest and Mistral Equity Partners have increased their investment in Insomnia Cookies. The focus for both firms has been about expansion both nationwide and internationally.

Finally, we’ll dig into restaurant deals and why they are attractive. Houlihan Lokey has its US Restaurant Industry update.

Pay day

On Friday, a federal judge approved a settlement in the House vs. NCAA. The settlement will allow college athletes to be directly compensated by NCAA institutions for their name, image, and likeness (NIL) rights.

Private equity is expected to have interest in the college sports arena. In April, Buyouts reporter Alfie Crooks covered how the eventual settlement could lead to PE investment. In 2024, RedBird Capital Partners and Weatherford Capital created Collegiate Athletic Solutions, a capital- and business-building provider for public and private university athletic departments across the US.

“The paradigm shift we are seeing in the collegiate athletics ecosystem is similar to the ones we’ve seen with media distribution models, collective bargaining rights, and premium hospitality – they’re all centered around the need to create long-term growth by bridging the gap between premium IP and optimizing revenue streams,” Gerry Cardinale, founder of RedBird, said in a statement at the time of the CAS formation.

Under the new rules that could arise from the settlement in the antitrust case, universities would be allowed to distribute up to 22 percent of gameday revenue with student athletes, with each school subject to a $21 million per-year cap that grows by 4 percent each year.

The pool of capital distributed can be derived from revenue streams including ticket sales, broadcasting rights and sponsorships, shifting the college model closer to a professional model. It would not include NIL payments from outside sources or scholarships.

PE Hub has been following the college sports interest from PE firms since 2024. Before, the only deals that could be done involved NIL. Harlan Capital Partners invested in Nilly, which is a financial technology company with an online marketplace that allows college student athletes to maximize the value of their NIL.

At the end of the year, I highlighted college sports as one of the growing trends in PE’s interest in the overall sports ecosystem.

Increased deal value

Despite economic uncertainty, global private equity buying activity held up well in the first three months of 2025 according to HarbourVest’s 2025 Midyear Market Outlook. Private equity deal values rose to $495 billion in Q1 2025, surpassing the Q4 2024 total of $462 billion and a near-40 percent YoY increase ($345 billion).

Deal count in the first quarter was down slightly from Q4 2024 but also above Q1 2024. The report notes that there has been a slowdown in dealmaking in recent months and it seems unlikely that Q2 figures will show sustained momentum.

The report also highlights how US private equity had a 25 percent increase in Q1 value invested over the previous quarter and a jump of 36 percent on Q1 2024. One reason for the increase was take-private transactions.

The quarter’s total public to private deal value was $51 billion, or around one third of the total for full-year 2024 and 2023. In April, I highlighted how take-private deals in software have held their own and what makes take-privates in software attractive to PE firms.

Sweet progress

Verlinvest and Mistral Equity Partners have increased their investment in Insomnia Cookies, a New York and Philadelphia-based late-night bakery brand. Both firms are acquiring Krispy Kreme’s remaining stake in the deal.

Insomnia Cookies is now on track to scale to 1,800 bakeries globally over the next decade. Seth Berkowitz serves as CEO and founder of Insomnia Cookies.

“We believe Insomnia Cookies has all the ingredients to become a global icon in quality indulgence: a visionary founder, a cult-like following, and a clear edge in digital convenience,” said Clément Pointillart, managing director at Verlinvest in a statement. “We’re proud to deepen our commitment to Seth and the team as we help take Insomnia across the globe.”

In 2024, I spoke to both Verlinvest and Mistral about the initial deal which saw Krispy Kreme break off pieces of its majority stake to both PE firms. Expansion both nationwide and internationally was a focus for both firms with the deal at the time. Insomnia had 293 locations in 2024, so 1,800 locations is a huge step. Pointillart pointed to Verlinvest’s past investments in brands like Oatly and Tony’s Chocolonely as examples of its history in taking brands international.

Rapid expansion

Restaurant franchise assets continue to command premium valuations, driven by their asset-light economics, predictable cash-flow profiles, and ability to scale rapidly through multi-unit development according to Houlihan Lokey’s US Restaurant Industry update.

Recent premium multiples have favored platforms with 200-plus locations, reflecting investor preference for concepts with proven operating models, geographic diversity, and runway for continued unit expansion.

Private equity has consistently had interest in restaurants. Roark Capital announced an investment in Dave’s Hot Chicken. Several media outlets reported the value of the deal was $1 billion. The chain specializes in Nashville style hot chicken and expects to end the year with more than 400 restaurants according to a statement. In November, Blackstone took a majority stake in Jersey Mike’s Subs in November.

The report said that the year began with several large owned and franchised brands preparing to enter the market. While early signs point to a strong pipeline, market appetite will be tested in the months ahead as buyers and investors navigate a complex economic and global environment.
I’ve been covering PE’s interest in franchises for a few years and shared insights from dealmakers back in 2023.

That’s it for me. If you have any questions, thoughts, or want to chat about deals in the tech, consumer or sports sectors, please email me at rafael.c@pei.group.

Tomorrow, Nina Lindholm will be with you for the Europe edition of the Wire and Michael Schoeck will bring you the US edition.

Cheers,
Rafael

Mengmeng Zhang, left, a research scientist at UT Dallas’ NanoTech Institute and lead author of the study, wears a U.S. Olympic team jacket embedded with artificial muscles created using an earlier, mandrel-wrapped process. At right is Ray Baughman, director of the NanoTech Institute. [Photo: UTD]

Researchers at UT Dallas’ NanoTech Institute have developed a low-cost method to fabricate artificial muscles that could open new doors for robotics, energy harvesting, and smart clothing.

But these “muscles” aren’t biological—they’re engineered fibers that behave something like them. When triggered by heat or electricity, the fibers contract, expand, or twist, producing motion without motors.

In this case, polymer yarns are a type of smart material that respond to temperature changes. The UT Dallas team’s advance could move this lab innovation closer to real-world use in clothing, robotics, and other systems that need quiet, energy-efficient movement.

In a study published March 7 in Science, the team describes a mandrel-free technique for making the springlike, thermally driven polymer muscles that can stretch up to 97% of their original length and achieve a spring index over 50.

“High-spring-index yarns can be made much less expensively by this mandrel-free method,” said Dr. Mengmeng Zhang, a research scientist at UT Dallas’ Alan G. MacDiarmid NanoTech Institute and lead author of the study. “When heated and cooled, these muscles can significantly contract and elongate due to their large spring index.”

Mandrel-free-fabricated coiled polymer fibers: Springs with a small spring index are tightly wound and stiffer than those with a higher index, which are more loosely wound and more flexible, such as a Slinky toy. Individual fiber diameter is 0.28 millimeters.
[Photo: UTD]

Innovation enables movement without motors

Traditionally, high-spring-index artificial muscles are made by wrapping fibers around a mandrel, then dissolving it—a costly process that wastes materials. The new method eliminates the mandrel altogether.

“The problem has been that there are no process reports for making mandrel-free, large-spring-index yarns other than to dissolve the mandrel after muscle coiling, which wastes the large-diameter polymer fiber that is typically used as a mandrel and creates a waste stream,” said Dr. Ray Baughman, senior and co-corresponding author and director of the NanoTech Institute.

Using dynamic covalent chemistry, the team created fibers that twist and ply themselves into springlike coils—each fiber acting as a mandrel for another. The resulting artificial muscles vary in stiffness and flexibility and can be tuned for different uses.

The research was funded by the Office of Naval Research, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and The Welch Foundation.

From Olympic jackets to energy harvesters

The same team previously licensed mandrel-wrapped artificial muscle technology to a clothing manufacturer, which integrated the fibers into jackets worn by the U.S. team during the 2022 Winter Olympics. But the process was too costly for commercial rollout.

“Our new mandrel-free method for making high-spring-index coiled fiber avoids this major problem, so it may soon enable the commercialization of new comfort-adjusting jackets,” Baughman said.

Beyond clothing, the muscles could be used in devices that harvest mechanical energy or function as self-powered strain sensors. Zhang said the method even allows for variable spring indexes along a single fiber, enhancing adaptability.

The strokes of contraction and expansion are heat-driven, either through electricity, solvents, or electrochemical methods.

Broad team

Other co-authors include:

• Dr. Shaoli Fang, associate research professor and co-corresponding author

• Chemistry doctoral student Ishara Ekanayake

• Former researchers Dr. Jiyoung Oh and Zhong Wang (PhD ’21)

• Researchers from Texas State University, Tekirdağ Namık Kemal University, and Lintec of America

The team has applied for a patent on the technology.

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By Laurie Hernandez, Olympic Gymnast and UNICEF Ambassador

When people ask how I became an Olympic gymnast, they usually expect a story about structure, discipline, and long hours in the gym. But it started with something much simpler: play.

Before the medals and routines or “Dancing with the Stars”, I was just a kid moving because it was fun — cartwheels in the backyard, climbing furniture, dancing in the kitchen. That’s how I built confidence. That’s how I learned to take risks. It wasn’t “training” back then. It was just play.

Today, on the International Day of Play, I’m thinking about how important that was—and how many kids never get the chance to experience it. Globally, half of the world’s 3- to 6-year-olds have no access to early childhood education, which often includes learning through play, and about 20 percent of 2 to 4-year-olds do not play with caregivers at home.

As a UNICEF Ambassador, I’ve seen how critical play is for children around the world. It’s not just about fitness or competition. It’s about growth, resilience and mental health. It’s about having a support system, and building the kind of self-belief that goes beyond the field or court and most importantly, being a child.

UNICEF works in over 190 countries to make sure kids everywhere have access to safe spaces to play, whether they’re living through a natural disaster, fleeing conflict or growing up in underserved communities. That might mean visiting one of UNICEF’s many child-friendly spaces, supporting girls’ access to sports, or training local coaches who can do more than just teach technique. They help kids feel seen, safe and included.

In 2023, I visited a Migration Reception Station at the Darién Gap and spent time with children in a UNICEF child-friendly space. Despite the difficult and often dangerous journey they had been through, they were eager to play — a brief chance to just be a child. And this past weekend, I was at TST—The Soccer Tournament, San Antonio Spurs Chris Paul’s high-profile event in North Carolina, spending time in the UNICEF Kids Zone. The space gave kids a place to move, explore and enjoy themselves all while highlighting the work UNICEF does to ensure every child is healthy, educated, protected and respected – and has the opportunity to be a child. And honestly, it was a reminder that no matter the setting, from local to global, sport has the same power: to connect, to empower, to build up.

Play might look different for every child, but the impact is universal.

We all know what sport can do. It creates opportunity. It brings people together. And it shapes who we are, not just as athletes, but as people.

That’s why play matters. Because when kids don’t have access to play; when they’re excluded because of poverty, crisis, or discrimination; we’re cutting them off from some of the most powerful tools we have for development and recovery.

A safe space to play is a foundation for confidence, creativity and lifelong resilience. Every kid deserves that. Not just the talented or the lucky, but every single one. Join me in supporting UNICEF’s mission to support every child’s right to play. You can also advocate for safe play spaces in your own community, or volunteer as a coach or mentor. Even sharing a simple moment of play with a child in your life can spark growth and joy. Let’s make play possible.

For more information please visit unicefusa.org