Array
Silicon Valley Bank, a once-trusted banker to startups, was closed down by regulators on Friday.
The collapse sent shockwaves through the industry as startups worried about logistics and payroll.
SVB became the latest casualty of a bank run as VCs and founders rushed to protect their funds.
Only last month, Silicon Valley Bank ranked among the top 20 in Forbes’ list of best US banks of 2023.
Any deeper, long-standing reasons behind SVB’s sudden collapse will no doubt unfold in the coming days, but the coup de grâce appeared to be a traditional bank run. On Thursday, more startup founders moved to make withdrawals, apparently rattled by SVB’s falling stock and the losses that the bank took on the sale of $21 billion in bond investments.
The bank had already been experiencing headwinds from « continued higher interest rates, pressured public and private markets, and elevated cash burn, » Greg Becker, the CEO of Silicon Valley Bank, wrote to investors on Wednesday.
Becker left the board of the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank on Friday, according to a report by Reuters.
