- Thunberg leads pro-Palestinian, climate protest in Milan
- Stock markets diverge before China weekend briefing
- EU questions shopping app Temu over illegal products risk
- Han Kang's books sell out in South Korea after Nobel win
- Shanghai markets sink ahead of briefing on mixed day for Asia
- Investors, analysts eye bigger China stimulus at Saturday briefing
- Musk unveils robotaxi, pledges it 'before 2027'
- At least 11 dead in Florida but Hurricane Milton not as bad as feared
- Asian markets mixed after Wall St drop, Shanghai dips before briefing
- Automaker Stellantis says CEO will retire in 2026
- Musk's promised robotaxi unveil delayed
- On US coast, wind power foes embrace 'Save the Whales' argument
- At least 10 dead in Florida after Hurricane Milton spawns tornadoes
- Internet Archive reels from 'catastrophic' cyberattack, data breach
- Wall Street stocks retreat from records on US inflation data
- Israel strikes central Beirut, killing 22
- Solar storm could impact US hurricane recovery efforts: agency
- Delta eyes Election Day travel pullback as profits climb
- Florida battered by hurricane, floods but spared 'worst-case scenario'
- UK's William and Kate in first joint public engagement since cancer treatment
- Over 200 women in legal talks with Harrods over Fayed abuse claims
- A very stiff breeze: BBC says sorry for 20,000 kph wind forecast
- Musk finally unveiling his long-promised robotaxi
- London's Frieze art fair goes potty for ceramics
- US, Europe stocks fall on US inflation data
- US consumer inflation eases to 2.4% in September
- Hurricane Milton tornadoes kill four in Florida amid rescue efforts
- South Korea's Han Kang wins literature Nobel
- Ikea posts fall in annual sales after lowering prices
- Stock markets diverge, oil gains after China rebounds
- World can't 'waste time' trading climate change blame: COP29 hosts
- South Korean same-sex couples make push for marriage equality
- Mumbai declares day of mourning for Indian industrialist Ratan Tata
- 7-Eleven owner restructures to fight takeover
- Sri Lanka recovering faster than expected: World Bank
- Hong Kong, Shanghai rally as most markets track Wall St record
- Uniqlo owner reports record annual earnings
- Hong Kong, Shanghai rally as markets track Wall St record
- Indonesia biomass drive threatens key forests: report
- Mumbai mourns Indian industrialist Ratan Tata
- China opens $71 bn 'swap facility' to boost markets
- Asian markets track Wall St record as Hong Kong, Shanghai stabilise
- 'Denying my potential': women at Japan's top university call out gender imbalance
- China's central bank says opens up $70.6 bn in liquidity to boost market
- Youth facing unprecedented wave of violence, UN envoy warns
- 'A casino in every kitchen': Brazil's online gambling craze
- Nobel chemistry winner sees engineered proteins solving tough problems
- Discord seen as online home for renegades
- US forecasts severe solar storm starting Thursday
- Ratan Tata: Indian mogul who built a global powerhouse
Worry for tech startups after Silicon Valley Bank failure
Silicon Valley Bank's stunning collapse has led to the freezing of tens of billions of dollars stored there by startups and their private equity backers, raising fears of a wider tech sector fallout.
The company, whose website says it is "the financial partner of the innovation economy," was taken over Friday by the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to prevent further damage.
"SVB knew the entrepreneurial community," Joseph DeSimone, a professor at Stanford University and founder of several startups, told AFP.
"They helped us recruit people, helped with securing mortgages for transplants, gave financial advice to new executives... So their disappearance is a real loss," he said.
The company previously boasted that "nearly half" of technology and life science companies that had US funding banked with them, leading many to worry about the possible ripple effects of its collapse.
For banks that are FDIC-insured, only $250,000 per account is guaranteed.
But according to SVB's latest annual report, 96 percent of its total $173 billion in deposits was uninsured.
The FDIC said Friday that all accounts would quickly get access to the insured portions of their deposits, but that the rest would depend on how much is recovered from sales of the bank's assets, an often lengthy process.
"The real victims of the SVB fallout are the depositors: startups with 10 to 100 employees, who cannot make payroll, and will have to furlough or shutdown workers as soon as Monday," tweeted Garry Tan, head of the well-known incubator Y Combinator.
He warned that "years of US innovation" are on the line, as an entire "generation of American startups" could be destroyed in a month or two.
- 'Doesn't look good' -
Activist investor Bill Ackman raised a similar alarm on Twitter, saying that SVB's collapse "could destroy an important long-term driver of the economy."
"If private capital can't provide a solution, a highly dilutive gov't (government) preferred bailout should be considered."
According to several US media reports, SVB had discussed on Thursday and Friday a possible buyout with several banks, but could not find a solution quickly enough.
Champ Bennett, cofounder of the video platform Capsule, revealed on Friday that the $5 million raised in mid-February during the company’s first seed funding round was housed at SVB and now inaccessible.
"What happens next is anyone's guess, but it doesn't look good," he tweeted.
Bennett added that an intervention should not be viewed as "bailing out 'The 1' or 'Big Tech'," pointing to the "thousands of the most hardworking, talented individuals" at impacted companies who are currently "struggling."
According to the news website Semafor, hedge funds are offering to front cash to SVB's corporate clients, but at a 20 to 40 percent discount.
Beyond that, Adam Arrigo, boss of virtual gig platform Wave, warned his fellow tech entrepreneurs: "Whether or not you had money in SVB, you are not unaffected. This is going to materially impact everyone."
Like others, Bennett says he is also concerned about the fate of other banks favored by the tech industry, including California's First Republic, whose stock price fell 30 percent in two days.
Some see in the back-to-back failure of two banks, SVB and Silvergate Bank, an example of the financial system's precariousness.
"What happened to everyone talking about how banks (SVB, Silvergate) are safe and better than Crypto DEFI?" tweeted US investor Arjun Sethi.
DeFi, or decentralized finance, allows users to theoretically access their funds at any time and without intermediary, but comes without deposit protections or regulations.
L.K.Baumgartner--CPN