Bankruptcy of the Silicon Valley Bank: Startups can breathe easy

The authorities have announced a support package so that the biggest bank collapse in the USA since the financial crisis does not destabilize the economy. Also: Meta is apparently planning a Twitter clone.

Good morning! Even during the weekend, work in the digital scene continued in many places.

The top topics:

The bankruptcy of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) is the biggest bank collapse since the 2008 financial crisis. The tech-respected firm’s downward spiral began last week when the bank surprised investors with the news that it had to raise $2.25 billion to rebuild its balance sheet support. In a panic, customers withdrew their funds and the bank collapsed. By the end of the week, fears were rife that the bankruptcy could destabilize the US banking system. That’s why the US authorities announced a support package over the weekend. This is very good news for Silicon Valley Bank customers: All customers should be able to access their entire deposits by Monday, not just the $250,000 insured in the United States.

In fact, until recently, the SVB had been a well capitalized institution. The fact that it went bankrupt so unexpectedly is due to investor panic. According to some insiders, some venture capital companies, or VCs for short, who had encouraged their startups to withdraw funds, are mainly to blame. “This was a VC-induced, hysteria-fueled bank run,” Ryan Falvey, a fintech investor at Restive Ventures, told CNBC. This is one of those cases where an industry has “cut its own flesh”. [Mehr bei Handelsblatt, Handelsblatt, The Information und CNBC]

On Founder Scene: Delayed future projects, sticking to long outdated technologies: The transport policy in Germany is showing its bad side once again. This is currently becoming clear in the mock debate about E-Fuels, i.e. synthetic fuels, which the FDP believes are the salvation of the internal combustion engine. A disgrace, as our mobility expert Don Dahlmann writes in his column. [Mehr bei Gründerszene]

And here are the other headlines of the night and the past few days:

Year, Roblox and several other tech companies announced over the weekend that they were aware of the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) affected because they had funds in the bank. Roku, the maker of streaming devices, made public that it had invested $487 million, or about 26 percent of its total cash balance of $1.9 billion, with SVB. After the announcement that the deposits are safe, the relief for the companies should have been great. [Mehr bei The Information und CNBC]

Apparently Peter Thiels was better from the start Founders Fund there. The fund ran out of money at SVB as of Thursday morning, when the bank went into chaos, according to a person familiar with the matter. The Founders Fund, like other venture funds, appears to have taken dramatic steps to limit exposure to the now-failed financial institution. But now more than 300 venture capital firms have signed a letter saying they would be willing to work with Silicon Valley Bank again provided it has a new owner and adequate capitalization. The Founders Fund is not among them so far. [Mehr bei CNBC und Bloomberg]

Meta should at one Twitter-Alternative work. The project is internally codenamed P92, but is said to be in the early stages of development. It has also been revealed that Meta’s new round of layoffs will be roughly on the same scale as last year’s round. At that time, 13 percent or 11,000 employees had received a letter of resignation. The new cuts, the first wave of which is expected to be made public this week, are intended to hit non-technical positions particularly hard. The company is also expected to shut down some projects entirely as part of the cuts, laying off entire teams. [Mehr bei Platformer und Wall Street Journal]

The shares of Docusign lost more than a fifth of their value on Friday after the company warned of a deteriorating macroeconomic environment. Analyst concerns about increased competition for e-signature options also worried investors. Shares of the US company then closed 23 percent lower, falling to $49.69. Overall, the papers have collapsed by about 47 percent in the last twelve months. [Mehr bei Wall Street Journal]

Microsoft relies on algae to reduce its growing carbon footprint. The software giant’s emissions are rising despite the company’s pledge to be carbon negative by 2030. That’s why Microsoft is now working with the startup Running Tide together to offset some of its emissions across the ocean. Running Tide, that too Stripe and Shopify cooperates, wants to capture large amounts of carbon dioxide by growing seaweed on biodegradable buoys. The algae should eventually sink to the sea floor. [Mehr bei Techcrunch]

Our reading tip on Gründerszene: Die Silicon Valley Bank was the house bank of the startup scene. Due to the bankruptcy of the institute also got German founders Panic. [Mehr bei Gründerszene]

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