Toronto, tvonenews.com – The sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) last week has begun to hamper funding for Canadian tech startups and put them in the hands of domestic lenders who may be more selective in funding new businesses.
That would be bad news for a battered sector in 2022, making investors more reluctant to take risks when making startup investments.
“I would say this is probably the worst time (for this to happen) in the last decade because of the technology setback we’ve had,” said Neil Selfe, CEO of advisor INFOR Financial.
SVB’s Canadian division, which received approval to operate in 2019, competed with other banks and private lenders to help finance the growth of Canada’s tech sector, before collapsing on Friday (3/10/ 2023). SVB Canada has doubled its secured loans to C$435 million (US$314 million) in 2022 from the previous year.
Canada is known as the second largest global technology hub after Silicon Valley, Kim Furlong, CEO of the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association, told CBC News, Monday (13/3/2023).
Companies, like Shopify Inc, are examples of Canadian technology success stories, helping to attract more investment into the sector.
US regulators intervened on Sunday (3/12/2023) after the collapse of SVB, which took place after its large bond portfolio was hit.
“Evil pop culture fanatic. Extreme bacon geek. Food junkie. Thinker. Hipster-friendly travel nerd. Coffee buff.”
