Po prodaji SVB se tvegani kapital premakne k trajnostni rasti

The news of the Silicon Valley Bridge Bank (SVBB) to First Citizens Bank could mark the beginning of the end of the banking turmoil. While not all the assets from Silicon Valley Financial, the failed bank’s parent company, have yet been auctioned off, there is an almost audible sigh of relief from the US banking system. 

Trdna tržna niša SVB, ki se trdno sooča z tveganimi kapitali in njihovimi zagonskimi podjetji, je mnoge skrbela glede pristopa naslednika. Vendar pa je pogled iz sektorja zdaj nekoliko optimističen.

“SVB has an incredibly strong brand within the startup community, and it’s built out a lot of very viable programs,” said Marcos Fernandez, Managing Partner of Fiat Ventures. “There’s a lot of value to be had from that brand and what they’ve built. Obviously, under different parameters and regulations. But I feel like that’s a big win for them (First Citizens).”

Rast za vsako ceno se spremeni v vzdržnost poslovanja

In the months prior to SVB’s failure, the VC and start-up community had faced a period of “dry powder,” which may have left them particularly susceptible to panic. Already the idea of “growth at all costs,” formulated in the unicorn year of 2021, was turning into a landscape of survival.

“Most founders prior to SBVs demise were modeling 18 months of runway to weather the storm,” said Don Muir, CEO and Co-Founder of Arc. “They were trying to maximize runway through cost-cutting exercises to weather the funding storm which is driven by the rising interest rate environment which brought down valuations.”

“This black swan event added insult to injury. It made everyone’s life a whole lot harder. And that cash that they were trying to maximize to preserve the runway was jeopardized. And founders went from saying, “Okay, I’m solving for 12 to 24 months of runway” to “I might not be able to make payroll next week, I might not have another month of runway, not to mention 12 to 24.”

Fernandez explained that, due to the reactions of the regulators, the effects of the bank’s failure on the sector were low. In the aftermath of the chaos, VCs and startups had turned even more to sustainability instead of full-on crisis control.    

“It went from growth at all costs to now sustainability and runway at all costs,” he said. “So, thinking about what you need to do to your business, not just to protect yourself, but to maximize your runway and the capital that you have. Focusing on driving revenue from multiple forms from day one, and making sure that you’ve got the fundamentals around your business built out this.”

Zorenje strategije diverzifikacije 

Fiat Ventures je bilo eno izmed mnogih podjetij, ujetih v nesrečo usodnega vikenda za banko. Čeprav je to vplivalo le na pet njihovih naložb, so morali delovati hitro, da so se izognili velikemu tveganju. 

"Nihče nima kristalne krogle," je dejal Fernandez. »V teh okoliščinah, če vidite ljudi, ki tečejo, na žalost morate teči. Naš takratni nasvet našemu portfelju je bil samo zaščitite se."

“At that point, we suggested that they get their capital, either into alternative banks or to spread it so it was under the $250,000 FDIC insurance threshold.”

This approach was the one taken by many, and in the first few hours, SVB’s depositors were seen to be desperately minimizing the risk to their deposits. 

V mnogih primerih so finančne tehnologije v prvih nekaj dneh krize prejele znatne prilive. 

“The Mercurys and the Brexs of the world really proved that fintechs can move more quickly than other traditional financial institutions,” said Fernandez. “That’s proven by just the amount of deposits that they’re able to take in in such a short amount of time.”

Ta pristop je dozorel v tednih po začetni paniki.

"Nedavni dogodki so jasno pokazali, da moramo kot vlagatelji imeti občutek zakladniške in bančne strategije naših portfeljskih podjetij," je dejala Stephanie Choo, generalna partnerica pri Portageu.

“To ensure their deposits are protected, companies need to have diversified banking relationships with several financial institutions, and one of them must be with a systematically important bank. Two of these should be operating accounts that leave enough funds for several months’ worth of payroll. Their treasury strategy should also involve investing excess cash to build up their liquid investments. Lastly, depositors should also take advantage of the Insured Cash Sweep (ICS) service used by their banks to maximize their FDIC protection.”

Muir je dejal, da so mnogi ustanovitelji, s katerimi je sodeloval Arc, začeli uporabljati ta pristop. 

"Zdaj VC spodbujajo svoja portfeljska podjetja k diverzifikaciji v bankah, ki so prevelike, da bi propadle, in digitalnih bankah za zagonska podjetja, ki so posegla, da bi olajšala diverzifikacijo za ta portfeljska podjetja," je pojasnil.

“You have Brex, Arc, and Mercury on one end and offline banks on the other. And what VCs are encouraging their portfolio companies to do is to open anywhere from two to four bank accounts to diversify their bank deposits.”

SVB Capital še vedno visi na nitki

Medtem ko so se končno dogovorili o prodaji premostitvene banke SVB, ima SVB Financial še vedno dve karti. Eden od teh je SVB Kapital. 

Investing in some of the most prominent VCs in the ecosystem, and with a poročali $9.5 billion in assets under management, SVB Capital is one of SVB Financial’s “crown jewels.” As such, its potential sale has many on tenterhooks. 

VC giants such as Accel and Sequoia have been left in a state of “powerlessness”, as a suitable buyer of the exclusive portfolio is found. The eventual decision could have far-reaching effects on the ecosystem. 

“I would hope it’s someone who’s as forward-thinking as Silicon Valley Bank had been for the types of products that they want to provide to a broader ecosystem,” said Fernandez. “Again, that’s what ultimately gave them a little bit more exposure… but I hope it’s an institution that knows how to carry on a few of those programs under the right parameters.” 

“A more stable institution, but also with enough foresight to want to provide services to this broader community, because there truly is a big hole there. And I think there will be for a while until people dust themselves off from this whole thing and move forward.”

POVEZANE: Inovacija za zmanjšanje tveganja – možen oddih fintechov pred SVB

• Distribucija vsebine in PR s pomočjo SEO. Okrepite se še danes.
• Platoblockchain. Web3 Metaverse Intelligence. Razširjeno znanje. Dostopite tukaj.
• vir: https://news.fintechnexus.com/post-svb-sale-vcs-move-to-sustainable-growth/