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☆ UK races to minimise SVB fallout amid reports of potential buyers
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-12 | by ( Andrew Macaskill | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

[1/2] A notice hangs on the door of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) located in San Francisco, California, U.S. March 10, 2023. SoftBank-owned lender OakNorth Bank is weighing a bid to buy Silicon Valley Bank UK Ltd, a person with knowledge of the talks told Reuters, confirming a Sky News report. EXISTENTIAL THREATMore than 250 UK tech firm executives signed a letter addressed to Hunt on Saturday calling for government intervention and warned of an "existential threat" to the UK tech sector, a copy seen by Reuters shows. Hunt reiterated comments by the BoE that overall, Silicon Valley Bank had a limited presence in Britain and did not perform functions critical to the financial system. Sunak has said he wants to turn Britain into the "next Silicon Valley".

☆ India tech minister plans to meet startups on SVB fallout
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

"Start-ups are an important part of the new India economy. I will meet with Indian Startups this week to understand impact on them and how the government can help during the crisis," Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the state minister for IT said on Twitter. "Spoke to some founders and it is very bad," Ashish Dave, CEO of Mirae Asset Venture Investments (India), wrote in a tweet. "Especially for Indian founders ... who setup their U.S. companies and raised their initial round, SVB is default bank. Software firm Freshworks (FRSH.O) said it has minimal exposure to the SVB situation relative to the company's overall balance sheet.

☆ SVB UK holds $3 billion of venture capital-backed firms' funds, survey shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-12 | by ( Pablo Mayo Cerqueiro | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

LONDON, March 12 (Reuters) - British start-ups backed by venture capital have around 2.5 billion pounds ($3 billion), largely in deposits, "locked" in Silicon Valley Bank's UK subsidiary, according to a weekend survey by an industry body seen by Reuters. Regulatory disclosures show SVB had some $2.9 billion worth of loans at its UK arm at the end of last year, along with more than $1 billion in bonds. In addition to their portfolio companies, venture capital and private equity funds are also customers of SVB UK, some of whom have been pulling deposits, one senior banker familiar with the matter said. SVB UK offers short-term “capital call” facilities to venture capital funds, providing them with bridge financing before they receive cash from their investors, that person said. ($1 = 0.8301 pounds)Reporting by Pablo Mayo Cerqueiro; Editing by John O'Donnell and Alexander SmithOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ India tech minister says to meet startups on SVB fallout
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MUMBAI, March 12 (Reuters) - India's state minister for technology said on Sunday he will meet start-ups this week to asses the impact on them of Silicon Valley Bank's (SIVB.O) collapse, as concerns rise about the fallout for the Indian start-up sector. "Start-ups are an important part of the new India economy. I will meet with Indian Startups this week to understand impact on them and how the government can help during the crisis," Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the state minister for IT said on Twitter. "Spoke to some founders and it is very bad," Ashish Dave, CEO of Mirae Asset Venture Investments (India), wrote in a tweet. "Especially for Indian founders ... who setup their U.S. companies and raised their initial round, SVB is default bank.

☆ Why Silicon Valley Bank failed
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-12 | by ( Matt Turner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Silicon Valley Bank made a bold call on where to invest cash. SVB deposits soarSVB's position as the go-to bank in tech made it a huge beneficiary of the Silicon Valley boom through the last few years. Rubinstein notes:"Driven by the boom in venture capital funding, many of Silicon Valley Bank's customers became flush with cash over 2020 and 2021. Here's Rubinstein again:"The problem at Silicon Valley Bank is compounded by its relatively concentrated customer base. And Silicon Valley Bank doesn't have that many of them.

☆ I raised $9.75 million for my health and wellness company as a Black female founder. Here's how I did it and found the right investors.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-11 | by ( Alexandra York | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The duo has raised $9.75 million in VC, a major accomplishment for two Black female entrepreneurs. As of 2022, only a few hundred Black or Latina women founders have raised $1 million or more in VC. White men see white women in their homes and they see Black men in the locker room, but they don't see Black women as often. Feeling seen by our women investors and investors of color has made a huge difference. There are tons of Black women founders in healthcare.

☆ SVB debacle sparks rush to defensive options on fears of contagion
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Saqib Iqbal Ahmed | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

A California regulator shut Silicon Valley Bank on Friday and appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as receiver, according to the agency's statement. With many stocks in the sector falling sharply on Friday, traders rushed in to defensive bets. SVB is battling cash burn due to declining deposits from startups struggling with a venture capital funding drought. While investors had largely shrugged off Silvergate’s troubles as strictly crypto-related, "(SVB Financial Group) was a giant wake-up call about the effects of rising rates and an inverted yield curve," Sosnick said. Reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed in New York Editing by Ira Iosebashvili and Matthew LewisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Silicon Valley Bank blowup highlights deposit risks vs Treasurys
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Bob Pisani | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The dramatic decline of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has caused concerns about contagion risk. The bank is a major lender to Silicon Valley venture capital funds and startups. Startup firms have seen a dramatic slowdown in growth as higher rates have hurt their ability to grow and raise funds. Those startups have been burning through cash at a rapid clip, which means they have also been reducing the size of their bank accounts. This has created some serious collateral damage in regional banks such as Zions, M & T Bank and Keycorp, but how much contagion risk is there?

☆ Banks tumble as SVB ignites broader fears about the sector
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Sinéad Carew | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The SPDR S&P regional banking ETF (KRE.P) was down 6.0% after hitting its lowest point since January 2021. "The Silicon Valley raise got everybody nervous about people's capital levels and what deposits are doing. "It just gets people freaked out because Silicon Valley, historically has been a very strong, well-run bank. If they're having issues right now, people are wondering what about other banks that are lesser quality and that don't have the reputation that Silicon Valley Bank has." Investors were also grappling with the decline of cryptocurrency-focused lender Silvergate Capital (SI.N), which said earlier this month it was evaluating its ability to operate as a going concern.

☆ Tech staffing unicorn Andela is buying a smaller industry peer, as startups are looking to combine amid a tough funding market
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( April Joyner | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Remote tech-talent startup Andela is acquiring the engineering assessment platform Qualified. Companies outside of tech are still hungry for engineering talent, Andela CEO Jeremy Johnson said. Founded in 2014 with an initial focus on training and hiring African engineers, Andela now connects companies with remote technical workers in 170 countries worldwide. At first glance, the deal seems to counter prevailing trends in the tech industry: Startups are widely seeking to preserve cash as venture capital funding has slowed down, and tech companies of all sizes have undergone significant layoffs. "They've all realized they have to become tech companies," he said.

☆ Meet the 8 Black and Latina female founders whose startups have reached a $1 billion valuation or higher
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Jennifer Ortakales Dawkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

A report found nine Black and Latina female founders have reached a $1 billion or higher valuation. The biennial report, which Project Diane and the organization DigitalUndivided released Wednesday, compiled data from more than 750 Latina and Black female founders who have received outside funding. The report also found that there are now more than 350 Black and Latina female founders who have raised at least $1 million in funding, and at least nine Black and Latina female founders have reached a $1 billion valuation. Here are eight Black and Latina female founders who have achieved this feat, in order of the highest current valuation. Each company on this list has at one point achieved a $1 billion valuation, but some have lost that value over time.

☆ ‘Women are the true unicorns’: This millennial investor is breaking barriers in venture capital and betting on female founders
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Goh Chiew Tong | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

"One class I was taking was [about] venture capital and our professor was super well connected," she recalled. Women are the true unicorns in this venture capital world." In a venture capital industry where women make up less than 15% of check-writers, Sun stands out. Fundraising 'a moving bar'Sun decided to start her own venture capital fund when she realized that women founders' biggest pain point is "lacking capital to grow." Even so, companies founded by women are still receiving just 2.5% of all venture capital investments, according to PitchBook data.

☆ Britain's startup ecosystem dominates VC funding but it boasts one of Europe's worst gender pay gaps, new report shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Riddhi Kanetkar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Women earn 81 cents for every euro that men earn at European startups, a new report has found. The sector has an unadjusted pay gap of 19%, according to an analysis by data firm Figures. The unadjusted gap in the UK was an improvement on the 30% gap recorded last year. Germany tailed the UK, showcasing an unadjusted gender pay gap of 22%, followed by the Netherlands at 20%, and France at 15%. How different organizations measure the pay gap can vary but the wider bloc's gap is estimated to be around 13%, considerably lower than the tech sector's 19% gulf.

☆ Half of Sequoia Capital's VC funds since 2018 have posted losses for the University of California's endowment
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Ben Bergman | Darius Rafieyan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The University of California endowment has invested over $800 million in Sequoia funds since 2018. The returns show ten Sequoia funds across all stages and geographies are now underwater for the investor. The University of California's massive $28 billion endowment, a limited partner in 20 Sequoia Capital funds since 2018, is underwater on half those investments, according to documents obtained by Insider. Meanwhile ten of the Sequoia funds that UC Investments has invested in have been marked down in value on paper. One of UC Investment's largest commitments to Sequoia is $232 million earmarked for the 2022 Sequoia Capital Fund.

☆ Female entrepreneurs’ glass ceiling is intact
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Lisa Jucca | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

MILAN, March 8 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The glass ceiling that holds back female entrepreneurs remains intact. Yet despite representing 40% of new business founders in the United States, female entrepreneurs capture only a fraction of available venture capital cash. A tendency by venture capital funds to shun female entrepreneurs risks hobbling their contribution to the global economy. Helping female entrepreneurs to rise to the top will be beneficial to women and to the world. In 2021, female entrepreneurs made up 40% of total in the United States, data from the Kauffman Foundation shows.

☆ Bertarelli-backed Volta Trucks seeks $264 mln in pre-IPO round, says CEO
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Pablo Mayo Cerqueiro | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

LONDON, March 8 (Reuters) - Volta Trucks, the electric-truck maker backed by billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli, is in advanced discussions to raise as much as 250 million euros ($263.58 million), its CEO told Reuters. Volta Trucks is gearing up to roll out its electric trucks, after delays in obtaining certification for its vehicles and constraints in sourcing supplies held up production, according to a company spokesperson. The company just months ago tapped investors for around 300 million euros in a deal that valued it at close to 600 million euros. Volta Trucks' existing backers include Kuwaiti supply-chain services provider Agility Public Warehousing Co (AGLT.KW), Bertarelli's family office B-Flexion, Swedish investor Byggmastare Anders J Ahlstrom (AJAb.ST) and U.S. hedge fund Luxor Capital. A spokesperson for B-Flexion said the investor remains "wholly committed" to Volta Trucks, but declined to comment further.

☆ Here's an exclusive look at the pitch deck that Y Combinator alum Opkit, a health insurance verification startup, used to raise funding from investors like Plaid CEO Zach Perret's VC firm
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Madeline Renbarger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Opkit is a startup that helps telehealth companies verify and process patient health insurance. Software engineers Sherwood Callaway and Justin Ko first met as early employees at the fintech startup Brex and became fast friends. As more telehealth companies were popping up after the pandemic, they often had issues with quickly processing patient health insurance for care, Callaway told Insider. Opkit also offers providers an insurance dashboard, that allows telehealth employees to perform eligibility checks or inquiries to insurance companies about specific patients' plans. "Opkit was our first experience doing venture fundraising, and Y Combinator really helped us make connections with investors," said Callaway.

☆ Salad Chain That Thought It Was a Tech Firm Looks Wilted
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( Spencer Jakab | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Sweetgreen has faced sharply rising cash expenses for food, leases and labor. “I was an overnight success all right, but 30 years is a long, long night.”When Ray Kroc founded McDonald ’s, he had no more than a high-school education and grease under his fingernails. He took a winding path to eventual fast-food riches in middle age. They met in an entrepreneurship class at Georgetown University, raised hundreds of millions of dollars in venture-capital funding and were all named to a Forbes “30 Under 30” list. The salad chain was valued at nearly $6 billion a day after its 2021 initial public offering.

☆ Factbox: Chinese chipmaking equipment manufacturers filling void left by U.S. export restrictions
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Naura's most advanced etching machine supports 55 nm and 28 nm chipmaking technology, well behind the leading edge of chip manufacturing. The firm also makes deposition machines, which apply chemicals and gases to silicon wafers throughout the chipmaking process. It produces machines that can service the 14 nm to 28 nm process nodes of its deposition machines. ADVANCED MICRO-FABRICATION EQUIPMENT INC CHINA (AMEC) (688012.SS)AMEC makes etching equipment used to remove excess material from the surface of silicon wafers. BEIJING E-TOWN SEMICONDUCTOR TECHNOLOGY CO LTD (BEST)BEST produces degumming equipment used to remove photoresist chemicals during the lithography process.

LONDON, March 3 (Reuters) - European buyout houses Montagu Private Equity and Astorg Partners are preparing to hang the "for sale" sign on their UK insurance software investments, hoping to woo insurers and fellow private capital funds with their technology. Acturis, Astorg and Open GI did not respond to requests for comment. It last attempted to sell the business in 2018 and has since strived to transform it into a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform, which could attract fellow private equity funds with existing investments in the insurance industry, sources said. Open GI could be worth up to 12 times its expected core earnings of more than 30 million pounds ($35.96 million) expected for 2023, two sources said. Revenue rose to 111.9 million pounds from 102.4 million pounds the previous year, as the company added new brokers and insurers to its eponymous SaaS platform.

☆ Europe will lose out on medical innovation if draft EU reforms pass -Novo Nordisk CEO
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Maggie Fick | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

LONDON, March 2 (Reuters) - Europe will lose out to countries like the U.S. and Japan on new medical research, trials and treatments unless draft rules reforming the European pharmaceutical landscape change, the CEO of Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk (NOVOb.CO) warned on Thursday. It says drugs need to reach patients more quickly and in all European nations. Novo's Lars Jorgensen lamented that without changes to the current draft, his company would be forced to research, test and bring products in its pipeline to market in the United States and elsewhere, instead of in Europe. A lose, lose, lose," he said in an interview. The Commission's current draft was leaked in Brussels last month and will likely change even before debate in the European parliament and among governments.

☆ The founder of the best-selling Black-owned spirit brand shares why she prefers to work with individual investors over VC firms and how they helped her reach $100 million in sales
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Jennifer Ortakales Dawkins | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Fawn Weaver's Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey is the best-selling Black-owned spirit brand in the US. She chose to take funding from individual investors, not from VC or private-equity firms. "You also are gaining a sales force if your investors are excited about your brand," she said. "They have been a huge sales force for us." "One of our first really big accounts nationwide was to have Uncle Nearest cocktails on the menu."

Before 2021, only 93 Black female founders had raised $1 million or more in venture capital. Companies led by Black women typically receive less than 1% of all venture capital funding. Insider is compiling a list of Black female founders who've raised $1 million or more in VC since 2021. If you're a Black female founder who's raised $1 million or more in VC funding this year, please contact Alexandra York at ayork@insider.com. An earlier version of this story misstated the time period in which 93 Black female founders had raised VC funds of $1 million or more.

☆ Here's the 15-slide presentation Twentyeight Health used to raise $8.3 million to give Medicaid patients better reproductive healthcare
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-27 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Twentyeight Health provides underserved groups with reproductive and sexual healthcare online. See the pitch deck Twentyeight Health used to bank $8.3 million in pre-Series A funding. Twentyeight Health provides reproductive and sexual healthcare primarily for underserved communities, like low-income patients and patients of color. Twentyeight Health provided Insider with the pitch deck it used to raise $8.3 million in pre-Series A funding. Here's the 15-slide pitch deck Twentyeight Health used to bank $8.3 million.

☆ United Airlines, five other companies launch effort to develop sustainable aviation fuel
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-21 | by ( Phil Lebeau | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

A United Airlines passenger plane takes off from Frankfurt Airport. The United Airlines Ventures Sustainable Flight Fund will start with $100 million invested by United Airlines, Air Canada , Boeing , GE Aerospace, JPMorgan Chase and Honeywell . The United Airlines Ventures Sustainable Flight Fund will allow United and the other inaugural investors the chance to play a larger role in startups developing and expanding access to SAF. Since then, United Airlines Ventures has invested in startups focused on decarbonization and new fuel sources. In announcing the United Airlines Ventures Sustainable Flight Fund, Kirby reiterated his belief the path to lower emissions requires developing new ideas and technology.

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