How Silicon Valley Bank's collapse ripped through global tech
Not long after California startups started pulling money out of troubled Silicon Valley Bank, entrepreneurs in other parts of the world woke up to the news. "Around 90% of our cash was in SVB," said Sam Franklin, 28, a London-based chief executive whose recruitment firm Otta specializes in tech talent. He ditched weekend "life admin" to figure out how to pay his employees at the end of the month. In Hong Kong, Florian Simmendinger, co-founder and CEO of Hong Kong wearable company Soundbrenner, missed the start of the panic in California over SVB Financial Group last week, but he caught on quickly. "I'm like, what? Are you kidding me? Like, my bank?" he said. "We already couldn't log into our account anymore during the regular Business hours." While the global effects of Silicon Valley Bank's collapse are just emerging, one thing is clear: tech startups, no matter how far apart, are intertwined. Many depend on a single mid-size