šŸ™ļø What the Silicon Valley Bank collapse means for Vancouver tech

Plus, find out which Vancouver company just raised a Series A, and how you could soon exercise to your favourite movie.

Well, hello! Iā€™m usually in our membersā€™ inboxes to report the daily news, but today I have the pleasure of steering the helm of our Sunday Briefing. Kate is covering SXSW in Austin and itā€™s quite the time to gather among the worldā€™s tech entrepreneurs and investors, to say the least.

The unofficial American startup bank of choice, Silicon Valley Bank, collapsed on Friday, and itā€™s sent the tech industry into a tailspin. Itā€™s notably the largest bank fallout since Washington Mutual and investment banks Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns fell in 2008. Startupsā€™ payrolls are in jeopardy and investorsā€™ funds are at risk, but the steak dinners at SXSW were already paid for, I guess?

While SVB has (had?) a Vancouver office, it only provided venture debt rather than banking services. However, there are second-hand impacts that could surface. For example, local tech companies that either used SVB as their bank of choice when in the U.S or received funding from American investors who banked with SVB could be in a precarious situation. If this sounds like something youā€™re navigating, give me a shout at [email protected].

Now onto todayā€™s briefing. Itā€™s 1,133 words: a four-minute read.

-Allison, @allisongacad

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