‘Stay strong, keep fighting’: OnBuy boss Cas Paton speaks out on Silicon Valley Bank collapse
Cas Paton, Founder and CEO at online marketplace, OnBuy, has taken to LinkedIn to have his say on the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).
US regulators have shut it down and taken control of its customer deposits in the largest failure of a US bank since 2008.
A key technology lender, the FI was scrambling to raise money as it looked to plug a loss from the sale of assets affected by higher interest rates.
In a LinkedIn post, Paton said: “This SVB situation is very disappointing to follow. OnBuy doesn't use SVB or have any reliance on it so we are "safe". Our core partners have been approached and we are very lucky to share an expected minimal impact from this disaster within our ecosystem.”
“However, our heart goes out to those founders of businesses who are impacted and I'm watching the news closely hoping that HM Treasury do everything possible to minimise impacts. Growing a business is hard enough, without those you trust and rely on the most, the banks, creating even more instability.”
Paton added: “The SVB investment decisions sound ridiculous and, frankly, poor outcome was predictable. Every man and his dog could see that interest rates were going to increase, one way or another.”
“They had to. These actions by SVB are going to have far reaching consequences. I only hope that everyone finds a way though this nightmare. Stay strong, keep fighting.”
An urgent matter
More than 200 bosses of UK tech companies signed a letter addressed to Chancellor Jeremy Hunt on Saturday calling for government intervention.
The letter, from FinTech Founders, said many firms had all of their banking with SVB "and will therefore go into receivership imminently unless preventative action is taken".
"The firms affected by the collapse of SVB serve millions of people in the UK along with businesses that are critical to our economy," the letter said.
"The cost of inaction here means that these firms could fail in the short-term and your technology growth ambitions will fail in the long-term."
Michael Moore, Director General of the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association, said this was an "urgent matter" and that "help is needed by Monday" for tech firms and entrepreneurs.
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