Phew, it’s over.
This evening, the Department of the Treasury announced that they are taking decisive action in regards to Silicon Valley Bank: all SVB depositors will now have access to all of their funds beginning Monday, March 13th.
It’s been a crazy 72 hours to say the least. We’ve had hundreds of companies with a cumulative $7B in deposits request funds through our emergency payroll program. Our entire team has been working around the clock this weekend to find the right capital provider who could help us distribute funding at speed. If we hadn’t been able to deploy funds by Wednesday, many employees could have gone without a paycheck, and we didn’t want to see any founder put in that difficult position.
This weekend, we secured agreements to deploy hundreds of millions of dollars, but at a very high cost. Just as we were arranging to send out our first set of offers, the Fed announced the good news (again, phew).
I can’t express the sheer joy all of us felt at Capchase when we read the announcement—we have the Slack messages to prove it. In fact, when I asked the team on Friday to work night and day so that we could help as many companies as possible, we agreed that the best case scenario was that we worked three days straight and it would all be for nothing, because either the Fed or a large bank would step in.
As a fellow startup founder, the tech space is so important to me: it’s not just an industry, it’s a community. I felt that with each new application that came in, every message was a humble, raw, and vulnerable ask for help from one founder to another. It was so inspiring to see how the community rallied to share resources and links to alternative and emergency funding options, ensuring that everyone could access the help they needed.
Despite this news, I know that some of you can’t rely on your loans from SVB or have an urgent need for capital and may still need some funding help. If that’s you, please don’t hesitate to reach out directly to me (miguel@capchase.com).
There’s no doubt this is a day we’ll remember for the rest of our lives. We may be out of the woods with this crisis, but we are always here to help.
All my best,
Miguel
P.S. At the time of publishing, we are unsure if the situation is fully resolved in the EU. Again, please reach out to me if you need anything.
