Silicon Valley Bank collapse could slow the transition to clean energy

[Timber Rattler]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/silicon-valley-bank-collapse-could-slow-the-transition-to-clean-energy/ar-AA18AF5z?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=3bca0cb50b1a4d2c932c15d7cd45c11b&ei=22

The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank has created new challenges not just for the nation’s banking system, but also for the Biden administration’s climate agenda, following a harrowing weekend in which many major clean tech companies faced insolvency.

Although the federal government has stepped in to enable investors and company founders to access their funds, the episode has left them to navigate a more challenging and uncertain landscape. Some worry it will lead to more investor caution in this sector dominated by cash-starved, pioneering start-ups, slowing clean energy innovation at the same time the administration is focused on implementing the Inflation Reduction Act, the historic climate package signed by President Biden last summer.

“It feels like we just avoided the apocalypse,” said Jim Kapsis, a former adviser at the Treasury Department and the founder of the Ad Hoc Group, where he has advised dozens of climate tech start-ups. “I think everyone is going to press the pause button for a period of time to see how the macro environment shakes out. A lot of firms just had an existential, out-of-body experience that could have ended in a massive death of their start-up portfolio.”

Clean tech firms and venture capital funds are assessing how to move forward following what for some of them was the most challenging week in their existence. About half the start-ups working to develop and scale up the newest clean energy technologies were banking with the failed institution, investors and analyst say. Some had just closed new funding rounds days before the collapse and were locked out of the accounts where the millions of dollars in investment was deposited.

It's becoming increasingly clear why SVB failed now...skewed priorities with ZERO risk management, since it was too inconvenient for servicing those "green" start-ups.