🌙The Bulletin #26: The Latest with SVB, Companies Going to The Moon (literally), and a Startup Internship Matching Opportunity!
🌙The Bulletin #26: The Latest with SVB, Companies Going to The Moon (literally), and a Startup Internship Matching Opportunity!
A breakdown of the Silicon Valley Bank crisis, cool space ventures you should know about, and a startup internship matching opportunity 🕺
💰The Latest with Silicon Valley Bank
To say that this week has been insane in the startup world would be a gross understatement. The collapse of SVB is arguably the biggest U.S. bank failure since 2008, and the timing could not be worse. Here’s a short recap of what went down (pun intended):
SVB announced a capital raise and the sale of large amounts of securities at a loss.
Customers worried that the bank was going under and began withdrawing their funds.
Crowd psychology kicked in and the bank faced a tidal wave of $42 billion of deposit withdrawal requests 🏃.
SVB was unable to raise the cash needed to cover the costs, leading to regulators shutting the bank down 🔒.
Federal regulators announced that all insured depositors would have full access to insured deposits in a matter of days.
Everyone with uninsured deposits freaked out.
The government used a “systemic risk exception” to cover the uninsured deposits.
🕒 What now?
A bunch of prominent VC firms including Lightspeed, General Catalyst, and Bessemer Venture Partners signed a joint statement saying they’re “recommending [their] portfolio companies to keep or return 50% of their total capital with SVB. [They] believe SVB is now one of the safest and most secure banks in the country.”
As much as founders may not love SVB right now, for many (especially those with negative cash flow), it remains their best choice when it comes to banking services. SVB has an understanding of the unique financial needs of early-stage and high-growth companies, making them much more flexible than ‘traditional banks’ and appealing for early-stage ventures to work with.
🚀 Startups Heading to Space
Lonestar Data Holdings, a Florida-based startup, has secured $5 million in seed funding to build data centers on the Moon. They plan to create a platform for data storage and edge processing on the lunar surface, with their first miniature data center set to launch later this year. This project aims to alleviate the environmental issues caused by Earth's growing number of data centers while also providing a more secure way to store data. By 2026, Lonestar hopes to deploy standalone data centers on the Moon.🌙
ispace, inc is a private Tokyo-based lunar exploration company whose mission is to build a human settlement on the Moon by 2040. They are currently working on becoming the lunar version of FedEx - ferrying equipment and commercial goods to the Moon. Morgan Stanley estimates the global space industry to be worth $1 trillion by 2040, and ispace hopes to be the biggest player. This April they are preparing to go public on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and attempting their first Moon landing.
TransAstra is a Los Angeles-based startup working towards launching a fleet of solar-powered spacecraft into orbit. They are also creating tech that finds and sustainably harvests resources from the moon. To date, they have received over $4 million in funding and are YC backed.
🎲 Startup Internship Matching Opportunity
Looking for a rewarding internship this Summer in a dynamic, fast-paced environment? Look no further! The Brown Entrepreneurship Program’s Startup Internship Matching initiative is now accepting applications from students of all grades who are interested in exploring a broad range of industries. If you’re tired of the same old corporate internships, here’s your chance to make a defining impact on a startup’s growth and success. There are limited spots available for matching, so apply by Sunday, March 26th to be considered for interviews. If accepted, you will be connected to a potential internship at a startup in NYC, San Francisco, or Boston that aligns with your interests🕺.
🍔What we’re consuming in Venture
The live updates tab on the CNN website to keep up with the seemingly never-ending chaos.
This Wall Street Journal podcast episode breaks down what just happened at Credit Suisse.
Today I put an OpenAI and Stanford AI stickers on my laptop, sat in a coffee shop in Menlo Park, and a VC just handed me $15M to start my company.That’s it for this week, feel free to email me at lara_gamaleldin@brown.edu with any inquiries!
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