Silicon Valley Bank’s struggles started with a bad bet on long-dated US bonds. Rising interest rates meant that the value of those bonds fell. As depositors started to worry about the bank’s balance sheet, they pulled their money out. High interest rates have become a challenge across the industry, ending the cheap loans that tech companies got used to over the past decade and reducing available funding.
More than $400 billion in value was wiped from Europe’s tech industry in 2022, while some companies, like the buy-now, pay-later provider Klarna, watched their valuation plunge more than 85 percent. This year there’s been little reprieve, as layoffs continue within local startups as well
→ Continue reading at WIRED
