[ad_1]

When Silicon Valley Bank collapsed on Friday, it sent a shockwave through a variety of industries, including retail.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. announced Friday that the startup and tech-focused firm closed and its deposits were taken over by regulators. This came just two days after SVB announced nearly $2 billion in losses on the sale of U.S. treasuries and mortgage-backed securities, after mounting declines in deposits. After the company said it planned to sell stock in order to raise around $2.25 billion in capital, its stock price tumbled and worried clients began rushing to withdraw their funds.

SVB works with clients ranging from tech companies to the wine industry to consumer-packaged goods brands. It also has a venture capital arm, making it a well-known name in the startup community.

Within retail, some brands rushed to inform customers and shareholders of whether or not the collapse had a material impact on them.

DTC health and wellness company Hims & Hers said in a Friday press release that it had a “limited cash exposure resulting from the liquidity concerns at SVB.” The company assured that a majority of its cash and investments were with other providers, and it does not have any debts or lines of credit impacted by the collapse.

Meanwhile, CEO Tobi Lütke at e-commerce giant Shopify took to Twitter to say that the company was experiencing a “very minor impact” from the news, noting that a small portion of its U.S. operational fund flows is tied up in SVB. SVB is one of about a dozen banks Spotify works with across the U.S. and Canada, Lütke said.

Lütke shared an email Shopify sent to merchants on Monday that offered to help fund merchants’ payroll needs by working to set up accounts for them. “Building a business is hard. This week has been insanely hard,” Shopify’s COO Kaz Nejatian said in the email.

While the U.S. Treasury, Federal Reserve and FDIC announced Sunday evening that depositors would have access to their accounts starting Monday, the weekend largely brought up concern from brands who weren’t sure what would happen to their money given the collapse. Confidence in other banks may be declining as well, with Signature Bank also being closed on Sunday and handed over to regulators, per the government’s statement.

Here’s a look at what companies were impacted and how they responded to the news.

Stitch Fix

E-commerce retailer Stitch Fix on Monday submitted a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission that expressed its relationship with SVB.

The company said it entered an amended credit agreement with SVB, JPMorgan Chase and Citibank last year, under which it was granted access to a revolving credit line of up to $100 million. SVB’s commitment is $40 million, per the filing.

Stitch Fix noted that it does not expect the $40 million to be available anymore, but it also does not plan to draw from the credit agreement. Its remaining borrowing available and other cash “will be sufficient to meet its working capital and capital expenditure needs for at least the next 12 months and beyond.”

Etsy

Independent sellers who work through online marketplaces have also been impacted.

Etsy over the weekend said in a community forum post that it experienced a delay in payments to some sellers that was “related to the rapid and unexpected collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.”

“This issue has impacted a small group of sellers,” an Etsy spokesperson told Retail Dive in an emailed statement Monday. “Approximately 0.5% of our active seller base had their payments delayed on Friday. We are working to pay these sellers today and we’ve already started processing payments via another payment partner this morning.”

Faire

Faire — an online wholesale marketplace that connects independent sellers to businesses — also updated its community about potential deposit delays due to the SVB collapse.

Faire CEO Max Rhodes said in an email to sellers on Friday that while it previously worked with SVB, it decided to switch to working with JPMorgan Chase as its primary partner.



[ad_2]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *