Email: VC firm Greenoaks warned founders of potential problems at SVB in November 2022; a source says over 12 portfolio companies withdrew ~$1B in recent months
Greenoaks' November 2022 warning email puts the firm ahead of the pack at a moment when its peers were split: [[a:837332|some VC firms were actively urging portfolio companies to pull funds from Silicon Valley Bank]] while others advised capping deposits near the insured threshold. The source-sourced figure — more than 12 Greenoaks-backed startups withdrawing roughly $1B in recent months — suggests the firm converted that early caution into coordinated balance-sheet action across its portfolio.
The aftermath frames why this matters: within a week of the run, SVB Financial Group filed for Chapter 11 citing approximately $2.2B of liquidity, and Forbes reporting found that solo investors and small firms stepped up during the crisis while many large VCs disappointed their founders. Greenoaks' early email is now evidence in that reputational sorting.
First-order effects
More than a dozen Greenoaks portfolio startups moved roughly $1B out of Silicon Valley Bank in the months before the failure, insulating their cash ahead of the run that hit less-warned depositors.
Second-order effects
The episode feeds the LP- and founder-facing narrative from Forbes' interviews that big VC firms underperformed in the crisis, pressuring large firms to demonstrate operational risk-monitoring rather than just capital provision.
Third-order effects
If early-warning behavior like Greenoaks' becomes table stakes, VC value-add formalizes into treasury and counterparty-risk guidance, and startups institutionalize multi-bank cash management below any single institution's uninsured exposure.
The trend: Venture capital is absorbing a bank-risk-monitoring function for startups, with firms judged as much by how they protect portfolio cash in a crisis as by the checks they write.
So $SVIB has $200b in assets, of which $116 are securities. About $80b of that are high quality liquid assets that could be sold or repo'd for cash. Looks good until.. https://twitter.com/...
SVB ($SIVB) rose over 50% in the following two months, then fell 85% through yesterday. Put that in your ‘stock prices reflects all available information’ pipe and smoke it https://twitter.com/...
Bonus: FHLB San Francisco only had about 65b in loans outstanding as of Q3 2022 (most recent filing). In theory they could still lend more to $SIVB, but $SIVB already accounts for 20% of all their loans. IMO it would be insanely imprudent to increase exposure. https://twitter.com…
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Usually I would expect a bank like this to get some emergency liquidity from the lender of next to last resort - the Federal Home Loan Banks. But it looks like they are already borrowing $15b. That is equal to their capital. I'm guessing they may have trouble borrowing more https…
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This gives me #Terra / #Luna / #UST vibes. I see some support at $50 for #SIVB or Silicon Valley Bank. However, we all know what happens when trust vanishes and people panic, right? RIGHT? “We have decided to suspend withdrawals due to market conditions.” 🤡 https://twitter.com/..…