The US-based Silicon Valley Bank has launched its first branch in the UK, and is set to boost the UK technology industry with financial services.
The Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has assets worth more than £13billion, and will use some of this to offer loans and other banking services to both start-ups and established organisations in the country.
Speaking about the launch of SVB, chancellor George Osborne said it shows:
“the UK is fast becoming the technology centre of Europe”
The bank already has many existing customers in the UK, with app creators, visual effects creators and SEO and PPC companies amongst their ranks. In total, the lending is already in the hundreds of millions, with the company wanting to boost this to billions in the near future.
Advising the market that loans of between £300,000 and £30million would be available, SVB’s head of the UK, Israel and India, Phil Cox said:
“Building on our credentials of supporting technology firms in the US, we are excited to be able to help the UK’s entrepreneurs meet and exceed their ambitious goals.”
In the US, the client list is a glitterati of the digital world, including the likes of Mozilla and Cisco Systems.
It is hoped that the move will other, more traditional UK retail banks increase their ‘tech sect’ lending too. This is an area which many say has been neglected despite stunning growth over recent years.
The first branch of SVB is based in the heart of the City of London.
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