Global asset manager and tech lender Liquidity Group is reportedly planning “to offer about $3 billion in emergency loans to start-up clients hit by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.”
Liquidity has “about $1.2 billion ready in cash to make available in the coming weeks,” Chief Executive Officer and co-founder Ron Daniel said in an interview on Sunday.
The group is also in discussions “with its funding partners, including Japan’s Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. and Apollo Global Management Inc., to offer an additional $2 billion in loans,” he said.
Daniel said.
“By helping the companies to survive now, I’m hoping some of them would succeed and come back to us in the future. We’re nurturing our future clients. A typical loan will be a one-year facility of $1 million to $10 million, or as much as 30% of the balances held with SVB, Daniel said. The priority is to help companies meet payroll expenses.”
The dramatic downfall of the tech-focused lender is “sending shock waves around the world as startup founders from California’s Bay Area to the UK are worried about access to their funds.”
US regulators overseeing the emergency breakup of SVB Financial Group are “racing to sell assets and a make a portion of client’s uninsured deposits available as soon as Monday.”
In other recent updates, it was noted that Liquidity Group, an Israel-based fintech and asset manager, is looking to provide $500 million this year “to support startups in the UAE and across the Middle East.”
The company reached unicorn status last month, “with fresh investment of $40 million from Japan’s MUFG at a valuation of $1.4 billion.”
Launched in 2018, Liquidity Group provides loans “to mid-market, late-stage companies by automating the entire debt lending cycle.”
Meitav Dash Investments and US venture capital fund Spark Capital are also partners in the business.
It currently “manages $4 billion in seven different funds across the world – five debt funds and one equity fund – and has experienced 600 percent year-on-year growth.”
Founder and CEO Ron Daniel told AGBI the company “deployed $2.5 billion last year with plans to increase that to $6 billion in 2023 and up to as much as $20 billion annually four years from now.”
Daniel said:
“Our goal is to provide seamless funding solutions to businesses, backed by a team of experienced entrepreneurs and professionals, along with data scientists, machine learning, legal and analytical experts, who are paving the way for a new era of tech investment. In terms of the capital deployed in the Middle East, now it’s about 10 percent and it’s probably going to grow over time to 25 – 30 percent.”
