Given the fact that many startups have their accounts in Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), the latter’s collapse will soon render them incapable of paying salaries to their employees. Y Combinator, the American tech startup accelerator has invested in thousands of startups and fears that over one lakh jobs may be impacted if the US government fails to intervene and provide relief.
A petition by Garry Tan, CEO & president, Y Combinator, has managed to gather signatures from over 3,500 co-founders, CEOs and over two lakh employees of startups and small businesses, including Indian firms such as SaveIN, PayO and SalaryBook.
The petition addressed to Janet Yellen, US Treasury Secretary and other senior government officials, requests them to take action and prevent any further tremors that may cause a financial crisis and render at least one lakh workers jobless. After all, the deposits of thousands of small businesses and startups will become inaccessible to them for a long time, may be even years, due to the disaster that has struck SVB.
As per the petition, if the US government does not act immediately, the competitive edge that US has in the tech sector will be considerably lessened and be set back by at least ten years.
