Everyone wants to know -- who is picking up the pieces of Silicon Valley Bank?

Too soon?

Everyone wants to know -- who is picking up the pieces of Silicon Valley Bank? The FDIC is hoping someone steps up as it takes another stab at auctioning off the bank after failing to do so over the weekend. 

According to the WSJ, FDIC representatives told Senate Republicans today that they have additional flexibility to sell SVB now that regulators have declared its failure a threat to the financial system; the move also gives regulators the ability to offer would-be buyers deal sweeteners such as loss-sharing agreements, says the WSJ, based on its talks with former regulators. 

The plan is maybe working? According to Bloomberg, the PE giant Apollo is in the mix, having expressed interest in acquiring a book of loans held by SVB.

According to Axios, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley are also potential suitors with a particular interest in SVB's asset management, private wealth, and securities business and not the bank itself. 

Venture capital firms are meanwhile working on a long-shot plan to preserve parts of SVB so it can keep serving clients in the tech sector, according to the Financial Times; it says one of the proposals being discussed is forming a consortium with Apollo. More here.

As the business world tries to fathom the ripple effects of SVB's meltdown, attention has turned to San Francisco-based First Republic Bank after its shares plunged today in the wake of its rival's shutdown. Shares in First Republic, which had assets totaling more than $212 billion as of the end of last year, fell more than 60% despite the outfit's efforts to reassure customers of its strength yesterday (Sunday). 

Reuters reported that about 70% of First Republic's deposits are uninsured, the third-highest amid medium-sized banks after Silicon Valley and the crypto-friendly bank Signature, which also shut down suddenly yesterday. More here and here and here.

Naturally, bank employees are some of the biggest victims in this evolving mess. Unsurprisingly, they're . . . upset. “People are just shocked at how stupid the CEO is,” an SVB employee reportedly told CNN of Greg Becker, who joined the bank in his twenties and became its chief executive in 2011. “You’re in business for 40 years and you are telling me you can’t raise $2 billion privately? Get on a jet and fly to Kuwait like everyone else and give them control of one-third of the bank.”

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Shennon Biotechnologies, a San Francisco startup that claims its platform can profile millions of immune cells functionally at the single cell level within a few hours, enabling the identification of TCR or antibody targets to develop more precise immunotherapies, raised a $13 million seed round led by DCVC and including AV8 and Foundation Capital. Endpoints News has more here.

Viridos, an 18-year-old company based in La Jolla, Ca., that aims to develop sustainable, low-carbon, algae-based jet and diesel fuel, raised a $25 million Series A round led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures, with Chevron USA and United Airlines Ventures also contributing. The company has raised a total of $200 million. Bloomberg has more here.

Broom, an Indonesia-based auto-financing startup, has raised $10 million in "pre-Series A" funding led by Openspace Ventures. Other investors, including MUFG Innovation Partner, BRI Ventures and previous backers like AC Venture and Quona Capital also participated. TechCrunch has more here.

Connectd, a four-year-old London startup that connects entrepreneurs with investors and non-executive directors, raised a $2.6 million seed round from LiFE Ventures, Blue Lake, Mail Venture Partners, Arch Law, and Syndicate Room. The company has raised a total of $5.6 million. Tech.eu has more here.

HeadRace, a two-year-old Austin startup that operates a network for independent recruiters, raised a $6 million seed round. Investors included Greylock, Susa Ventures, Breyer Capital, Greylock, Susa Ventures, Breyer Capital, Kindergarten Ventures, and Blue Lion Global. Business Insider has more here.

Intrinsic Semiconductor Technologies, a six-year-old London startup that is developing non-volatile memory that it claims can read data 10-100x faster and write it 1000x faster than existing solutions, raised an $8.5 million round led by Octopus Ventures, with existing investors IP Group and the UCL Technology Fund also participating. The company also secured a $1.2 million grant from InnovateUK. Tech.eu has more here.

K2 Space, a year-old Los Angeles startup that is building satellite buses to leverage new large rockets such as SpaceX’s Starship, raised an $8.5 million seed round co-led by First Round Capital and Republic Capital, with additional investment from Countdown Capital, Boost VC, Also Capital, Side Door Ventures, Earthrise Ventures, Spacecadet VC, and Pathbreaker Ventures. CNBC has more here.

Powered by People, a 13-year-old Nairobi company that provides a B2B wholesale platform that connects buyers in North America and Europe with small-batch producers in more than 70 countries, raised an $8 million Series A round led by Altos Ventures, with participation from earlier backers Golden Ventures and Susa Ventures. More here.

Scrumbles, a five-year-old London startup that provides natural and "gut friendly" food for cats and dogs, raised a $7.3 million round from BGF. The Grocer has more here.

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HSBC UK is acquiring Silicon Valley Bank UK for a symbolic £1 after a tense weekend of frantic negotiations by the U.K. government, regulators and a suite of other potential suitors. TechCrunch has more here.

Qualtrics, the software company behind an experience management platform used by thousands of companies such as Uber, Coca-Cola and Pfizer, has accepted a $12.5 billion all-cash offer from private equity firm Silver Lake and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments). TechCrunch has more here.

TuSimple’s co-founder, Xiaodi Hou, resigned from the company’s board of directors last week amid an internal investigation which sought to verify claims that Hou approached TuSimple employees about leaving the company to join his new venture, per an SEC filing. Sources familiar with the matter tell TechCrunch a “whistleblower” informed upper management about Hou’s solicitations of employees over the past few months to join a company he was starting. More here.

The FDIC has installed Tim Mayopoulos, previously CEO of Fannie Mae, as chief of the SVB "bridge bank" that opened today and will continue operating until the FDIC finds a buyer for SVB. TechCrunch has more here.

Microsoft laid off its entire ethics and society team within the AI organization as part of recent layoffs that impacted 10,000 people across the company, reports Platformer. Microsoft says its overall investment in responsibility work is increasing despite the recent layoffs. 

Roughly 1,000 firms, from big names such as Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz and Benchmark to key crypto and China tech investors, had disclosed that SVB was a custodian for their funds’ capital, according to data compiled by Castle Hall’s DiligenceExpress platform, which investors use to analyze regulatory filings cited by The Information. Many are trying to find new places to park their capital.

Y Combinator won’t raise another continuity fund, which backs mature private tech companies, The Information reported earlier today. The partners who led the fund, Anu Hariharan and Ali Rowghani, plan to leave the firm and to set up a fund together, it added. The Silicon Valley startup accelerator tells TechCrunch that Silicon Valley Bank’s failure was not a factor, despite that more than 30% of its startups around the globe had exposure to SVB. Twenty percent of the outfit's employees -- 17 people -- will lose their jobs as a result of the move, says the outfit.

Uber, Lyft, and other companies scored a victory with a California court ruling today that preserves their independent-contractor model in the state and could boost their efforts to maintain that model elsewhere. The WSJ has more here.

Instagram is disabling its NFT features, prompting the question: Instagram had NFT features?

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