Silicon Valley Bank to expand into Vancouver

by Craig Takeuchi on October 27th, 2020 at 11:15 AM

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A tech-oriented bank from California is expanding into British Columbia.

Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) announced today (October 27) that it will be opening an office in Vancouver.

"With $555 million in venture capital invested in B.C.-based companies in the first half of 2020, B.C. is attracting growing investor and founder interest," SVB head of Canada Paul Parisi stated in a news release.

SVB, which opened its Canadian operations in Toronto in 2019, has been working with Canadian companies for about 20 years from its U.S. base, The bank has been offering specialized financial services to high-growth Canadian companies and investors such as AcuityAds, Form, HLS Therapeutics, HYAS, Symend, and Vanedge Capital.

Venture capital funding in Canada reached $2.5 billion invested through 264 deals in H1 2020, according to the Canadian Venture Capital Association and Hockeystick.

Within Canada, B.C. has had the largest growth in venture deal count share over the past 10 years, particularly in sectors such as esports and edtech, according to PitchBook data and SVB analysis.

Caterina Papadakos is being appointed as director of technology banking for Western Canada, and she will be responsible for developing new business relationships and the management of the current client portfolio.

Papadakos previously served as the Bank of Montreal’s technology and innovation director and Espresso Capital’s director, and also worked at Trade and Invest B.C.

Established in 1983 and based in Santa Clara, California, SVB has offices or branches in the U.S., Israel, U.K., Ireland, Germany, Denmark, and more countries.