Banks are competing to offer increasingly favourable loans to Canadian tech companies. Silicon Valley Bank is stepping up its Canadian activity, RBC partnered with Toronto tech lender Espresso Capital to get into the space and CIBC bought Wellington Financial with its team of experienced tech bankers. (Globe and Mail)
Talking point: A few companies have already benefited from the maturing sector (Hootsuite, for example, got $50 million from CIBC in March), but a lot of these firms are just getting off the ground. Silicon Valley Bank is still waiting on a banking licence in Canada, which it will almost certainly get. CIBC bought Wellington in January 2018; three months later, Devon Dayton, who’d helped CIBC with its tech focus, left to join BMO and is now working on “accelerating” its loans and banking services for the tech sector. RBC and Espresso Capital only inked their deal in August 2018.