Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has been granted a banking licence from the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions. The firm can now provide financing to private and public tech and life science companies, as well as private equity and venture capital firms in Canada. (Globe and Mail)

Talking point: The bank has already been offering loans to Canada through its U.S. office, and has provided services to Canadian companies that sought or established a U.S. presence. This licence enables it to solicit Canadian businesses through its physical branch in Toronto. The firm can expect a lot of potential clients—according to PwC data, Canadian internet and healthcare companies had the most venture capital deals in 2018, and they saw US$1.3 billion and US$378 million raised, respectively. While the Canadian venture debt industry already has some notable players, like CIBC’s Innovation Banking and Espresso Capital, The Logic subscribers identified SVB as their preferred choice for venture debt.