For Many Immigrant Founders, Silicon Valley Bank’s Collapse Is One More Hurdle To Jump

The disappearance of a supportive financial institution, which may have given them their first business credit card or mortgage, hits a bit different for foreign-born entrepreneurs.

The 3.2 million foreign-born entrepreneurs operating businesses in the U.S. are key drivers of innovation, with immigrants most famously starting Silicon Valley heavyweights such as Google, Tesla and Yahoo. That’s even as foreign-born founders have had to work harder to overcome obstacles that include the thorny mess that’s U.S. immigration policy.

The failure of Silicon Valley Bank, now operating under FDIC receivership, will be one more obstacle many of them will have to overcome.