HSBC to hire almost 50 bankers for startup, venture lending in US

NEW YORK: HSBC is planning to recruit about 50 more bankers in its US commercial bank to lend to startup companies, mainly in the technology and healthcare sectors, according to a senior executive.

The London-headquartered bank hired about 40 people from Silicon Valley Bank after the latter lender failed a year ago. The innovation banking business at HSBC now stands at about 60 employees and is focused on serving early- and mid-stage companies.

“There’s this void in the market and we’re jumping into it,” Wyatt Crowell, head of US commercial banking at HSBC, told Reuters in an interview.

“It’s gone way better than I thought it was going to go, both in terms of the volume of deals and our win rate on the deals.” Startup companies typically struggle to get financing from major banks until they grow larger and become more established.

HSBC and JPMorgan are among the lenders that are staffing up to serve startups as a way to win business in the longer term, including initial public offerings, overseas expansion, deals and wealth management.