Indian entrepreneurs will be met by Minister Chandrasekhar to discuss government assistance

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Union Minister of State for Electronics and IT, announced on Sunday that he will meet with startup founders and CEOs next week to discuss how the government can assist them during the crisis. This comes as the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) in the US has alarmed the Indian startup ecosystem.

Several startups in India that have invested in the bank and have exposure to its investments may be impacted by its failure.

"Sure enough, entrepreneurs all across the globe are being disrupted by the @SVB Financial shutdown. Startups are a crucial component of the #NewIndia Economy, according to Chandrasekhar in a tweet.

In order to better understand their effect and how the Narendra Modi administration can assist them "during this crisis," the minister said he would meet with Indian entrepreneurs the following week.

Tracxn, a worldwide SaaS-based market intelligence platform, recently released data that showed SVB had exposure to at least 21 startups in India, however it withheld the amount of investment made in these companies.

Leading venture capital (VC) companies have also released a united statement expressing their "great disappointment and worry" over the failure of SVB, one of the biggest US banks servicing the worldwide startup sector.

More than 2,500 venture capital companies, including Lightspeed, Bain Capital, and Insight Partners, reportedly used SVB as their bank.

The SVB's $175 billion in client deposits were taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) of the United States on Friday.

A petition to US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and others has been sent by the US-based technology startup accelerator Y Combinator, which has invested in thousands of startups, including at least 200 from India. The petition asks them to stop further shockwaves that could cause a financial crisis and the layoff of more than 100,000 workers.

Garry Tan, CEO and President of Y Combinator, penned a petition to rescue businesses and tens of thousands of jobs, and more than 1,200 CEOs and entrepreneurs representing more than 56,000 people have already signed it.