Silicon Valley Bank Gave Loans to Tech Start-Ups so They Could Avoid Having to Sell Equity to Raise Money

The venture capitalists who had so much money in SVB had gotten that loot by loans from SVB (on the condition that the money be deposited at SVB), the venture capitalists start-ups having taken the loans because they didn’t want to sell equity (some of their shares) in order to raise money for their ventures.