Sherpa Foundry and Silicon Valley Bank Join Forces to Create Silicon Foundry

Now called Silicon Foundry, the companies will leverage their combined global networks to connect leading corporations with startups and emerging technologies

(October 23, 2017 - San Francisco) Sherpa Foundry and Silicon Valley Bank today announced the introduction of Silicon Foundry, a membership-based corporate innovation platform. Through a curated flow of targeted insights, deal sourcing, senior-level personal introductions and private events, Silicon Foundry connects select corporations with top startups and emerging technologies in order to unlock actionable business opportunities, ranging from strategic customer relationships and partnerships, to investments, spin outs and acquisitions. Silicon Foundry’s current member base includes a diverse spectrum of corporations from across the globe, including British Petroleum, Deutsche Telekom, Majid Al Futtaim, NBCUniversal, Royal Bank of Scotland and more. 

Sherpa Foundry was founded in 2013 by Sherpa Capital co-founders Shervin Pishevar and Scott Stanford as an independent entity built specifically to address the universal challenges with effective discovery and connectivity between corporations and startups. As a result of a strategic investment by SVB Financial Group (NASDAQ:SIVB), the parent company of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), Sherpa Foundry will now be operating as Silicon Foundry.

“Our vision from day one was to develop an independent and unbiased platform with the mission of building bridges between entrepreneurs, corporate executives and venture capitalists. Silicon Foundry is a resource for the entire ecosystem,” said co-founder and Silicon Foundry Board Member Scott Stanford.

“The team has already built a unique and powerful platform. Aligning with a trusted and world class partner like SVB further expands and enhances the reach of the service we can provide, on a global scale” added co-founder and Silicon Foundry Board Member Shervin Pishevar. “We are thankful to our founding members including eBay, Conde Nast and DreamWorks (acq. NBCUniversal) for believing in us in the early days of building this business and welcome all of the new members to Silicon Foundry.”

There are tens of thousands of privately-held startups in the U.S. alone and new companies being formed every day. Fortune 2000 corporations across all industries are seeking to navigate this ever changing universe, as they look to identify and leverage the most impactful and potentially disruptive new technologies, platforms and business models. Silicon Foundry serves as an embedded extension of its Members’ executive teams, helping them cut through the noise by calibrating on their focus areas and priorities, then zeroing in on the opportunities that are most relevant to their business. Using an intensive methodology which parallels the processes that venture capital fund managers use to source and evaluate deals, Silicon Foundry systematically filters only those leads that it believes will have real impact for its Members.

“There is simply too much happening across the global technology landscape for any single person orteam to keep up with,” said Silicon Foundry CEO Neal Hansch. “Every company or organization canbenefit from having a dedicated and trusted partner with deep industry relationships and unique accessthat is proactively representing and promoting their interests in the field every day.”

“The corporate venture and innovation groups that we meet from around the world need one thing more than anything else: access. Access to the ideas, entrepreneurs and specific opportunities that will help them drive growth and innovation across their organizations,” said Tracy Isacke, Head of Silicon Valley Bank’s Corporate Venture Relationship Group. “Having worked with thousands of startups over the last three decades, we have built an expansive network. Together with Silicon Foundry we can provide broader visibility and direct connections to an even greater number of corporations and startups.” 

Silicon Foundry doesn’t replace a corporation's existing innovation activities, but rather complements them. Many of its existing Members have established accelerator or incubator programs, innovation and research labs, corporate business development or venture investment arms; Silicon Foundry plugs into these initiatives to help amplify awareness, drive efficiencies and support their success.

This month, Silicon Foundry opened its new 12,500 square foot headquarters in downtown San Francisco adjacent to Silicon Valley Bank. This presence serves as a dynamic home for its Members and a center of gravity for senior executives to integrate and collaborate with entrepreneurs. Members can use the space on a full or part time basis and benefit from relevant event programming that brings Members together with other key founders, senior executives, investors, influencers, academics and industry thought leaders.

“This co-working hub in Silicon Valley is the physical manifestation of our community and specifically designed for the needs of our Members,” Hansch says. “We believe meaningful connectivity and tangible results will occur when we create a unique environment that is engineered to encourage the collision of people and ideas.”

About Silicon Foundry

Silicon Foundry is a membership-based corporate innovation platform. Through a curated flow of targeted insights, deal sourcing, senior personal introductions and private events, Silicon Foundry connects select corporations with top startups and emerging technologies to unlock actionable business opportunities, ranging from strategic customer relationships and partnerships, to investments, spin outs and acquisitions. Silicon Foundry’s member network includes a diverse spectrum of corporations from across the globe, including British Petroleum, Deutsche Telekom, Majid Al Futtaim, NBCUniversal, Royal Bank of Scotland and more. www.sifoundry.com

About SVB Financial Group

For more than 30 years, SVB Financial Group (NASDAQ: SIVB) and its subsidiaries have helped innovative companies and their investors move bold ideas forward, fast. SVB Financial Group's businesses, including Silicon Valley Bank, offer commercial and private banking, asset management, private wealth management, brokerage and investment services and funds management to companies in the technology, life science and healthcare, private equity and venture capital, and premium wine industries. Headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., SVB Financial Group operates in centers of innovation around the world. Learn more at svb.com.

SVB Financial Group is the holding company for all business units and groups ©2017 SVB Financial Group. All rights reserved. Silicon Valley Bank is the California bank subsidiary of SVB Financial Group. Silicon Valley Bank is a member of FDIC and Federal Reserve System. SVB >, SVB Financial Group, and Silicon Valley Bank, are trademarks of SVB Financial Group, used under license.