Ooni’s £50 Million Silicon Valley Bank Loan Bought by HSBC

The outdoor cooking industry was largely insulated from the recent implosion of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). Given the hardware heavy nature, it’s not an industry that traditionally breeds “start-ups”, who were the client base for the bank. The exception to that is pizza oven maker Ooni.

While we don’t know if Ooni held a deposit account with SVB, they did have a revolving credit facility with the bank, according to a Companies House filing (it’s like the UK’s SEC).

Ooni’s SVB Credit Facility

Ooni entered into a £15 million credit facility in September 2021, at the height of the pandemic outdoor cooking craziness, to support future growth and to cover short-term working capital shortfalls. They then extended the facility to £50 million in February 2022.

Their most recent filing year was for 2021, so it’s dated at this point, but in the filing they had drawn £15.1 million on their line. With how 2022 turned out for the industry, we wouldn’t be surprised if they ended the year with a higher balance.

HSBC to the Rescue

I’m sure SVB going under led to some some stress for Ooni, but their line should be secure, just with a different lender. HSBC acquired the £5.5 billion loan portfolio of Silicon Valley Bank UK limited for £1.

After acquiring the portfolio, and preserving the available capacity to lenders, HSBC said the following in a statement.

We welcome SVB UK’s customers to HSBC and look forward to helping them grow in the UK and around the world. SVB UK customers can continue to bank as usual, safe in the knowledge that their deposits are backed by the strength, safety and security of HSBC. We warmly welcome SVB UK colleagues to HSBC, we are excited to start working with them.

Noel Quinn, HSBC Group CEO

With Ooni seeing slightly positive growth in 2022, hopefully the SVB mess is behind them and they can keep operating as usual.