PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel is said to be part of the group of billionaires that are looking to create a new financial services firm. The venture aims to address the gap created by the failure in March 2023 of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB). Thiel’s venture fund, Founders Fund, is an early backer of this new effort.

Thiel, joined by people like Palmer Luckey and Joe Lonsdale, recently filed for a U.S. bank charter. Whether meant to target financial services to emerging technologies like the tech or crypto industries remains an open question. Before its collapse, Silicon Valley Bank enabled almost half of all venture capital-backed tech and life sciences companies in the country. This positioned the state as an innovation powerhouse.

Thiel is a well-known figure in the larger crypto realm for his advocacy and promotion of Bitcoin and other digital assets. He is a backer of the crypto exchange Bullish. Earlier this month, it filed the regulatory paperwork for an initial public offering in the United States. His role with this new financial services firm further highlights his ongoing interest in where finance and tech converge.

The new firm isn’t just being launched with other billionaires. This is a strong signal of investment and intent to truly compete in the financial services space. The consortium’s focus is on filling the gap left by SVB. They’re looking to corner a huge market in the rapidly changing tech and venture capital ecosystem.

Beyond his role with this new complex financial services startup, Thiel has an interesting portfolio. He was a co-founding member of PayPal in the late 1990s and has been a very successful investor in other technology firms like Facebook and LinkedIn. With his latest move, he further demonstrates his continued commitment to innovation and disruption within the overall financial industry.