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Singlehurst: Baillie Gifford takes business model risk over product risk

Peter Singlehurst · Peter Singlehurst: Lessons from Turning Down Stripe, Coinbase and Losing Money on Northvalt · 20VC with Harry Stebbings · Mar 19, 2025 · at 7:39

Peter Singlehurst, Head of Private Companies at Baillie Gifford, outlines the firm's underwriting framework for late-stage venture investments.

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“And have really been for the last kind of five or six years on companies that we define as being true growth stage companies. So where we're not taking product risk, we're taking business model quality and scalability risk.”

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