According to reports in The Daily Telegraph, UK asset manager Baillie Gifford invested as much as $100 million into Blockchain.com. If these numbers are close to being accurate this would make the Edinburgh-based firm the biggest outside shareholder in the cryptocurrency company.
At the time of writing, this investment has not been disclosed but it is believed to be part of Blockchain.com’s $300 million Series C funding round which was announced last month. DST Global along with Lightspeed Venture Partners and VY Capita was believed to be the leading investors for this round of funding. Prior to this round of funding, Blockchain.com had already raised another $120 million.
“Baillie Gifford has a long history of backing transformational growth companies at their early stages, The Scottish asset manager stressed that the firm has “a growing conviction” in Blockchain.com’s management team and the company’s value proposition, as well as “in its ability to make long-term investment returns for our clients.”
Baillie Gifford was founded in 1906 and is currently owned and run by 46 of its senior executives, who operate as a partnership. The company’s LinkedIn page claim that as of last year, they had $370 billion in assets under management and advice.
Last month’s valuation of Blockchain.com was set at $5.2 million and intend and expects to go public in the near future. This would be another landmark moment in the history of crypto and will follow in the footsteps of Coinbase.com.
“We want to do it when the moment’s right for us, and we’re figuring out when that is,” Blockchain.com’s CEO Peter Smith told the Telegraph.
