It has been no secret that Raspberry Pi LTD, the trading arm of the Raspberry Pi Foundation and maker of our favorite single board computer, the Raspberry Pi, is planning to float on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). According to city sources, this could be just a week away. The source also claims that for several weeks Raspberry Pi founder Eben Upton has been "sounding out investors" about the listing.
In a report featured in The Times on May 11, city sources indicated that the floatation could be within the next ten days. This means that we could see Raspberry Pi shares being publicly offered on the stock market from May 20. The report's source also cautions that a delay could occur due to deteriorating market conditions, which could allude to a shrinking UK stock market.
We reported back in January 2024 that Raspberry Pi had appointed Peel Hunt and Jefferies to help prepare Raspberry Pi LTD for an IPO (Initial Public Offer). The value of the IPO is estimated to be around £500 million ($630 million at the current exchange rate.) An IPO is where a private company sells shares to the public for the first time as a means to generate capital that can be reinvested into the business.
Back in January, we asked Upton if the IPO would have any influence over the direction of Raspberry Pi products and the business itself. Upton replied "I don't anticipate any changes to what Raspberry Pi Ltd does. Regardless, we're going to keep doing good engineering, designing the sorts of products we'd like to buy ourselves, and selling them to people (and companies) like us. Of course, the Foundation would be able to use any money raised to do what it does at an even larger scale, which would be a great outcome."
This isn't the first time that a Raspberry Pi IPO has been hinted at. Back in 2021, there were reports of a possible Spring 2022 listing, valuing Raspberry Pi at $493 million. That never happened, but between then and now, Raspberry Pi received investment from Arm Holdings Plc and Sony Group Corp. Sony has played a big part in Raspberry Pi's success. Sony provided the facilities in Pencoed, South Wales, where many Raspberry Pi boards are manufactured. It also plays a part in the official Raspberry Pi cameras and a recent Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W AI camera kit that was demoed at Embedded World.
With the IPO on the horizon, we're keen to see just how this all plays out for Raspberry Pi.
