Who would have thought that Raspberry Pi, a maker of tiny, inexpensive single-board computers, would become a public company? But that's exactly what's happening now. Raspberry Pi IPOed on the London Stock Exchange on Tuesday morning at £2.80 per share, giving it a market capitalization of £542 million, or $690 million at today's exchange rates.
Shortly thereafter, the company's shares rose 32% to £3.70, meaning that Raspberry Pi could raise more than $200 million during the IPO process.
Currently, only certain institutional investors can trade the company's shares, so retail investors can't buy shares in Raspberry Pi yet. Retail investors will be able to buy and sell shares starting Friday.
The listing is also a win for the London stock market: although Deliveroo and Wise are both traded in London, many British tech companies choose to list in the United States because of the greater liquidity of the US stock market.
The Raspberry Pi is well known as a small computer that can be programmed to perform all kinds of tasks without spending too much money or consuming too much power. These ARM-based computers have become especially popular among tech enthusiasts who want to create media servers, retro gaming consoles, interactive dashboards, robotics projects, and more.
Recently, many industrial companies have started integrating Raspberry Pi into their devices and facilities, and the company says that the industrial and embedded sector accounts for 72% of its sales.
Raspberry Pi has sold 60 million units since its launch. In 2023 alone, Raspberry Pi generated $266 million in revenue and $66 million in gross profit.
Raspberry Pi Ltd, a publicly listed company, is the commercial subsidiary of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, which wants to make it easier for people to learn to code through low-cost, programmable computers, and is also the majority shareholder of Raspberry Pi Ltd.
Other strategic shareholders in the company include ARM and Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corp., a Sony subsidiary that makes image sensors and other components for smartphones. ARM had previously expressed its intention to increase its stake in Raspberry Pi through an initial public offering.