Who would have thought that Raspberry Pi, the maker of the tiny, cheap, single-board computers, would become a public company? Yet, this is exactly what’s happening: Raspberry Pi priced its IPO on the London Stock Exchange on Tuesday morning at £2.80 per share, valuing it at £542 million, or $690 million at today’s exchange rate.
Shortly after that, the company’s shares jumped a nice 32% to £3.70. It means that Raspberry Pi could end up raising more than $200 million during its IPO process.
Retail investors can’t buy Raspberry Pi shares just yet, as only certain institutional shareholders can trade the company’s shares right now. Retail investors will be able to buy and sell shares starting on Friday.
This listing is also a win for the London stock market. Deliveroo and Wise both trade in London, but many U.K. tech companies choose to go public in the U.S. as the stock markets there are more liquid.
Raspberry Pi is mostly known for its tiny computers that can be programmed to perform all sorts of tasks without spending too much money and requiring too much power. These ARM-based computers became particularly popular among tech hobbyists who wanted to create media servers, retro game consoles, interactive dashboards, robotics projects and more.
More recently, many industrial companies have started integrating the Raspberry Pi in their devices and facilities. The company reports that the industrial and embedded segment represents 72% of its sales.
Raspberry Pi has sold 60 million units since its inception. In 2023 alone, Raspberry Pi generated $266 million in revenue and $66 million in gross profit.
Raspberry Pi Ltd, the public company, is the commercial subsidiary of the Raspberry Pi Foundation. The Foundation says it wants to make it easier for people to learn coding through a low-cost, programmable computer. It also remains the main shareholder of Raspberry Pi Ltd.
Other strategic shareholders in the company include ARM and Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation, a subsidiary of Sony that makes image sensors for smartphones and other components. ARM previously said it intended to increase its stake in Raspberry Pi via the public listing.