Bloomberg broke the news of Raspberry Pi leadership's ambitions earlier this week - the outlet reported that the British PC maker appointed bankers from PeelHunt and Jefferies to prepare for a London initial public offering (IPO). They believe: "After a large number of companies have moved to the United States, this listing will be a victory for the British capital market."
The Raspberry Pi 5 single-board computer, launched last fall, has been welcomed by hardware enthusiasts due to its improved chip, greatly improved CPU and GPU performance (far beyond Pi4), and a more advanced interface feature set provided by the internal control chip.
Raspberry Pi Ltd. is enjoying a number of successes, including a valuation of approximately $560 million and strategic investment from long-term partner ARM Ltd.
Eben Upton, CEO of Raspberry Pi (Trading) Ltd., responds to inquiries regarding Bloomberg News reports. He confirmed that investment banks "PeelHunt and Jefferies" are involved in preparations for the upcoming IPO, but there have been no concrete developments yet. They hope "when the market is ready. There is no target valuation or firm date yet."
Upton said of the company's recent motivations: "We believe London is a natural listing location for a company like Raspberry Pi, and as long as we are prepared to do the work of educating foreign investors, London will not be a barrier to attracting U.S. (or other international) investment."
He said: "If we do go public at some point, I don't foresee any changes to the business of Raspberry Pi Ltd. Regardless, we will continue to do good engineering and design products that we ourselves are willing to buy and sell them to people (and companies) like us. Of course, the foundation can use the funds raised to work on a larger scale, which will be a good result."