Raspberry Pi shares soared by more than 40 per cent yesterday on a bumper debut on the London stock market.
The Cambridge-based computer-maker listed at 280p a share to give it a value of £542million.
But the shares jumped as much as 42 per cent to a high of 399p before closing at 385p.
That marked a highly successful first day of trading and left Raspberry Pi – whose products are popular with amateur coders and hobbyists – with a value of £745million.
The demand for the stock, which is only available to certain institutions but will go on general sale to investors on Friday, is a major boost for the City.
New listing: Cambridge-based computer-maker Raspberry Pi – whose products are popular with amateur coders and hobbyists – jumped as much as 42% on it City debut
Analysts said the bumper listing, or so-called initial public offering, of Raspberry Pi will ‘open the flood gates’ for other tech companies to join the stock market in London.
It is hoped the tide is starting to turn amid an exodus from the stock market as companies are taken over by foreign buyers or list their shares elsewhere.
Gambling giant Flutter, which owns Paddy Power, quit the FTSE 100 last month for New York, whilst cyber-security group Darktrace and music fund Hipgnosis are leaving imminently.
Raspberry Pi, founded in 2012, makes products used by enthusiasts to make computer servers or retro games consoles.
Profits rose from £16million to £30million in 2023, with its goods sold across 70 countries worldwide.
Co-founder and chief executive Eben Upton said it considered a New York listing but ultimately picked the UK.
He explained this was ‘not a patriotic decision’ and added that ‘smart money in the US will find you wherever you are’.
‘We realised that, for a company of our scale, the London market is probably a better home,’ he said.
Dan Coatsworth at broker AJ Bell said the Raspberry Pi listing was still the ‘most significant for the London market for a long time’ and showed the UK is ‘open for business to technology flotations’.