Raspberry Pi, the technology group, is set to IPO next week, aiming to fundraise £160 million and list with a market valuation of around £540 million.
Conditional trading will begin next Tuesday, June 11, according to Bloomberg, with unconditional buying and selling beginning a day or two after.
After a difficult few years in which London IPOs dried up and the number of companies quitting the exchange soared, investors will be hoping Raspberry Pi is the first of many.
Fast fashion giant Shein Group appears to be the next company in the City’s sights, with reports indicating that the Chinese company could file for an IPO as soon as this week.
Based on Shein’s £52 billion valuation as of last year, should the group list it would be London’s largest-ever IPO and could influence a wave of new businesses to go public.
So, what companies could we see list?
Monzo
Monzo, the app-based challenger bank, posted a full-year profit for the first time on Monday, citing a 46% rise in word-of-mouth customer acquisitions as a key driving force.
Boss TS Anil hasn’t been quiet in expressing his ambitions for a Monzo IPO, stating that he believes it will make a “great public company one day”.
However, it appears management wants to grow the company further before going public, setting its focus on new markets such as Europe and the US.
“It’s too early for us to talk about the IPO. We’re incredibly well-capitalised. We don’t need to raise capital. We’re focused really on continuing to scale the business,” Anil told CityAM.
BrewDog
Craft beer maker BrewDog going public has been rumoured for some time now, with its founder and recently departed boss James Watt having said before his ambitions lie with an IPO.
Back in June, Watt said the UK remained the preferred destination for an IPO but was waiting for market conditions to improve.
However, with Watt stepping down from the chief executive role, a new boss may want to take the company in a new direction.
BrewDog was last valued at around £1.8 billion.
Klarna
Buy-now-pay-later specialist Klarna is believed to be worth US$20 billion and has been planning an IPO for some time now, attempting to capitalise on the surge in demand before potential regulatory tightening.
Last month, the company gained approval to set up a UK-based PLC but it appears it will be for a US float rather than in London.
According to Sky reports, Klarna could list in the first quarter of 2025 and be valued between US$15 and US$20 billion.
“The decision to establish a holding company in Britain reflected the UK's standing from a legal, regulatory and capital markets perspective,” noted the report.
Vinted
Lithuania’s first unicorn and second-hand online clothing marketplace, Vinted underwent a €200 million secondary share sale last year and is believed to be considering an IPO.
Valued at €3.5 billion back in May 2021 when it underwent a sixth round of fundraising, boss Thomas Plantenga told interviewers last year that the company was “technically IPO-ready”.
Platenga said at the time that he was most concerned about building a lasting business with Vinted, but with the company having posted its first annual profit in April, now may be the time to go public.
McLaren
Back in 2017, then-boss Michael Flewitt said he thought “a public float of this business in three to five years is a better route”.
Since those comments, Flewitt has left his post and has been replaced by Micahel Leiters.
While it seems Flewitt’s comments were ignored by new management, there is still hope for an IPO.
McLaren raised £700 million last year to shore up its balance sheet and fund EV plans, but IPO rumours remain.
Revolut
Co-founders Nik Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko gave a scathing review of the UK around a year ago, saying the country’s regulatory environment and waning post-Brexit appeal meant a London IPO was off the cards.
Their attitudes have shifted more recently though. Or at least chief executive Francesca Carlesi’s has.
Carlesi left the prospect of a London IPO on the table when talking to Bloomberg earlier this month, though she also warned that the capital’s status as a global fintech leader faces challenges.
Revolut was last valued at $33 billion (£26 billion) in a 2021 funding round led by SoftBank and Tiger Global Management.
Starling Bank
Like McClaren, former chief executive and founder Anne Boden said back in 2021 that an IPO “was one or two years away”.
Since then, Boden has stepped down and an IPO is yet to come to fruition.
Nevertheless, a float remains a possibility and with markets improving, management could be looking to bring in a new chief executive with experience traversing the world of public companies.
Perhaps it has even been suggested by prospective institutional investors involved in an IPO.
In April 2022, Starling raised £130.5 million from existing investors, valuing the lender at more than £2.5 billion