Raspberry Pi
Cambridge-spinout single-board computer maker; LSE-listed since 2024 and a Lansdowne reference exit.
Last refreshed: 21 May 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
How did a charity's educational computer project become a London-listed company worth hundreds of millions?
Timeline for Raspberry Pi
Mentioned in: Lansdowne hits €128.9m on BBB-anchored fund
UK Startups and Innovation- What is Raspberry Pi and who uses it?
- Raspberry Pi is a Cambridge-based company making affordable single-board computers. It started as an educational project backed by the University of Cambridge and now sells to hobbyists, educators, industrial IoT deployments and embedded-systems developers. Its flagship board has sold tens of millions of units since 2012.Source: Raspberry Pi
- When did Raspberry Pi list on the stock market?
- Raspberry Pi listed on the London Stock Exchange in June 2024 at a market capitalisation of approximately £542m, choosing London over US exchanges in a decision notable for the UK's efforts to attract technology companies to its public markets.Source: London Stock Exchange
- Is Raspberry Pi connected to Cambridge University?
- Raspberry Pi was founded by Eben Upton and colleagues with charitable backing affiliated with the University of Cambridge, originally to improve computing education. Its commercial Arm was spun out from the charitable foundation before the 2024 LSE listing.Source: Raspberry Pi
Background
Raspberry Pi was cited by Lansdowne Partners as a portfolio reference in the announcement of its €128.9m first close on a new UK university IP spinout fund on 14 May 2026 . Raspberry Pi's IPO on the London Stock Exchange in June 2024 at a £542m market capitalisation was notable both for its choice of London over US exchanges and for demonstrating that a UK hardware company with deep educational roots can achieve institutional public-market liquidity.
Raspberry Pi is a Cambridge-based company founded in 2009 by Eben Upton and colleagues with charitable backing from the University of Cambridge, originally to improve computing education by creating an affordable single-board computer. The Raspberry Pi 1 launched in 2012 at £25 and sold millions of units to hobbyists, educators, and industrial users. Subsequent models have extended compute capability while maintaining the low-cost, accessible form factor. The company spun out its commercial Arm from the charitable foundation and listed on the LSE in June 2024. It sells to a broad mix of consumer, industrial, and embedded-systems customers, with industrial IoT (Internet of Things) deployments now representing a significant revenue share alongside the original educational market.
Raspberry Pi's significance for UK innovation policy is symbolic as much as commercial. Its LSE listing, at a stage where comparable US companies would typically list on Nasdaq, provided evidence that the London public market can attract hardware technology companies of sufficient quality to anchor institutional index ownership. Lansdowne's citation of Raspberry Pi alongside Oxford Nanopore signals that the new fund is positioning itself as a long-duration vehicle capable of backing companies from university-affiliated formation through to public-market scale, at a time when the UK Government is actively promoting UK listings as an innovation-ecosystem objective.