Skip to content
You can now search across every topic, entity and event.What's new
UK Startups and Innovation
13APR

PISCES runs first pre-IPO trading events

2 min read
17:59UTC

The FCA sandbox for private company share trading completed its first live windows in March. For the first time, UK startup equity can be bought and sold before IPO.

← Back to State capital floods in, seed money drainsJump to analysis ↓
TechnologyDeveloping
Key takeaway

UK startup equity can now be traded before IPO for the first time, under an FCA sandbox.

PISCES (the Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System) completed its first live trading events in March 2026 1. JP Jenkins ran a trading window from 18 to 24 March; the London Stock Exchange's Private Securities Market also completed a first event. The Financial Conduct Authority sandbox that governs PISCES runs until 2030.

PISCES allows intermittent trading of shares in private companies, creating a secondary market for pre-IPO startup equity without requiring a public listing. UK startup employees holding options have historically waited seven to ten years for an exit event. Early-stage investors in UK companies face the same illiquidity. Both groups have had strong incentives to push for US listings, where secondary markets and pre-IPO liquidity mechanisms are established.

The sandbox is early. Two operators are approved; trading windows are intermittent, not continuous. Volume and price discovery will determine whether PISCES becomes a functioning market or remains a regulatory experiment. If it works, it could reduce the pressure for UK high-growth companies to list in New York simply to provide their investors and employees with liquidity.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

PISCES stands for Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System. It is a new type of trading market that allows investors to buy and sell shares in private companies (companies that are not yet listed on a stock exchange) at specific trading windows. Before PISCES, if you invested early in a successful UK startup, your money was locked in until the company either listed on a stock exchange or was acquired. PISCES creates a way to get some of your money out while the company is still private. For founders, it means employees who hold shares can sell some before an IPO, reducing the pressure to list early or accept an acquisition offer.

What could happen next?
  • Opportunity

    UK startup employees holding equity options gain a new pre-IPO liquidity option, potentially reducing talent departure driven by illiquid equity packages.

  • Whether PISCES secondary liquidity will reduce UK founders' preference for US listings remains to be demonstrated; the sandbox runs until 2030 before any regulatory permanence decision.

Sources:FCA
Mentions:PISCES →JP Jenkins →London Stock Exchange →Financial Conduct Authority →France →Prima →Nasdaq →
First Reported In

Update #1 · State capital floods in, seed money drains

FCA· 13 Apr 2026
Read original →
Different Perspectives
Fubon Financial
Fubon Financial
Fubon Financial joined Humanoid's Series A on 21 July as a minority financial investor alongside Schaeffler and Bosch, who also hold the customer and manufacturer roles. A pure-play investor from Taipei is pricing a London robot maker on terms two German industrial groups effectively set.
NATO Innovation Fund
NATO Innovation Fund
The Fund joined Greenjets' £30m Series A on 21 July alongside NSSIF, betting on ducted electric propulsion's civil market to fund a technology with an obvious defence application. It is backing a company that took twenty-one years to reach this stage, on the expectation that certification-cycle timelines reward patient capital over a quick return.
Prime Movers Lab
Prime Movers Lab
Prime Movers Lab led Humanoid's Series A on 21 July as the round's only pure financial investor, sharing the cap table with two co-investors who are also the anchor customer and the factory. That leaves the fund's usual arm's-length pricing role diluted by partners with a direct commercial stake in the valuation holding up.
Bosch and Schaeffler
Bosch and Schaeffler
Schaeffler signed what Humanoid calls the industry's largest publicly announced commercial agreement, while Bosch took equity and became contract manufacturer, filling capacity a shrinking combustion supply chain freed. Neither company has disclosed a unit count or an invoice, so their public commitment stops well short of Forbes' 100,000-unit projection.
UK founders raising seed through Series A
UK founders raising seed through Series A
A London robotics founder raised $152m this week against a signed industrial customer and a reserved factory, while a Cornwall founder more typically draws a £25,000 loan from a regional fund manager. Both call it British venture funding, but one route runs through Bosch's production line and the other through diligence built for businesses too small for any VC's attention.
EQT
EQT
EQT was reported on 3 July to be in advanced talks for a further CuspAI stake on behalf of the EU's Scaleup Europe Fund, but does not appear on the round CuspAI closed. Whether Europe's own sovereign vehicle secured a position, was outbid, or withdrew is unresolved.