Raspberry Pi increases new product roll-out in a golden year of innovation
The record productivity is the stand-out feature of the company’s 2024 full-year results – the global impact of its technology outweighing a still excellent financial performance.
Revenue was slightly down to a still highly impressive $259.5 million and, while harbingers of doom preferred to focus on a 57 per cent drop in pre-tax profit to $16.3m, that ignored the fact that Upton had flagged up a massively increased output of innovation months previously.
The promised products were all delivered AND Raspberry Pi still ended a year in which it enjoyed a fabulously successful IPO with $45.8m cash – up nine per cent year-on-year.
A record total of 22 product launches featured in FY 2024, drawing a positive reception from both embedded and enthusiast markets. Raspberry Pi sold 1.9 million units in FY 2024 having only flagged up the innovation drive at the end of October 2023.
Outstanding successes included the launch of debut first-party AI hardware products – Raspberry Pi AI Kit, Raspberry Pi AI Camera – in collaboration with Hailo and Sony.
A production ramp of the nextgen RP2350 microcontroller, supporting the introduction of Raspberry Pi Pico 2 and partner hardware products, was unveiled last August.
And in November the company launched its high-performance Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5 with a range of storage and connectivity options at the heart of the innovation.
The IPO in the UK raised £143.1m ($180m) to support the Raspberry Pi Foundation and £31.4m ($40m) for the company. The Foundation owns 46.7 per cent of the company's shares.
Raspberry Pi was included in the coveted FTSE 250 index last September and in a transformative 12 months was awarded the London Stock Exchange's Green Economy Mark, based on the significant energy efficiency benefits of its computers.
Upton said the enhanced public profile in the wake of the IPO was helping to advance high-level discussions at multiple industrial-focused OEMs.
With channel inventory now normalised, Raspberry Pi anticipates a steady build-up in demand throughout the year, positioning the business strongly despite ongoing macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainties.
The projected pace of market recovery, coupled with the timing of embedded design wins, strengthens confidence in solid and sustainable sales growth in full-year 2025, it said.
Raspberry Pi adds that, given the planned product release schedule and mix of sales, gross profit per unit is expected to increase year-on-year.
The company has secured a sufficient supply of memory to meet expected demand into Q4, helping to sustain favourable unit economics for the year ahead.
Medium-term fundamentals remain positive, driven by a number of promising direct discussions with major prospective OEM customers, which it expects to make an increasing contribution in 2026 and beyond.
Eben Upton said: “The IPO in June 2024 has undoubtedly extended awareness of Raspberry Pi's value proposition from the engineering department to the C-suite at major OEMs.
“As our platforms and solutions evolve, we aspire to become the compute partner of choice for these companies, allowing them to outsource the intelligence element at the heart of their products while retaining control of application-specific design and engineering, delivering enhanced performance, functionality and efficiency in their end product.
“In the second half we released more products than in any prior full year, despite the potential distraction of the IPO, continuing to excite our enthusiast and embedded communities.
“That flexibility helped us to meet market expectations in a year dominated by the widely reported inventory correction throughout our industry and following an exceptionally strong comparable previous financial year.
“I am confident that we will continue to see gradual improvements in end-demand during the current year and increased traction with direct-to-OEM engagement, effectively complementing our reseller and licensee channels.
“This has been a transformative year for Raspberry Pi. The one constant has been the unwavering dedication of our outstanding team, for which I am profoundly grateful.”
