Raspberry Pi shares rocket 20 per cent on London bow

The stock reached 392p in early trading and by mid afternoon had rocketed 20 per cent to 403.37p a share. The shares had bowed in at 280p this morning. Raspberry Pi’s valuation on launch was £541.6m – way ahead of expectations.

Arm and other backers are tipping Raspberry Pi for even greater things. The company’s decision to float in the UK rather than in the US, where Arm has soared, has proved a wonderful boost for Cambridge and British techbio businesses who were beginning to regard staying at home as a lost cause.

CEO Eben Upton yesterday said: “The quality of the interactions during the marketing process has underlined our belief that London has the right calibre and sophistication of investor to support growing, ambitious technology businesses such as Raspberry Pi.

“The reaction that we have received is a reflection of the world-class team that we have assembled and the strength of the loyal community with whom we have grown.

“Welcoming new shareholders alongside our existing ones brings with it a great responsibility and one that we accept willingly as we continue on our mission to make high-performance, low-cost computing accessible to everyone.”

Cambridge tech entrepreneur and VC investor Dr Hermann Hauser was thrilled by the news. He told Business Weekly: "The Raspberry Pi IPO has shown that the LSE can support our high-tech ecosystem with substantial amounts of money. Financing rounds of £100s of millions are still rare and the biggest problem of the European financial system compared with the US and China. This is a very welcome example that it can be done. Congratulations to Eben Upton and his team."