Is the long awaited Raspberry Pi flotation about to happen?

A flotation of the company behind the Raspberry Pi computer could come sooner rather than later, according to reports.

A write-up in The Sunday Times over the weekend cited unnamed City sources as suggesting that a £500 million ($627 million) flotation could happen within the next two weeks, although might be delayed "if market conditions deteriorate."

Raspberry Pi Ltd appointed bankers Peel Hunt and Jefferies ahead of an initial public offering. In January 2024, CEO Eben Upton told The Register, "We want to be ready when the markets are ready.

"The business is in a much better place than it was last time we looked at it. We partly stopped because the markets got bad. And we partly stopped because our business became unpredictable."

Today, Upton did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the latest flotation rumors.

In terms of valuation, £500 million seems reasonable. In 2023, Arm Holdings acquired a minority stake in the company, which valued it at around £400 million ($500 million). In accounts filed at UK Companies House for the year ending December 31, 2022, Raspberry Pi Ltd reported revenues of £188 million ($236 million), an increase of 34 percent from the previous year.

In 2021, rumors of a flotation that would have valued the company at approximately £300 million ($376 million) were dismissed by Upton. However, he told The Register, "We speak to advisors all the time about how we might fund the future growth of the business."

The Raspberry Pi is a series of single-board computers, initially aimed at education users but later adopted for industrial purposes. Most of the devices use a Linux operating system, although Windows 10 IoT Core was released for the Raspberry 2 and 3 by Microsoft. Enterprising enthusiasts have also managed to coax Windows 11 into life on the platform.

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• Raspberry Pi 5 revealed, and it should satisfy your need for speed

The price has, alas, crept up over the years. While the performance of the latest generation – the Raspberry Pi 5 – is impressive, the price is less so. The 4GB version retails for just under £60 ($75, including the UK VAT), while the 8GB incarnation is just over £75 ($94).

Raspberry Pi Ltd has also diversified into microcontroller-class hardware with the RP2040. The wireless-enabled Pi Pico W, based on the RP2040, can be picked up for just under £6 ($7.50).

And yes, the Pico can run Doom. ®