The London Stock Exchange and Crowdcube, Europe’s largest private market investment platform, have formed a strategic partnership to create a more inclusive liquid private capital market ecosystem for retail investors.
The partnership allows hundreds of thousands of eligible Crowdcube investors to gain access to opportunities on the same terms as large institutional investors. It also allows these companies to turn their customer base and stakeholders into shareholders and create fresh liquidity.
“This partnership is a unique opportunity to enable private companies and investors to utilise the same infrastructure and technology that underpins the London Stock Exchange’s public markets, while leveraging Crowdcube’s experience as a leading private markets investment platform in the UK,” says Julia Hoggett, CEO at London Stock Exchange.
“We are delighted to be working together with Crowdcube as we advance our shared vision for a connected and inclusive funding continuum.”
In August, the London Stock Exchange became the first operator approved by the FCA to run a PISCES market – a Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System. This is a new system for corporate funding that allows private businesses to auction off shares to a pool of professional investors without a full-scale public offering.
A key principle behind PISCES has been to widen investor access to promising private companies.
This approval means that when launched, its new private securities market will allow private companies to use the Exchange’s public markets infrastructure to access liquidity while remaining private for the first time. The market will also offer eligible investors easier and more direct access to high-growth private businesses.
“Our objectives in partnership with the London Stock Exchange are clear: to make the UK the most attractive place for private companies to scale, as well as attract and retain the best talent; and to give as many investors as possible the chance to share in the value those companies create,” says Matt Cooper, co-CEO at Crowdcube.
“By using the same world-class technology infrastructure that underpins the Exchange’s public markets, this is a hugely exciting reality about to happen.”