Raspberry Pi Ltd is considering an Initial Public Offering and today published figures showing just how important commercial customers have become to the company.

The confirmation came in an Expected Intention To Float announcement on the London Stock Exchange.

While a valuation has not been published, the figure is expected to be north of the half-a-billion-dollar mark. A valuation of £300 million (& ($376 million) was mooted around the time of a previously rumored IPO, and the company has continued to increase revenue and profit in the years since.

For the year ended December 31, 2023, Raspberry Pi Ltd recorded revenues of $266 million and a gross profit of $66 million. According to the announcement, sales rose by 154 percent between 2021 and 2023, and the company reckons its total addressable market in 2023 was approximately $21.2 billion.

However, although the PC maker said the enthusiast and education market represented the "heart" of the Raspberry Pi movement, it also admitted the industrial and embedded sector accounted for 72 percent of sales in 2023, while the enthusiast and education sector accounted for 28 percent.

Pi supremo Eben Upton attributed part of the organization's industrial and embedded sector growth to enthusiasts bringing the diminutive computer into the workplace.

He said: "A remarkable ecosystem of individuals and businesses has grown around Raspberry Pi, supporting both the enthusiast and industrial markets to innovate and succeed with our products.

"We’re now seeing the former feed into the latter, as the first generation who encountered Raspberry Pi as young people take their experience with our technology into their professional careers, and today the industrial and embedded market accounts for 72 percent of units sold."

Upton has been on a long journey to get to this point. In the announcement, he said, "When we released our first product in 2012, our goal was to provide a computer that was affordable enough for young people to own and explore with confidence, giving them the chance to discover computing and get excited about it.

"Twelve years later, we have sold over 60 million units in over 70 countries around the world."

Upton paid tribute to the Raspberry Pi Foundation, calling the charity - which promotes an interest in computer science among young people - "a patient and supportive shareholder." He said that the Foundation would remain a major shareholder.

The Register asked Upton earlier this year about what an IPO might mean for the direction of the company. He replied: "We've always tried to run a business that does interesting work and makes money, and I don't think those imperatives are going to change.

"We will keep doing the same stuff. Certainly while I'm in charge." ®

https://www.theregister.com//2024/05/15/raspberry_pi_perpares_to_boot/