Raspberry Pi maker attracts £33m in funding round
The charitable foundation behind the Raspberry Pi, a bestselling, British personal computer, has closed a $45m (£33m) funding round.
The Raspberry Pi computer is a small credit-card sized device which enables users to explore python and scratch coding. The foundation which created the product uses trading profits to promote computing. Today’s funding round was led by London-based Lansdowne Partners and The Ezrah Charitable Trust.
Eben Upton, CEO of Raspberry Pi, said the company is “pleased to welcome Lansdowne Partners and The Ezrah Charitable Trust as our first outside shareholders to help us achieve the next steps in our growth.” He aded that the funds will enable the company “to scale to meet future demand.”
The capital raised today will accelerate the company’s product development roadmap and marketing of
high-performance, low-cost computers for the consumer and industrial sectors, according to a company statement.
Peter Davies of Lansdowne Partners said his company is “very excited” to be investing with Raspberry Pi. “The
commercial and human impact it has achieved in its first decade has been extraordinary and we look forward to assisting the company to expand this even further in coming years as new capital is deployed,” Davies added.
The company, which was launched in 2008 by a team of academics and entrepreneurs, ships over 7m devices a year, delivering £11.4m of adjusted UK GAAP EBITDA in 2020. It has been profitable every year since launch, and has generated over £30m in charitable gift aid to the Raspberry Pi Foundation.
With the sale of stakes to Lansdowne Partners and the Ezrah Charitable Trust the operation is reportedly valued at around $500m.
According to the Telegraph, the firm recently held a beauty parade of bankers as part of plans to list the company on the London Stock Exchange.
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