Cambridge companies could do with more ambition, says UK tech gospeller Eben Upton

Upton will be addressing the company’s London Stock Exchange IPO last June when he takes centre stage at Cambridge Tech Week in September.

And with his trademark zeal, he argues that more Cambridge companies could follow the example of Raspberry Pi, which is reckoned to be the smallest company on the FTSE 250 in terms of headcount.

Arm is an investor in Raspberry Pi, which is notching record levels of innovation productivity. And Upton reckons that choosing the right patient investors and staying loyal to the core backers, if they have been chosen correctly, is a key to prolonged growth to companies which have the technology proposition right.

This stability and co-commitment to the long game helped facilitate a smooth transition for Raspberry Pi from a charitable-based foundation to a fully fledged quoted tech stock, Upton believes.

And he says that floating in the UK rather than the US last summer was a no brainer for Raspberry Pi. He says Raspberry Pi was a different type of business to Arm for whom Nasdaq in the US was a natural fit for its proposition.

The performance of Raspberry Pi’s stock since the June IPO would suggest that Upton and his board made exactly the right call. The company was halfway through its financial year when it floated in June 2024. While the company was selling millions of microcomputers worldwide around 80 per cent of observers still thought Raspberry Pi was a charity foundation rather than a commercial innovator in its own right.

Upton never fretted unduly about building a vast war chest but says he was conscious that Raspberry Pi needed a comfortable cash runway into the foreseeable future and with the input of its patient investor cohort the company was able to plan sensibly to ensure a stable, adequately funded future. That position is consistently reviewed: “Every company needs a safety blanket,” he cautions.

Raspberry Pi has built a hierarchy capable of achieving the desired level of consistent growth but Upton says we are not seeing a huge level of Cambridge companies striving to become national champions as the UK seeks trade torchbearers to spread the flame of innovation further afield.

He urges local innovators not to be fearful of targeting a London float as a springboard for global growth. Upton reckons some of the gloom about the UK Stockmarket among analysts and other market watchers may well be exaggerated.

He is also very much a gospeller of a horses for courses approach to IPO. For Arm the US market is exactly right as the company is huge and has ambitions to match. He visited New York and Boston ahead of the decision to float in London having noted and analysed the differences in terms of multiples, liquidity and other key issues.

He and CFO Richard Boult had no doubts after comparing the UK and US markets and, having assessed the options, were sure that London was the right option for their business in terms of an IPO. Again, it was also the right fit for the company’s patient investor base.

Raspberry Pi sells is microcomputers globally and is able to use the technology as a force for good in territories including India, Africa and many more where its use in fields of education has helped thousands of people, especially youngsters, identify careers in STEM and computing as they progress. His time in management at Broadcom helped him to decipher “what I liked and didn’t like.”

He also picked up crucial skills and knowledge during his MBA at Judge Business School in Cambridge. And he champions Britain’s long heritage as engineers and inventors. “We are a fantastic country. We invented the Industrial Revolution and are excellent at designing and making things. We must be proud of our engineering heritage.

“Upstairs in our HQ building I have 25-year-olds who would have been quite at home at The Iron Bridge in 1750. We also have a 75 year old who is one of the best engineers on the planet. Now Cambridge generally has to try to be more ambitious; we have to risk a little as a hi-tech community, as is the case in the life science cluster locally.

“I am quite relaxed about the future and recognise there comes a time when all CEOs need to think about moving on. Put me on an ice floe and float me out to sea and that would do it for me personally in terms of contentment as long as I, the team and our wonderful group of long-term, patient investors have proved able to maintain the impact of the business to communities worldwide.

“Different companies have different ambitions and I have plenty more for Raspberry Pi. I am proud that we have not only NOT gone to the wall but by optimising a steady-as-you-go approach we are selling 75 million Raspberry Pi’s to the world. Different companies have varying ambitions and, besides this company, I would love to see more Cambridge companies thrive on the national stage. CTW can help showcase the technology here that can sell Cambridge to the world.”

Eben is a great admirer of the Cambridge Life Science community which now leads Europe in terms of innovation and influence but Raspberry Pi’s potency in laboratory automation should not be underestimated.

In China and other influential MedTech territories, Raspberry Pis are being used in dialysis, for example, and control many systems including ventilators, of course.

As more TechBio emerges, with life science companies looking at what hi-tech capability could be harnessed for healthcare advancement, Raspberry Pi seems destined to remain a key player in this field as well.

For more on Raspberry Pi, please go to raspberrypi.com – and watch this space for further updates on September’s Cambridge Tech Week, including Eben’s Stockmarket-centric contribution.