LSE and Crowdcube open up private markets to retail investors

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The partnership will open up a new pathway for many of Crowdcube’s two million members to invest in later-stage, high-growth, private companies on the same terms as large institutional investors. On the other side of the equation, the move gives firms the chance to tap into their customers, users and stakeholders to create fresh liquidity.

The move comes after the LSE was confirmed in August as the first operator approved by the FCA to run a Pisces market for secondary trading of private company shares. The government-backed Pisces initiative is designed to widen investor access to private companies.

With this principle of financial inclusion in mind, the LSE and Crowdcube are opening late-stage private-market secondaries on the LSE’s soon-to-launch Private Securities Market to eligible Crowdcube investors – on the same terms as institutions private companies utilising the Private Securities Market will now have access to Crowdcube’s investor base.

Julia Hoggett, CEO, LSE, says: “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.”