Employees at Wayve, the British autonomous driving firm, began selling $85 million of their shares today in the first employee share sale ever conducted on the London Stock Exchange’s Private Securities Market, a moment with real consequences for every UK founder who has ever promised staff their options would one day be worth something.
Crowdcube managed the sell-side of the transaction, which is not only a first for the PSM but also the largest deal completed under the FCA’s PISCES regulation, the Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System, since the framework went live.
The PSM is designed to provide liquidity in some of the world’s leading later-stage private companies, while helping current employees with vested equity to unlock some of the value they have helped to create. In plain terms, staff at private firms can now sell a slice of their holdings through a regulated exchange without waiting for a float or a trade sale.
That matters well beyond Cambridge and the robotaxi race. Share options have long been the growing firm’s answer to corporate salaries it cannot match, but the promise has always carried an asterisk: the money is theoretical until an exit arrives, and exits have been thin on the ground. A functioning secondary market changes the conversation an SME founder can have with a prospective hire.
Dame Julia Hoggett, CEO of London Stock Exchange plc, said: “We are delighted to see the PISCES framework and our Private Securities Market being utilised by innovative companies, such as Wayve, seeking liquidity events for their stakeholders, including employees.”
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