Aquis's IPO Academy: A Desperate Bid to Revive UK's Small-Cap Market

The UK's public markets have become so unappealing to small companies that an exchange is now running what amounts to remedial classes in why going public might still be worth the trouble. Aquis, in partnership with Barclays, has launched a six-month training programme to educate scale-ups on their listing options—a move that speaks volumes about how far confidence in London's small-cap ecosystem has fallen. The very existence of an 'IPO academy' underscores an uncomfortable reality: British exchanges have been reduced to actively persuading entrepreneurs that public markets still serve a purpose.

The initiative, which Aquis claims is the only exchange-run programme of its kind in the UK, will offer pitch development, governance mentoring, investor introductions, and discounted listing fees to companies with revenues exceeding £1m. It's a comprehensive support package, certainly. But the very existence of such a programme reveals how desperate the situation has become.

What's particularly revealing is that Aquis isn't simply streamlining the mechanics of going public. The programme targets companies across all sectors, suggesting the problem isn't confined to any single industry but reflects a systemic loss of faith in the UK's public market infrastructure. When an exchange has to invest in teaching founders about 'options' and helping them 'engage with confidence', you're looking at a market that has fundamentally lost its appeal.

Enjoying this article?

Get stories like this in your inbox every week.

Join the Community

The numbers tell a brutal story

AIM, Aquis's larger rival, now hosts fewer than 700 companies—down from approximately 1,700 at its 2007 peak. That's a contraction of more than 60% over nearly two decades. The exchange barely has more constituents now than it did at the turn of the century, effectively erasing two decades of supposed growth in Britain's entrepreneurial economy.

Companies that have delisted or accepted private equity buyouts consistently cite the same grievances: prohibitive costs, anaemic valuations, capital-raising difficulties, and chronic illiquidity.

These aren't teething problems. They're structural failures that have made private markets—with their lighter disclosure requirements and more patient capital—a far more attractive proposition for growth-stage businesses.

The shift has profound implications beyond market statistics. Pension fund withdrawal from UK equities has drained a major source of patient capital from smaller public companies. Regulatory burdens continue to spark debate about whether compliance costs outweigh the benefits of transparency for companies below a certain size. Meanwhile, private equity firms have feasted on undervalued public companies, taking them private at what founders increasingly see as bargain prices—but still better than the alternative of remaining listed.

A diversity problem within a market problem

Barclays and Aquis have set an ambitious target: 50% female-founded participation in the academy. It's a striking goal given that only 7% of UK high-growth IPOs since 2011 have involved female-founded businesses, according to figures cited by the programme organisers.

This dual crisis—of market access and diversity in capital allocation—suggests the UK's public markets aren't just struggling to retain companies generally, but are particularly failing to serve founders outside traditional networks. If you're building a business without existing City connections or established relationships with institutional investors, the path to public markets has become even more treacherous.

Abdul Qureshi, head of Barclays Business Bank, framed the initiative as addressing businesses that 'struggle to access the knowledge, networks and capital needed to take that step confidently here in the UK'. The phrasing is diplomatic. What he's describing is an ecosystem where the default assumption for ambitious founders has shifted from 'when we list' to 'whether we list at all'.

The programme's emphasis on tech-enabled businesses reflects another uncomfortable truth: many of the UK's most promising growth companies in recent years have either listed in New York or remained private far longer than previous generations might have done. Aquis chief executive David Stevens positioned the academy as helping 'high potential businesses successfully navigate their next stage of growth and remain here in the UK'—the subtext being that too many are choosing to grow elsewhere or not in public view at all.

What this signals about Britain's capital markets

An exchange launching an education programme isn't inherently problematic. Markets need informed participants, and demystifying the listing process could theoretically expand the pool of public companies. But context matters. This isn't happening during a period of market exuberance where exchanges are refining an already attractive proposition.

No amount of mentoring will fix poor valuations. Pitch development support won't solve illiquidity. Discounted admission fees might help at the margins, but they don't fundamentally alter the cost-benefit analysis when private markets offer capital without the ongoing expense and scrutiny of public listing.

For Britain's entrepreneurial ecosystem, the stakes extend well beyond market statistics. Public listings have historically served as engines for job creation, wealth distribution beyond founders and early investors, and liquidity events that recycle capital back into new ventures. When that mechanism breaks down, you don't just lose listings—you lose the broader economic multiplier effects that successful public companies generate.

Whether the IPO academy attracts meaningful participation and, more importantly, whether participants actually proceed to list will serve as a telling barometer. If successful, it might suggest the problem has been partly informational. If companies complete the programme and still opt for private equity or overseas listings, it will confirm what many already suspect: that London's small-cap markets face structural problems no amount of education can remedy.

The market's struggles are particularly evident when considering that a quarter of the biggest companies from London's 2021 listings have since left the stock market, with those remaining having lost significant value. This trend suggests that even during periods of relatively strong IPO activity, the UK stock market's ability to retain and support growing companies remains deeply challenged.

More articles by Ross Williams