The London Stock Exchange has welcomed the first transaction by Wayve on its Private Securities Market. A pioneer in embodied AI for autonomous driving, Wayve has provided liquidity to current employees with vested equity through a permissioned auction, marking a first for the Private Securities Market. The $85 million employee tender was supported by Registered Auction Agents Stifel (sole and exclusive private placement agent) and Crowdcube (exclusively managing share sales for the transaction), and advisors Latham & Watkins and Deloitte.
Dame Julia Hoggett, CEO, London Stock Exchange plc, said: “We congratulate Wayve on this milestone transaction, enabling their current employees to realise some of the value that they have helped to create throughout Wayve’s incredible journey so far. We are encouraged to see the innovation and opportunity that the Private Securities Market and PISCES framework offer to companies looking for new routes to provide liquidity for their different types of shareholders.”
Built on the UK Government’s PISCES framework, the London Stock Exchange’s Private Securities Market provides private companies with access to intermittent liquidity auctions, leveraging the London Stock Exchange’s public markets infrastructure while remaining a private company and retaining control over trading frequency, investor access, and price formation. The recently launched secondary market enables private companies to expand the options available to them and their shareholders, including employees, to access liquidity and provide investors with further opportunities to invest in high-growth private companies.
In May 2025, the UK Government confirmed it will permit existing EMI (Enterprise Management Incentive) and CSOP (Company Share Option Plan) options to be amended so that they can be exercised and sold on PISCES venues such as the Private Securities Market, whilst retaining their tax efficient status. This provides private companies utilising the Private Securities Market with further opportunity to attract, incentivise and retain talent.
Learn more about the Private Securities Market here: The London Stock Exchange’s Private Securities Market
