More Details: What the Crowdcube and Oxford Science Enterprises Auction Means for UK Startup Founders
- Shawn Jhanji
- Apr 27
- 3 min read
For years, the central frustration of founding a high-growth UK startup has been the same: you build something of genuine value, attract investors, generate real revenue — and yet your shareholders are locked in with no practical route to exit short of an IPO or full acquisition.
That particular wall recently cracked.
In March 2026, London Stock Exchange's Private Securities Market (PSM) conducted its first live auction under the PISCES framework, with Crowdcube acting as Registered Auction Agent and Oxford Science Enterprises (OSE) as the first company whose shares traded. It was a quiet milestone, but one with significant long-term implications for how private company equity works in the UK.
What Actually Happened
PISCES — the Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System — is an FCA-regulated sandbox created by HM Treasury under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2023. It allows private companies to offer intermittent liquidity windows to their shareholders without the compliance burden of a public listing.
The FCA actually approved the LSE's Private Securities Market as the first PISCES operator in August 2025, and the first live auction followed in March 2026.
The specific instrument used was a TPEIC (Tradable Private Equity Investment Certificate — pronounced "T-Pick"), an exchange-enabled investment structure developed in partnership with Crowdcube. The TPEIC holds shares in Oxford Science Enterprises, a £1.3 billion balance-sheet investment company that holds equity in every scientific spinout from the University of Oxford. With around 120 portfolio companies spanning AI, quantum computing, health tech, and life sciences, OSE is the largest university spinout platform outside the US.
Shares were priced at £1.055, with investors paying a 3% entry fee, 0.5% annual management fee, and 5% exit fee. Access was restricted to high-net-worth, sophisticated, institutional, and eligible retail investors.
Why This Matters for Founders
The practical significance of PISCES is not the Oxford Science Enterprises transaction per se - it's what it represents structurally. For the first time, private UK companies have access to a regulated secondary market that doesn't require them to go public.
Existing shareholders - early employees, angels, seed funds - can transact in controlled, periodic windows without the company losing its private status or triggering the ongoing reporting obligations of an MTF or public exchange.
Critically, PISCES operates outside UK Market Abuse Regulation (UK MAR), removes the requirement for transaction reporting, and allows companies to set the terms of disclosure. Founders retain far greater control over who sees what and when, compared to any public market route.
There's also a compounding effect worth noting: Crowdcube has just reported its first-ever profit, driven by growth in secondary share activity. The timing is not coincidental. Secondary liquidity and tokenised equity infrastructure are becoming commercially viable simultaneously — and they are beginning to converge.
What Comes Next
As we have seen this month, the LSE is not the only 'live' PISCES operator now and more platforms are understood to be in the pipeline, with discussion on-going with the FCA.
The five-year sandbox period runs until June 2030, during which the framework will evolve based on live market activity. The question of whether PISCES transactions will eventually support tokenised settlement - moving shares on-chain rather than through legacy custodial rails, is one that operators, platforms, and regulators are already beginning to explore.
For UK startup founders, the key takeaway is this: secondary liquidity for private company shares is no longer a theoretical future. It is live, FCA-regulated, and building institutional momentum. The infrastructure for tokenised private equity, of which PISCES is the gateway, is being assembled before our eyes - right now.
Key Takeaways
- The LSE's Private Securities Market completed the UK's first PISCES auction in March 2026, with Crowdcube and Oxford Science Enterprises as the inaugural participants.
- PISCES allows private companies to offer regulated secondary liquidity without becoming publicly listed, with lighter-touch disclosure and no transaction reporting requirements.
- The TPEIC structure opens a new pathway for structured investment into private company portfolios.
- Crowdcube's first-ever profit, driven by secondary share activity, signals that private market liquidity is becoming commercially sustainable.
- The PISCES sandbox runs until 2030 — expect rapid evolution in how these platforms interact with tokenised settlement infrastructure.
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