Thought for the Week Ahead: The PISCES Experiment Is Over. What Four Eventful Weeks Tell Us About Where UK Private Markets Are Heading

Shawn Jhanji
6 days ago
4 min read

he PISCES framework, which launched as a carefully worded regulatory sandbox less than a year ago, has started to feel less like a quiet and anonymous experiment and more like a real market. Four operators are already approved and the first institutional trades completed.

If you read the news here or spent any time in the UK private markets space over the past few weeks, you will have noticed something shift. The PISCES framework, which launched as a carefully worded regulatory sandbox less than a year ago, has started to feel less like a quiet and anonymous experiment and more like a real market. Four operators are already approved and the first institutional trades completed.

A fee-free model launched without financial intermediaries. It has been, by the standards of UK financial market infrastructure, a genuinely eventful few weeks.

As the week opens, with the King's Speech tomorrow setting the broader digital finance agenda, it is worth taking stock of what has happened on PISCES since the start of the year and what the direction of travel tells us about where UK private company liquidity is heading next. I think about this every day, but clearly, the short version is: the experiment is over. What follows is the harder work of building a sustainable market.

But I do believe we will see rapid adoption with meaningful case studies that highlight the huge potential and way forward.

Four Operators Now Approved

PISCES, the Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System, currently has four FCA-approved operators:

The London Stock Exchange's Private Securities Market (PSM)
JP Jenkins Private Market
Asset Match Limited (approved 22 April 2026)
Vestd Limited (approved as a sandbox entrant without conditions)

The breadth of this operator pool already tells a story. The LSE's involvement signals institutional credibility and gives the framework immediate legitimacy in the eyes of institutional capital. JP Jenkins brings established market knowledge from years of running private company secondary transactions. Asset Match has deep experience in the pre-IPO secondary space. And Vestd, a platform that has worked with thousands of UK startups on equity management and cap table administration, brings genuine proximity to founders and the early-stage investor community.

This is a diverse, complementary set of operators rather than competing versions of the same service, which suggests the market is finding genuine differentiation in how PISCES is applied.

The First Trades Are Done

QPlay Ltd became the first company to trade on a PISCES platform in February 2026, admitted to JP Jenkins Private Market. In March 2026, the LSE's Private Securities Market ran its inaugural trading event: shares in a Tradable Private Equity Investment Company providing access to Oxford Science Enterprises, valued at approximately £1.3 billion. The law firm Charles Russell Speechlys advised on that first transaction.

The Oxford Science Enterprises trade is worth examining in detail. OSE is one of the UK's most prominent university spinout investors, and placing its shares on a PISCES platform demonstrates that the framework can handle institutional-scale assets with complex structures. The successful completion of that trade removes a proof-of-concept question that many market participants had been waiting to see answered.

Vestd's Fee-Free Model Changes the Calculus

Vestd's approach to PISCES is the detail most likely to shift the dynamics for early-stage companies. The platform will not charge fees to buyers and will allow investors to work directly with the operator without requiring a financial intermediary. That removes two significant friction points that have historically made private company secondary transactions expensive and logistically complex.

For a founder whose early investors want to access some liquidity without triggering a full secondary round or a priced fundraise, the ability to run a PISCES trading event on a platform that eliminates intermediary costs changes the economics meaningfully. It also opens the framework to a wider range of companies that might have found the cost barrier prohibitive under other models.

How PISCES Works and Who It Is For

PISCES allows private companies to run intermittent trading events, typically a defined window during which eligible investors can buy and sell existing shares. Companies retain control of the process: they choose when to open a trading window, who is eligible to participate, and what information to disclose. Unlike a full listing on AIM or Aquis, PISCES does not impose continuous trading obligations or require companies to move to a public disclosure regime.

Eligible participants are currently restricted to institutional investors, sophisticated investors, and high-net-worth individuals meeting specified criteria. This is not a retail access mechanism. It is a liquidity pathway for companies that have existing shareholders who want optionality without a full exit event.

That framing matters for how founders should think about it. PISCES is not a route to raise new money from new investors. It is a mechanism to give existing investors a structured, regulated pathway to trade their existing positions. That distinction shapes both the use case and the regulatory treatment.

What Founders Should Do Now

For founders of high-growth private companies with existing investor bases, the practical questions worth addressing in 2026 are: Which of the four approved platforms fits the profile of the company and its shareholders? What information disclosure is required to open a PISCES window? How does a PISCES trade interact with existing shareholder agreements, pre-emption rights, and articles of association?

Charles Russell Speechlys published a useful platform comparison piece in 2026 for founders navigating this. TLT LLP has also published a clear overview of the PISCES regime for companies considering participation.

The framework is live, has traded, and is expanding its operator base. Founders who have been watching from a distance now have real platforms, real precedents, and a growing body of practical legal guidance to work with.

Key Takeaways

PISCES now has four FCA-approved operators: the LSE's Private Securities Market, JP Jenkins, Asset Match, and Vestd.
The first PISCES trades have been completed, including a significant transaction providing access to Oxford Science Enterprises, valued at approximately £1.3 billion.
Vestd has launched a fee-free PISCES model without requiring financial intermediaries, materially lowering the cost of running a private company trading event.
PISCES allows intermittent, controlled trading of private company shares without requiring a public listing or continuous disclosure regime.
Eligible participants are currently limited to institutional, sophisticated, and high-net-worth investors. This is a liquidity mechanism for existing shareholders, not a retail access product.