For a while now, the Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System (PISCES) has been one of those ideas many companies and traders have been talking about but not quite betting on.
Founders have been cautiously optimistic, investors curious, and almost everyone has been waiting for the same thing: proof that real businesses would actually use it.
That proof looks like it's finally showing up. Two recent announcements, from savings app Moneybox and self-driving car company Wayve, suggest PISCES is starting to gain real traction.
It's no longer just a concept buried in a policy paper; it's becoming a genuine option for companies that want to provide shareholders with liquidity without rushing into an IPO. For founders, employees and investors, that's a big deal.
Private companies have long faced an awkward trade-off. Stay private, and you retain control and can focus on long-term growth without quarterly reporting pressure - but that has traditionally meant starving many of liquidity.
Employees who've helped build the business often hold shares worth a great deal on paper, yet have no real way to convert them into cash until the company is acquired or goes public.
That milestone could be years away - if it happens at all. Founders feel a version of the same squeeze: early investors eventually want a partial exit, and senior hires expect to see the fruits of their labour at some point.
PISCES exists to close that gap. Rather than creating an always-on public market, it allows companies to run regulated trading windows. Those are set periods during which existing shares can be bought and sold by eligible investors, with the company deciding who participates and when.
It's a middle ground: more flexible than staying fully private, but far less exposed than a full stock market listing.
When the Government and the FCA first unveiled PISCES, the reaction was broadly positive but tinged with “let's see if anyone actually uses it” caution.
That scepticism was fair: new markets need early adopters willing to prove the mechanics work smoothly. Which is exactly why the Moneybox and Wayve news matters.
Moneybox - one of the UK's better-known fintech names - is reportedly preparing a secondary share sale via PISCES at a valuation of around £800 million, giving existing shareholders a chance to cash out some of their holdings. At the same time, the company continues to grow outside public markets.
Wayve, meanwhile, has confirmed it will use PISCES to provide employees and early investors with a route to liquidity, making it one of the first companies to commit to this new type of marketplace publicly.
Put the two together, and the signal is clear: serious companies with serious valuations and sophisticated investors are starting to see structured secondary markets as a genuine alternative to simply waiting for an IPO.
The old playbook - start up, scale up, float on the stock exchange - has changed over the past decade.
Companies are staying private for far longer, often raising round after round of funding before an IPO is even on the table, focusing on long-term strategy and freedom to invest without the scrutiny that comes with being listed.
But the cost has always been liquidity. Employees build up options, investors back multiple rounds, founders create real value - and turning any of that into cash has usually meant waiting for one big corporate event. This is where PISCES could matter most for employees.
Share schemes are already a common way to attract and keep good people, giving staff a genuine stake in the outcome, but that ownership can feel abstract if a payout is years away.
Structured liquidity events close that gap, letting employees realise part of the value they've helped create without forcing a premature sale or listing. And with certain share schemes, like EMI and CSOP, there's a quirk worth knowing about.
Historically, any discretion when changing an EMI or CSOP agreement - say, allowing employees to exercise options for a secondary sale - triggered a "release and regrant." That stripped the options of their tax-advantaged status, leaving employees with an immediate tax and NIC bill.
The new legislation fixes that. Companies can now formally amend existing EMI/CSOP agreements to include a PISCES trading window as an exercisable event, without losing the tax reliefs that made the scheme worth having in the first place. Get it right, and the reliefs stay intact.
There's a process to follow here, and we're already guiding businesses through it.
The knock-on effect of Moneybox and Wayve's moves goes well beyond the two companies themselves.
Every successful early transaction builds confidence: founders get reassurance that PISCES is credible, investors see evidence that secondary markets can actually function, and employees realise that holding private-company shares doesn't necessarily mean an indefinite wait.
This is how most new markets go: a slow, cautious start, followed by a tipping point where early success stories give everyone else confidence to follow. PISCES looks to be approaching that point now.
If more established scaleups follow suit, secondary liquidity could become a normal part of a growing company's life, rather than a rare event.
With interest in PISCES building, companies increasingly need partners who genuinely understand how to navigate it.
We're proud to be one of the very first FCA-approved PISCES platform operators, putting us at the centre of one of the most significant developments in UK capital markets in years.
It’s a natural extension of our mission to make ownership simpler, fairer and more accessible, from tax-efficient share schemes to equity management and governance support.
No single transaction makes a market. But markets don't tend to transform overnight either. They build gradually, through confidence, participation, and a handful of early examples that prove the model works.
Moneybox and Wayve look like exactly that: proof that PISCES is moving out of the policy pages and into the real world. For ambitious UK companies, that's genuinely good news.
The conversation is starting to change, from “What actually is PISCES?” to “Could this work for us?”
For a growing number of businesses, the moment to ask that second question might not be far off. If you are interested, speak with our team about PISCES.