Helping you prosper
Throughout its history, AIM has always adapted to business and economic cycles. From the technology boom, global financial crisis, the UK’s exit from the EU and the COVID-19 pandemic, AIM is continuously evolving to support the changing funding needs of its companies. This underlines an important function of public markets, to enable companies across all stages of their growth and business cycle to access efficient and long-term capital.
AIM companies continue to make significant contributions to the UK economy through company tax contributions, supply chain expansion as well as job creation, which in turns drives spending by those employees in their local communities. In research commissioned by the LSE*, it was found that in 2023, through direct, supply chain and induced impact, the overall impact of AIM to the UK economy was equivalent to £68 billion in Gross Value Added (GVA) and over 778,000 jobs. In addition, AIM companies made an important corporation tax contribution of £5.4 billion to the Exchequer. The report also showed that AIM companies are generally more productive than the national average, with productivity of £87,100 GVA per employee compared to the UK average of £58,327.
AIM continues to be Europe’s largest and most active growth market, with 53% of all equity capital raised on European growth markets over the past 10 years raised on AIM. Since its inception, companies have raised over £136bn in equity capital, supported by a community of committed investors, nominated advisers, brokers and market makers, who in turn have built their own businesses around supporting growth companies. Crucially, almost two thirds of this capital (£88 billion) has been raised through further issues, showcasing one of AIM’s greatest strengths, the ability for companies to raise further capital throughout their growth journey.
Over the past two years, AIM welcomed dynamic growth businesses from a broad range of sectors and sizes, including international companies; AOTI, Winking Studios and Microsalt, as well as homegrown business, including MHA and Quantum Base Holdings. This demonstrates the enduring attraction of AIM for growing companies from around the world.
However, the ability of AIM to enable these companies to access growth capital and generate contributions to the economy is not a position we take for granted.
Whilst AIM plays a vital role both in the UK economy and the UK capital markets, we recognise that recent market conditions have been challenging and that smaller companies have been disproportionately impacted by headwinds that have affected public and private markets globally. The continued need to support an ecosystem that enables young, dynamic, innovative companies to start, grow scale and stay in the UK is now greater than ever.
Against this backdrop, in April 2025, the LSE issued a discussion paper, ‘Shaping the Future of AIM’, designed to engage AIM’s broad range of stakeholders, and generate debate and ideas about the future development of the market.
We are asking stakeholders about the areas of the AIM model that they value the most and areas of the framework and market practice that would benefit from reform, recognising that there have been significant changes across UK capital markets, both public and private, over recent years. There are also specific areas of the AIM Rules where we are gathering feedback on how we may be able to make changes to remove friction and cost whilst maintaining those aspects that remain important for investor confidence. We are also looking at how the flow of capital to AIM companies can be increased and examining how the broadest range of investors have access to the broadest range of UK and international companies at an earlier stage in their growth journey.
Looking forward, there are reasons to be optimistic.
The multifaceted reform agenda currently underway designed to build on the existing strengths of the UK’s capital markets includes measures to ensure there is increased capital available to companies across the UK. This includes developments such as the Mansion House Accord, the UK Government’s Pensions Investment Review, and the launch of the British Growth Partnership as part of the British Business Bank. Several schemes and tax reliefs, including EIS, SEIS, VCT, ISA eligibility, Business Relief and exemption from stamp duty, provide a well calibrated package of support that encourages investment in recognition of the role that AIM plays through its contribution to supporting a vital part of the nation’s wealth creation process.
Changes resulting from the Investment Research Review should lead to an increase in the availability and quality of equity research available to investors in AIM companies, while changes proposed in the FCA’s consultation on the Public Offers to Trading Regime should make it easier for AIM companies to include retail participation in fundraisings. The combination of these developments is intended to increase the sources of capital and liquidity available to AIM companies.
In parallel with the ongoing development of the UK public markets, we are committed to ensuring that the entire funding continuum in the UK for private and public companies is seamlessly connected to support scaling businesses and drive growth. Both AIM and the soon to be launched Private Securities Market are crucial in achieving this.
In recent years, we have seen many private companies that would have typically been IPO candidates sold before they could reach that point of their growth, in order to provide liquidity to founders, early-stage investors and employees. The Private Securities Market is the London Stock Exchange’s crossover market which utilises the UK Government’s PISCES regulatory framework and will enable private companies to offer periodic liquidity to their shareholders via private auctions, supported by our public market infrastructure while remaining a private company.
Through AIM, companies are able to raise ongoing equity capital and access continuous liquidity though public markets to further grow their business, with exposure to a broad range of retail and institutional investors. Whilst some private companies may not choose to IPO, the Private Securities Market will make it easier for those that do want to go public on growth markets such as AIM to achieve this and to do so when the time is right for them.
As AIM turns 30, we should celebrate the success of its companies past and present who have created a positive legacy of economic growth and delivering returns for investors. But it is vital that we also protect AIM’s strengths in supporting these companies, their investors and their economic contributions, whilst ensuring the market and its structure continues to evolve to support the companies of the future.
*2024 Grant Thornton Report: Economic Impact of AIM
UHY's Capital Markets Outlook
This article is taken from the latest version of UHY's Capital Markets Outlook, our publication exploring key developments shaping the UK capital markets. The Outlook brings together expert insight on AIM, stock market trends and the evolving funding landscape for growing businesses. You can read more thought leadership and analysis on AIM and the wider market in the full Capital Markets Outlook.
