Shaires Holdings Ltd (AIM:SHR) opened trading on Wednesday, launching on the Alternative Investment Market with a $108 million portfolio focused on private artificial intelligence companies.
The company, which operates without charging management or performance fees, gained access to public-market investors seeking exposure to mid- and late-stage private tech firms. Trading comes on the heels of a fundraising round completed in August 2026 that brought in more than 670 retail shareholders through a second institutional tranche and a retail offer.
The retail portion of the raise marked the first use of AIM's Capital Access Window mechanism, a new framework allowing retail investors to participate on equal terms alongside institutional buyers.
Seven private AI companies now sit in Shaires' portfolio. Investments have been completed in Anthropic and Stripe, while binding agreements or ongoing deployments are in place with ByteDance, Moonshot AI, Figure AI, SandboxAQ, and Colossal Biosciences, according to the company.
Shaires acquires positions through cash investments and in-kind contributions, under which employees and early shareholders of the portfolio companies exchange their holdings for ordinary shares in Shaires. Zeus acts as the company's nominated adviser and broker.
"This is a defining time in the evolution of the AI supercycle, and Shaires offers institutional and retail shareholders the opportunity to participate in this transformation," said CEO Vivek Seth.
Seth added: "The recent fundraise demonstrates that our confidence in the London market as an untapped pool of liquidity is justified."
