The overlooked workstream
When a company begins preparing for an IPO, the advisory appointments happen quickly. Legal counsel, the Nominated Adviser, corporate brokers, reporting accountants — all are in place months before admission. The prospectus or admission document goes through dozens of drafts. The management roadshow is rehearsed and refined.
What often gets left until far too late is the investor-facing platform: the website, the data infrastructure, the regulatory content architecture that shareholders, analysts, and the exchange itself will rely on from the first day of dealings onwards.
This is not a cosmetic concern. Whether you are listing on AIM or the Main Market, your website is a regulatory requirement and the primary channel through which investors will engage with your company after admission. It is the first place an analyst will go after reading the prospectus. It is where retail investors will check the share price, read RNS announcements, and assess the management team. Getting it right is not optional, and getting it right under time pressure is considerably harder than starting early.
What the regulations require
The specific requirements differ between AIM and the Main Market, but the principle is the same: listed companies must maintain a public, accessible record of key corporate and financial information.
On AIM, Rule 26 has required this since February 2007. Companies must publish and maintain specific information on their website, including:
- A description of the company and its business model
- Directors’ biographies and responsibilities
- The corporate governance framework adopted
- Admission documents and constitutional documents
- Financial reports and regulatory announcements
- Shareholder and capital structure information
On the Main Market, the Disclosure Guidance and Transparency Rules (DTR) impose equivalent and in some areas more extensive obligations. The FCA expects listed companies to maintain a regulated information service, publish inside information promptly, and make financial reports and governance disclosures available in a structured, accessible format.
In both cases, failure to comply is not merely an administrative risk — it can trigger regulatory action and cause reputational damage at precisely the moment a company is trying to establish credibility with new shareholders. The website is not just a marketing asset. It is a compliance surface.
The IPO timeline
Understanding when investor communications work needs to happen is critical. The website workstream runs in parallel with the legal and financial preparation, and the two are closely linked — much of the content for the investor platform comes directly from documents being prepared by the legal and advisory team.
Due diligence and discovery
In the early phase of the IPO process, every aspect of the company is being scrutinised. This is the right time to begin the compliance review and content mapping for the investor platform. What governance disclosures are needed? What sections does the site require? Where will the data feeds come from?
Pathfinder and prospectus
The pathfinder document — an early draft of the prospectus — goes through multiple revisions. Pricing is typically added at the last moment. Much of the website content, particularly the company description, strategy overview, and management biographies, can be drafted in parallel with this process. When the final prospectus is published, it becomes a key document hosted on the investor platform.
Intention to float
At this stage, a standalone page is published — either within the existing corporate site or on a dedicated domain. This is a public signal to the market. While the intention to float page is live, the full investor platform is being built in the background, hidden from public view, tested, and populated with content.
Management roadshow and book-building
Once the intention to float is published, the management team begins the roadshow — presenting to institutional investors, answering questions, and building the order book. During this period, the investor platform needs to be substantially complete and ready to go live at short notice. Underwriters are collecting indications of interest, and any delays to the website can create friction at the worst possible moment.
First day of dealings
The full investor platform is published on or shortly after admission. Regulatory news is live immediately. The share price thumbnail typically appears within a couple of hours as exchange data becomes available. Full share price charting follows within a few days, depending on the volume of trading data. The admission document, prospectus, and intention to float announcement are moved into the document archive — usually listed under IPO documents.
Building the platform
A best-practice investor platform for a newly listed company — whether on AIM or the Main Market — needs to cover several areas from day one:
- Investor centre — a landing page highlighting key financials, share price data, recent documents, and IR contacts
- Regulatory news — an automated feed from the exchange, not manually updated. Copia’s platforms use Ticker to populate RNS announcements automatically, with optional email alert sign-up for shareholders
- Share price information — live data widgets populated from exchange feeds, not static screenshots
- Results and reports — a structured archive of annual reports, interim results, presentations, and other published documents
- Governance — board and committee information, the corporate governance statement, and relevant policies
- AIM Rule 26 or DTR compliance page — a dedicated section linking to every required document and disclosure
- Shareholder information — FAQs, contact details for registrars, brokers, and advisers, plus IPO documents
- Legal disclaimer — a jurisdictional gateway ensuring investor content is presented appropriately to visitors from different geographies
For companies where the investor site sits on a subdomain or separate URL from the main corporate site, the architecture can be relatively focused. For companies integrating investor content into their existing corporate site, the navigation and information architecture need more careful planning — but the core content requirements remain the same.
Designed for investors, not just regulators
Compliance is the baseline. The companies that get the most value from their investor platform go further: they build something that actually helps investors understand the business.
That means plain-English explanations of the strategy and business model, not just the boilerplate from the admission document. A logical investor journey through the site, with clear signposting to the information that matters most. Mobile-friendly, accessible design — because a growing number of shareholders are checking their investments on their phones. And fast load times, particularly around results announcements when traffic spikes.
The investor platform should tell the equity story as clearly as any presentation or document. Analysts and shareholders should be able to understand the investment case from the website alone. If the site is doing its job, it reduces the burden on the IR team by answering the questions investors would otherwise send by email.
After listing day
The IPO is a milestone, not a destination. Maintaining compliance and keeping content current is an ongoing responsibility — and one that catches companies out more often than it should.
Common problems we see with listed company websites include missing or outdated regulatory content, poor navigation for investors, inconsistent branding and messaging, and manual update processes that rely on third parties. These are not just inconveniences — they are compliance risks.
Copia’s platforms are built with content management systems that IR teams can update independently, without needing a developer for every change. Automated data feeds from Ticker handle the regulatory news, share price data, and financial calendar updates that would otherwise require manual intervention. And for companies that want ongoing support, a retained relationship means we are available when content needs to change, documents need publishing, or the site needs to evolve as the company grows.
We have supported companies through listings for nearly two decades. We understand AIM rules and FCA expectations, the role of Nomads and brokers, how market-sensitive information is handled, and the deadlines that cannot move. The investor platform is not the most complex part of an IPO — but it is the part your shareholders will use every day after it.