The serial entrepreneur who set up her tracking technology company after losing sight of her child during a shopping trip has picked bankers to take it onto the London stock market.

Sky News understands that Sara Murray, who founded Buddi in 2005, has appointed Zeus Capital to oversee an initial public offering later this year.

A public listing could value Buddi at about £500m.

Ms Murray, who also created a marketing software product for big companies such as GlaxoSmithKline and Procter & Gamble, went on to establish the price comparison site Confused.com.

Her subsequent experience in a supermarket, when her five year-old daughter went missing for five minutes, prompted her to create a tracking device which then became used to monitor prisoners and vulnerable people.

It now supplies technology to more than 80% of local authorities in the UK and to government customers around the world.

The Buddi founder’s plans to take the company public will crystallise a huge paper windfall for her and other early investors.

The company will join a queue of tech-enabled businesses joining the London stock market this year.

Moonpig and Trustpilot have already floated, while Deliveroo’s dismal debut has been the most notable IPO so far of 2021.

On Monday, Darktrace, the cybersecurity company, confirmed a Sky News report about its plan to list with a valuation of up to £3bn.

Buddi declined to comment on Tuesday.

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