The boss of an AIM-listed tech company has said she would be ‘very disappointed’ if the stock exchange market were to close amid concerns it is not fit for purpose.

Claire Milverton, CEO of data management software business 1Spatial, said being listed on the AIM market had been a crucial component of the company’s success.

She told UKTN: “We had a difficult time a few years ago where we had to raise some money to pay off bank debt and it gave us the money to invest in our technology and allowed us to expand to the US.

“So I would be very disappointed if that took place. I think the market is excellent for companies like us so we are not burdened with a full list of regulation.

“We’ve got very supportive shareholders, we’ve created these transformational apps for the market. [Without AIM] I don’t think we would have had the success of where we are today.”

Milverton’s remarks come amid renewed calls to shut AIM and roll it into the London Stock Exchange’s main market.

In a new report, the Tony Blair Institute said the exchange should instead introduce a “special route to listing” specifically for “high-growth firms in emerging technology sectors.”

“AIM has failed in its stated purpose of providing a home for scaling businesses,” the report said, adding the London main market had been left “dependent on legacy firms” such as energy and finance companies.

But Milverton cautioned that joining the main market could be damaging to 1Spatial, exposing the £70m market cap firm to a raft of fresh regulation, adding she worried whether main-market shareholders would be as supportive to a firm like hers which didn’t pay dividends.

1Spatial today saw its shares rise as the data business posted growing sales and hailed the success of its rapid expansion across the US.

The Cambridge-based business said it had expanded its geographic footprint to 21 US states, had secured new contracts with prominent French cities and had signed a new £1m deal with a major county council in the UK.

Revenues for the six months to end July rose 5% to £16.2m while pre-tax earnings jumped 18% to £2m. Shares rose 2% to 67p.

“When I came on board we had one US client which was the US census,” Milverton said. “We’re now in around 4-5 federal agencies…s0 we’ve really grown over the last few years and we really see the growth potential there.”

James Ashton, CEO of the Quoted Companies Alliance, said: “AIM is an essential alternative for growth companies that feel they are not ready for the Main Market. Its loss would narrow UK funding options and risk engraining further a one-size-fits-all approach to regulation and governance that punishes small, entrepreneurial stocks.

“Without it, I suspect fewer companies would IPO and more that are quoted would quickly go private.”