Fifteen years ago, lots of clever people said the internet would transform how companies raise capital, dramatically reducing the costs. Those very clever people at Google were convinced a revolution was at hand, and used a mould-breaking auction process for the company’s own stock market flotation.

And what happened? A decade-and-a-half later, the way companies raise capital from public investors is almost unchanged. And so are the costs: US companies still shell out an average of 7% of the amount raised.