Shares of Pinterest (PINS surged in their trading debut on Thursday, jumping nearly 30% above their initial public offering price of $19 a share.
As of mid-afternoon, the stock was up 28.3%, or $5.37, at $24.37 on the New York Stock Exchange.
Pinterest raised $1.43 billion in the IPO, which valued the company at $12.7 billion, but based on the opening trade, the valuation jumped to $15.9 billion.
The indicative range for the offering initially was $15 to $17 a share, though investors appeared to be hungrier for the online pinboard social media company despite recent challenges faced by other so-called unicorn IPOs that kicked off below their starting price. Video conferencing company Zoom Video Communications (ZM also began trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
Pinterest recently revealed that its revenue jumped 60% last year to $756 million, and that it narrowed its net loss to $63 million.
Pinterest is among the first big tech IPOs of the year . Ride-hailing company Lyft (LYFT was the first big offering to hit the market in March but has since lost about 28% of its value.
Founded in 2010 by Ben Silbermann, a former Google employee, and Evan Sharp, who was previously a designer at Facebook, Pinterest has grown to 265 million monthly users. The company burst into the mainstream in 2012 with rapid growth, but expansion has since cooled due in part to a work culture that many employees described as slow when it comes to making decisions.
