Enterprise software developer Appian raised $75 million in its initial public offering, with the stock rising as much as 36% in its first day of trading.
The enterprise technology space has been heating up after a dearth of IPOs in 2016. Companies including Cloudera, MuleSoft, Yext, Okta, and Alteryx have tested the public markets so far this year.
Appian, which was formed in the dot.com boom of 1999, priced its 6.25 million share offering at $12 per share, in line with the expected range of $11 per share to $13 per share.
In trading on the Nasdaq Global Market, the stock rose as much as 36% on Thursday before closing at $15.01, a gain of 25% over the IPO price. The gains continued on Friday as the shares jumped 7.2% to $16.10.
As CNBC reports, Appian helps companies to build unique applications and automate their businesses with a “low-code” development software platform. Its 280 clients include 37 Fortune 500 companies and its largest competitors are Salesforce and ServiceNow.
“With our platform, organizations can rapidly and easily design, build and implement powerful, enterprise-grade custom applications through our intuitive, visual interface with little or no coding required,” the company said in a regulatory filing.
Appian’s revenue rose to $132.9 million last year, compared to $111.2 million in 2015 and $89 million in 2014, but it warned in its filing that “we may not continue to grow as rapidly in the future and our revenue growth rates may decline.”
CEO Matt Calkins owns a 54.7% stake in the company he founded at age 26, with Novak Biddle Venture Partners owning 21.5% prior to the offering and New Enterprise Associates owning 11.7%. Appian reportedly was valued at more than $1 billion last year, but the IPO values the company closer to $700 million.
Calkins said his company has benefited from the fact that many large organizations have found it difficult to hire tech specialists. “There is such an imbalance today in the world between the demand for software and the supply of people capable of writing it,” he told The Washington Post.