Canadian tech unicorn Lightspeed stock jumps after TSX IPO

Shares in Montreal-based technology company Lightspeed POS Inc. jumped on their first day of trading Friday, up 18.3 per cent.

Founded in 2005, the software company provides point of sale, payment processing and other services for other almost 50,000 restaurants and other businesses. The company processed $13 billion worth of transactions last year, according to company filings. But those same filings also show the company has yet to turn a profit.

It raised $240 million in an initial public offering on Thursday, selling 15 million shares for $16 each. Friday is the first day the general public can buy the shares on the stock market, and they are eagerly bidding them up in early trading. The shares were trading at just over $20 each nearmidday, with more than 5 million shares changing hands, and closingat $18.90.

The $16 IPO price ishigher than the range of $13 to $15 the company had given as an expected range when it announced its plans to go public last month. That's because the offering was more popular than anticipated, so they were able to raise their price.

The IPO has sold off just under one fifthof the company for $240 million, giving the company a total value of $1.4 billion. That officially makes the company what's known as a unicorn in start-up circles a valuation of $1 billion before going public.

At $240 million, the launch officially makes Lightspeed oneof the 10 biggest technology IPOsin the history of the Toronto Stock Exchange. Ottawa-based Shopify Inc. raised about half that much in its 2015 IPO, and thatcompany has since grown to be worth $27billion.

"We are very proud to welcome a leading-edge technology company and homegrown Canadian innovation story to our market," TSX's president of capital formation,Loui Anastasopoulos, said in a release.

Despite going public, thecompany's dual-share voting structure means that controlling interest in the company will remain with company insiders, including CEO and founderDaxDasilva.

Lightspeed currently has 700 employees spread across eight locationsin Canada, the U.S., Europe and Australia, and has customers in 100 countries around the world.