On Wednesday, Ottawa’s hot tech superstar Shopify -- a burgeoning software empire -- priced its initial public offering (IPO) at $17 a share, above the price range that had already been increased due to strong investor demand.

From $12-$14 to $14-$16 range and finally to its current price -- this in short sums up the journey of Shopify from Canada to Wall Street.

Along the way, it sold 7.7 million shares, raising $130.9 million. This gave Shopify a market valuation of approximately $1.26 billion. Shopify listed its shares on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges, with the tickers SH and SHOP, respectively. Shares began trading today, ending the day on the NYSE at $25.68, 51% over the opening price.

The IPO’s underwriters are Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, and RBC Capital Markets, Pacific Crest Securities, Raymond James, and Canaccord Genuity.

Shopify

Established in 2006, Shopify provides software tools for e-commerce retailers (including storefronts), payment processing and apps for checkout. It previously raised a total of $122 million in private funding.

Close on the heels of the keenly watched IPO of New York-based Etsy (ETSY - Snapshot Report), an e-commerce site, Shopify filed for an IPO in mid-April. The filing revealed that Shopify at the time had more than 162,000 merchant customers in 150 countries, yielding $105 million in revenues for the company in 2014.

However, according to the document, for the last three years, Shopify has been losing an increasing amount of money. For the first three months of 2015, it reported a loss of $4.5 million and total deficit of $33.6 million (cumulative) over the years. The company expects the losses to continue.

Shopify also recognized numerous risks like its heavy dependence on resellers to build its business, and the fact that it outsources the processing of its payments to a company called Stripe.

It also states that its competitors include seller services providers like Square and Intuit, online marketplaces like Amazon (AMZN - Analyst Report), eBay (EBAY - Analyst Report) and Etsy and domain registrars like GoDaddy (GDDY - Snapshot Report).

Canadian Tech Sector

Shopify’s IPO carries the hopes of the promising Canadian tech sector on its shoulders.

The CEOs of Canadian startups and their venture backers will be keenly following the journey of Shopify once trading begins and the extent of demand from big institutional investors.

According to the Globe and Mail, If Shopify does well on the Wall Street; it could lead to initial public offerings by other Canadian tech companies, predominantly the ones that offer Internet-based subscription software services like Vancouver’s Hootsuite Media Inc. and PointClickCare of Mississauga.

Shopify is the first Canadian company to be listed on a U.S. exchange this year. According to Thomson Reuters data, last year, there were four U.S. IPOs by Canadian companies that raised about $517 million.