Tech

Alteryx closes up 10.7% on first trading day

Alteryx CEO: Market is ready for a powerful platform like ours
VIDEO2:4402:44
Alteryx CEO: Market is ready for a powerful platform like ours

Alteryx hit the public market Friday, closing up 10.7 percent from its IPO pricing on its first trading day.

The data analytics firm was listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol AYX. Shares closed at $15.50 a share on Friday afternoon after rising as high as $17.50.

The 9 million share public offering priced at $14 a share, at the high end of the expected range of$12 to $14 a share.

An Alteryx banner outside the New York Stock Exchange on March 24, 2017.
Source: NYSE

The Irvine, California-based start-up helps business analysts prep their data, allowing them to rely less on IT and data scientists. It licenses the platform under a subscription-based model to its 2,300 customers.

"We make it really easy for analysts around the world — the citizen data scientist — to become productive in their work," co-founder and CEO Dean Stoecker told CNBC's "Squawk Alley" on Friday. "The analytic process of yesteryear ... is completely broken."

Alteryx has incurred a net loss for the past three years, losing $24.3 million in 2016, according to the latest regulatory filings. But revenue has expanded rapidly, growing from nearly $38 million in 2014 to nearly $86 million in 2016.

The money raised in the IPO will go to the "next chapter" at the company, including jumpstarting growth and potentially making acquisitions, Stoecker said.

Alteryx's offering comes amid a revival of the technology IPO market, which withered over the past few years as more start-ups opted to stay on the private market. IPOs raised $18.8 billion in 2016, down dramatically from 2014's $86.6 billion, according to Renaissance Capital. But the recent IPOs of Snap and MuleSoft have primed the market for a potential uptick.

IPOs have been bolstered by gains in the overall market. There's only been one day this year where the Dow Jones industrial average and S&P 500 indexes have closed down more than 1 percent.

Watch Alteryx ring the opening bell

Opening Bell, March 24, 2017
VIDEO0:2100:21
Opening Bell, March 24, 2017