Shares of Zscaler Inc. more than doubled in their trading debut today following a successful initial public offering that netted the cloud security company a war chest of $192 million.

The stock sale marks the first major tech IPO of 2018. The pop in price, even after the company raised its target price and number of shares offered, will be seen as a positive sign for tech IPOs, which have been relatively scarce in recent years. That bodes well for some upcoming, much bigger IPOs from Dropbox Inc. and Spotify AB.

The IPO also represents a big win for Zscaler, which had originally sought to raise $100 million before increasing both the number and target price of the shares in the public offering in response to investor demand. At the day’s close, its market capitalization was nearly $4 billion.

Wall Street’s enthusiasm mirrors the strong enterprise adoption of the company’s technology. Zscaler saw revenue jump 51 percent to $84.8 million in the first six months of the fiscal year ended July 31 thanks to growing demand for its namesake web gateway. Delivered via the cloud, the service enables workers to securely access their companies’ internal applications without using the virtual private networks historically needed for the task.

According to Zscaler, what sets the platform apart from VPNs is that it doesn’t necessitate giving users access to the entire corporate network. Instead, companies can restrict an employee’s permissions to the specific services they require for their work. Zscaler claims more than 2,800 customers, including 200 of the Forbes Global 2000.

Zscaler’s impressive revenue growth suggests that this installed base is expanding rapidly. But the company is spending aggressively to keep up the pace, having lost $17.9 million in the first six months of this fiscal year compared with $14.6 million the year before.

The fact that Zscaler nonetheless managed to launch a highly successful public offering is good news for other technology firms looking to go public. The tech IPO landscape is poised up to heat up considerably this year, with Dropbox Inc. set to begin trading next week and Spotify AB planning to follow suit on April 3. Recent reports suggest that online polling powerhouse SurveyMonkey Inc. is also laying the groundwork for a public offering.

Zscaler’s IPO will no doubt factor into these companies’ plans. The security provider’s shares closed the day up 106 percent, to an even $33 apiece. Although that means the company left considerable money on the table since it clearly could have priced higher, such pops nonetheless garner a lot of attention.

On the occasion of the company’s market debut, Zscaler Chief Executive Officer Jay Chaudhry (pictured) rang the NASDAQ opening bell. Chaudhry appeared on SiliconANGLE’s video studio theCUBE late last year to discuss his company’s vision:

Image: Zscaler