Shares in online payments company Affirm Holdings Inc. nearly doubled on their public debut on the Nasdaq today as the market for initial public offerings in 2021 appears to be as hot as it was in 2020.

Affirm operates in the “buy now, pay later” short-term finance market, a segment of the financial services industry that has become popular over the last few years. The company priced its shares in its IPO at $49, above its initial target range of $41 to $44. But those numbers meant nothing to investors as Affirm shares surged to more than $100 at one point before closing regular trading at $97.24, up 98% over its IPO price.

Comparing Affirm to other IPOs is somewhat difficult since there’s not a lot a precedent in the short-term finance market. As noted in November, one of its main competitors, Afterpay Ltd., went public in Australia at AU$2.95 ($2.13) a share in 2017. As of  Nov. 12 it was trading at AU$101.70 ($73.49) for a market capitalization of $20.9 billion. Today it was trading at AU$118.69 ($92.02) for a market cap of $33.9 billion.

Next up for notable IPOs are mobile gaming company Playtika Holding Corp., pet retailer Petco Animal Supplies Inc. and online fashion marketplace Poshmark Inc., according to Reuters.

Playtika is a digital entertainment company that specializes in free-to-play mobile games. Based in Israel, the company was acquired by a consortium led by Chinese firm Giant Network Technology Co. Ltd. for $4.4. billion in 2016. An attempt by Giant Network Technology to take over the company in full was suspended in November. Playtika is reported to be raising $1.6 billion in its IPO at a valuation of $8.6 billion to $9.4 billion.

Petco Animal Supplies is a pet retailer that sells various pet products and services. Founded in 1965, the company is going public after having been acquired by CVC Capital Partners and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board in 2016 for $4.6 billion. Petco’s IPO could value the company at around $6 billion, Bloomberg reported in November.

Poshmark is a community fashion marketplace founded in 2011. The company has strong backing from prominent venture capital firms including Mayfield, Menlo Ventures, Inventus Capital, Union Grove Venture Partners, Shea Ventures and SoftTech VC. Poshmark has priced its shares for its IPO at $42 each with the company looking to raise around $277 million.

While startups continue to go pursue IPOs, one notable trend is the continued emergence of special-purpose acquisition companies going public. A SPAC is a company with no commercial operations that is formed to strictly raise capital through an IPO for the purpose of acquiring or merging with an existing company.

Using a SPAC has become an increasingly popular way to take tech startups public with 250 in 2020. According to Nasdaq data, 19 companies with the name “acquisition corp.” went public between Jan. 7 and Jan. 12, with other SPACs likely doing so as well that don’t include the term. There are four more companies with “acquisition corp.” in their names scheduled to go public on Thursday alone.

Photo: Italia allONU/Wikimedia Commons