Updated with closing stock price:

Lyft Inc. might not be the first ride-hailing company to hit the road, but its successful debut on the stock market today could pave the way for a fleet of newly public tech giants.

After pricing its initial public offering at $72 a share late Thursday, well above its original list price, the San Francisco-based company saw its shares jump more than 20 percent out of the gate Friday morning, to $87 a share. That’s thanks to higher-than-expected demand from investors.

By the end of the day, the gain was a much more modest 8.7 percent, closing at $78.29 for a first-day valuation of $22.2 billion. Although that’s not a big pop, it also means Lyft didn’t leave all that much money on the table. It took home $2.3 billion.

Lyft’s IPO is being closely watched as the first of several insurgent tech startups, known as unicorns for their billion-dollar-plus valuations, set to go public this year. The company’s main competitor in the ride-hailing market, Uber Technologies Inc., is also looking to hit the stock market later this year. Others include the social media site Pinterest Inc., the workplace communications service Slack Technologies Inc. the home rental service Airbnb Inc., videoconferencing firm Zoom Video Communications Inc. and delivery service Postmates Inc.

Lyft embarked on an investor roadshow last week that saw company officials meet with prospective investors from across the U.S. The IPO was oversubscribed just two days into the roadshow.

The company’s shares could still face headwinds in coming weeks and months, however, given that the company has yet to turn a profit. In fact, it remains well and truly in the red, reporting a $911 million loss last year.

Other companies that have gone public in recent years while running deep losses, such as Snap Inc., now trade well below their debut prices. In its S-1 filing, Lyft noted that it has a “history of net losses” and cautioned that “we may not be able to achieve or maintain profitability in the future.”

“Lyft has questionable alleys to profitability,” said Holger Mueller, principal analyst and vice president of Constellation Research Inc. “But it could all work out and investors could be rewarded handsomely.”

Despite the warnings, investors are still queuing up to take a gamble on Lyft, and the most likely reason for that is its stunning growth. While the losses continued to mount, the company saw its 2018 bookings grow 78 percent from the previous year. Its revenue for the period doubled, too.

Analyst Alejandro Ortiz of SharesPost Inc. said the higher pricing of Lyft’s shares was “terrific news” for both Lyft and the other unicorns looking to follow in its footsteps.

“This pricing suggests robust demand for Lyft’s shares and a continued belief by investors in its growth story,” Ortiz said. “Without question, investors are looking beyond operating losses to the potential upside in ride-sharing. The elevated pricing also points to the advantage of being a first mover ahead of Uber. Lyft is setting the tone for the category for now.”

Lyft has also managed to avoid much of the controversy that plagues Uber, which may make the startup a more palatable offering for some more cautious investors — although some of its drivers are currently on strike in protest of what they say is lower pay.

The company, whose unsurprising stock ticker symbol is “LYFT,” has already done pretty well with financing so far. To date, it has raised some $4.91 billion in private investment funding from venture capital firms such as Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund and China’s Didi Chuxing.

SiliconANGLE’s video studio theCUBE spoke late last year with Lyft co-founder and President John Zimmer, who talked about the company’s unlikely rise in the face of intense competition from Uber.

“About four to five years ago, we wake up and Uber raises $3 billion and we have $100 million in the bank and about five months left,” Zimmer said. “Everyone said Lyft is done.”

They’re clearly not saying it anymore.

With reporting from Robert Hof

Photo: Wikimedia Commons