After pricing its IPO at $21, above the expected range of $19 to $20, Atlassian began trading up 32% at $27.67 in its debut on the Nasdaq today. This gives the company a valuation of $5.8 billion.
The Australia-based unicorn, whose backers include Accel and T. Rowe Price, raised capital at over a $3.3 billion valuation in the private markets. In the wake of companies like Square and Box going public beneath their last valuation, Atlassian stands out as one of the strongest tech IPOs of this year. It is also the last tech IPO of the year.
What’s different about Atlassian is that it is profitable. While venture investors often give startups a pass on profitability, focusing on growth, public investors have been holding up the financials to a higher bar.
Investors are “responding to the unique characteristics of the company,” Atlassian President Jay Simons told TechCrunch. It’s “a business that’s really been thoughtful about the long-term.”
Atlassian competes with Slack with its enterprise chat product, Hipchat. JIRA, Bitbucket, and Confluence are other software brands in Atlassian’s comprehensive suite.
The company says it has 51,000 corporate customers and over 5 million monthly active users. Its client list includes Citi, Visa, Facebook, Salesforce and Ebay.
It is not often that Australian tech companies catch the attention of Silicon Valley, but Simons says that is going to change. “The world is getting flatter. You’re going to see great companies spring from every country of the globe.”
Coming out of a lackluster year for tech IPOs, investors will be watching the performance of Atlassian as a bellwether for the IPO markets in 2016.
Founded in 2002, Sydney-based Atlassian has more than 1400 employees. It is listed under the ticker, “TEAM.”