Ad tech company The Trade Desk goes public at $28.75 per share - a huge pop on its $18 price target

California-based ad tech company The Trade Desk announced it will debut on the Nasdaq later on Wednesday at $28.75.

That's a nice pop on the $16 to $18 per share price range the company had set on Monday.

The Trade Desk is a demand-side platform that works with advertising agencies, allowing them to buy online ads using automated technologies.

The firm is selling 4,666,667 shares of its Class A common stock, while shareholders are selling up to 700,000 Class A common shares.

$TTD will begin trading later on Wednesday afternoon.

In a note sent to clients earlier this week, Pivotal Research analyst Brian Wieser predicted investors will place a high valuation on the company, "likely approaching or exceeding $1 billion in the near term and making it the second most valuable ad tech pure-play after Criteo." France-based Criteo has a market cap north of $2 billion.

The Trade Desk's stock market debut marks the first pure-play ad tech IPO since MaxPoint listed - with a disastrous 15% share price drop in its first day of trading - in March 2015.

The was underwritten by Citigroup, Jefferies, RBC Capital Markets, Needham, and Raymond James.

Here's a run-down of some of the most important numbers from The Trade Desk's S1 filing (year end 2015, except where stated):

Revenue: $113.8 million, up 155.5% year-on-year

Adjusted EBITDA: $39.2 million, up 589% year-on-year

Cash: $37.6 million (as of June 30, 2016)

Gross spend: $552.3 million

Gross billings: $529.9 million

Accounts receivable, net: $191.9 million

Accounts payable: $108.5 million

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