In an encouraging sign for tech startups, Coupa just raised the price of its IPO shares

Coupa Software is the next tech IPO, expected to happen on Thursday, and in a hopeful sign for the company, it just raised its price range to $16-$18 per share, from $14-$16.

Coupa offers procurement cloud software, competing with companies like SAP's Ariba.

The price raise comes a few days after the last tech IPO hit one out of the ballpark. Nutanix was valued at about $2 billion by its venture investors, but it initially priced its stock so low, it could have been worth less.

However, its stock soared over 130% by the end of its first day of trading and went even higher on day two. Shares have settled back to about $38, giving it a valuation of over $6 billion.

Nutanix was a test case for so-called "unicorn" tech startups, those valued by a $1 billion or more by their venture investors. There's been concern that many of these companies were stuck, still burning cash, but unable to go pubic at a high enough valuation to satisfy their investors, and unable to raise more money from private investors.

If the public market opens them with open arms, a lot of high-valued tech companies will be encouraged to go public. (Some, such as Okta, are believed to be waiting in the wings.)

Coupa's venture investors valued it at just shy of a $1 billion (about $941 million, according to Pitchbook.) If shares don't pop, the IPO will be akin to a down round for Coupa, valuing it less than its private venture capitalists did. At the mid-range, it expects to raise just under $126 million.

Coupa is still in the red and spending heavily on sales and marketing, though its sales are growing.

• It had $83.6 million in revenue in 2015 (up 66% year-over-year)
• It lost $46 million last year. But its net loss is shrinking, as it lost $24.3 million in the first six months of this year, slightly down from the $25.1 million net loss recorded in the same period of last year.
• It spent 62% of its revenue on sales and marketing. That dropped to 45% in the first six months of this year.
• It holds ~$80 million in cash as of July 2016. Coupa's raised $169 million total in private funding.