LONDON — British cybersecurity start-up Darktrace noticed its shares surge as a lot as 43% in its highly-anticipated London debut Friday.

The firm priced its shares at 250p Friday morning. At that value, Darktrace was valued at £1.7 billion ($2.four billion), the corporate mentioned.

At about 8:15 a.m. London time, Darktrace shares climbed to greater than 358p, up 43%.

Darktrace mentioned its providing would comprise round 66 million shares — or about 9.6% of Darktrace’s issued share capital — and lift a complete of £165.1 million.

Of that, £143.four million will go to the corporate, whereas £21.7 million will go to present shareholders. The firm has mentioned an extra 9.9 million shares shall be offered if demand proves increased than anticipated.

Darktrace shares began buying and selling in conditional dealings underneath the ticker “DARK” Friday morning. Unconditional dealings are count on to start on May 6.

It’s the second main take a look at of London’s urge for food for high-growth tech corporations. Last month, Amazon-backed meals supply firm Deliveroo flopped in its debut, plunging as a lot as 30% in one of many worst London IPOs in historical past.

Post-Brexit Britain is reforming its listings regime to lure companies like these, with a government-commissioned assessment calling for a soothing of guidelines round twin class share buildings and particular objective acquisition corporations, or SPACs.

London has had a busy 12 months of tech IPOs to date, with the likes of Deliveroo, Trustpilot and Moonpig having gone public. But some buyers are apprehensive the disappointing efficiency of Deliveroo — down over 32% from its IPO value — might put different tech companies off from itemizing in the town.

At a £1.7 billion market cap, Darktrace was pricing its IPO on the conservative finish, in comparison with the valuation of as much as $four billion it had initially hoped to achieve.

The firm’s itemizing has been dogged by considerations over its shut ties to controversial U.Ok. tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch, who’s battling extradition to the U.S.

Lynch is accused of fraudulently inflating the worth of Autonomy, the software program firm he based, to Hewlett Packard for nearly $11 billion in 2011. Lynch denies any wrongdoing.

Lynch’s Invoke Capital was an early investor in Darktrace. Darktrace’s CEO Poppy Gustafsson and Chief Strategy Officer Nicole Eagan additionally each used to work at Autonomy. For its half, Darktrace says that Lynch has no direct involvement with the day-to-day operating of the corporate.

Founded in 2013 in Cambridge by a gaggle of former intelligence consultants and mathematicians, Darktrace makes use of synthetic intelligence to detect and reply to cyberthreats in a enterprise’ IT methods. It’s raised a complete of $230.5 million from buyers up to now, in response to Crunchbase.