(Reuters) – Affirm Holdings Inc, a U.S. provider of installment loans to online buyers, said on Wednesday it had sold shares in its initial public offering (IPO) at $ 49 apiece, above its target range, to raise $ 1.2 billion.

Affirm said it has offered 24.6 million shares of its Class A common stock and that the shares are expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq later today under the ticker symbol “AFRM”.

Affirm, founded by PayPal Holdings Inc co-founder Max Levchin, had planned to sell 24.6 million shares at a target price of between $ 41 and $ 44 each. The company had increased the stock offering from a range of $ 33 to $ 38 per share on Monday.

The IPO, the largest U.S. listing to date in 2021, indicates investor appetite for new stocks remains robust after a stellar 2020, which was the strongest IPO market in two decades.

Levchin founded Affirm in 2012 to provide easily accessible financing primarily targeting young online shoppers, who repay in monthly installments. The company generated revenue of $ 174 million in the three months ended September 2020, up 98% from the previous year. Its net losses were reduced to $ 15.3 million from $ 30.7 million. As of June 2020, Affirm was in debt of $ 1.1 billion.

In addition to Levchin, Affirm’s main investors include Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, venture capitalists Khosla Ventures and Lightspeed Venture Funds, and Canadian e-commerce company Shopify Inc.

Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Allen & Co are the main underwriters of Affirm’s offering.

(Reporting by Joshua Franklin in Miami and Chibuike Oguh in New York; Additional reporting by Maria Ponnerhath; Editing by Chris Reese, Christopher Cushing and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)