Security and identity management software developer Okta announced the pricing of its IPO as it is looking to raise $187m, with $1.5bn valuation.

The shares have been priced at $17.00 each which is an increase as the company had earlier said that it would price the IPO between a range of $13-$15 per share.

Okta is looking to sell 11 million shares and it begins trading on the NASDAQ Global Select Market on 7th April under the symbol ‘OKTA’.

This IPO round increases the company’s valuation to more than its last round of private investment, where its shares were sold at $12.02 and the company was valued at $1.2bn.

The company has also readied a second offering by giving underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 1,650,000 additional shares of Class A common stock.

Underwriters for the deal include Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Securities and Allen & Co.

In the recent past, technology companies have been going IPO way to raise funds after seeing lukewarm response in 2016.

Recently, Snap went public and Yext is also planning to go public on the same day as Okta.

Okta is a company that produces identity management software, mobile device management, two-factor authentication and security for businesses.

The company was founded by a former Salesforce executive Todd McKinnon. Venture investors in the company include Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock Partners and Khosla Ventures.

Okta earned revenue of $160m in 2017 fiscal and it is about 86% more than its earnings in 2016, which stood at $86m.

During the year, its gross profit was about $104m, increasing from $50m in 2016 while net loss for the year amounted to $84m which was $76m in 2016.