Shares of wearable tech company Fitbit soar in initial public offering

Shares of wearable technology company Fitbit soared in its first day of trading yesterday. Shares opened up at US$30.40 (£19.2), a 52% increase on its initial public offering price (IPO) of US$20 (£13). 

Fitbit, which sells health and fitness tracking devices, raised US$732 million (£462m) for the company and its shareholders, with 36.6m shares sold. 

Shares were selling at US$29.68 (£18.7) as trading closed yesterday. The IPO now sees the San Francisco-based company valued at US$4.1 billion (£2.6bn). 

The Fitbit range of devices include the Flex, which track steps, distance and calories burned and the Zip, which similarly tracks steps, distances and calories burned and which can also sync the data to the user’s computers and smartphones. 

The success of Fitbit, whose sales more than tripled last year, to reach US$745.4m (£470m), is part of a wider consumer interest in and adoption of wearable health and fitness apps and devices.