Hot tech market leads to upsized IPO for Toronto e-commerce company Pivotree [Video]

Toronto e-commerce company Pivotree Inc. has almost doubled the size of its initial public offering in response to heavy demand from institutional investors who have flocked this year to Canadian tech stocks and online commerce providers.

Pivotree, led by Bill Di Nardo, founder of Canadian e-commerce pioneer Grocery Gateway, originally set out this month to raise $35-million on the TSX Venture Exchange by selling between 4.7 million and 5.4 million shares at $6.50 to $7.50 apiece. The offering is being underwritten by Canaccord Genuity, National Bank Financial, Cormark Securities and Paradigm Capital.

However, two sources familiar with Pivotree say it was overwhelmed by more than $600-million worth of orders for the stock – more than 17 times the offering size. Roughly 80 per cent of that comes from institutional investors, the sources say – a significant amount for a tech issue on Canada’s junior exchange.

As a result, Pivotree increased …