(Yicai Global) Oct.18 -- Fintech company Qudian Inc. [NYSE:QD], the largest Chinese company to list in the US this year, went public on the New York Stock Exchange yesterday. The company's shares soared nearly 50 percent on the first day of trading before closing up 22 percent.

The shares, priced at USD24, closed at USD29.18, with an intraday high of USD35.45. The firm's market value rose to USD9.68 billion.

The IPO raised a total of USD900 million and was the fourth biggest IPO this year in the US. The offering was also the largest for a Chinese company listing in the US this year.

Qudian's artificial intelligence technology is able to process 30,000 transactions per hour while only employing around 1,000 staff. The company expects to provide annual loans totaling CNY80 billion (USD12.06 billion) to CNY90 billion.

Companies in similar industries just one-third of the size of Qudian usually have up to 5,000 employees, the firm's chief financial officer said.

Qudian is a fintech and data-based credit company, while its American counterparts LendingClub and On Deck are mostly credit-driven.

The firm reported an eight-fold increase in net profit for the first six months of this year, reaching CNY973.7 million (USD143.6 million) as revenue grew nearly fivefold to CNY1.83 billion (USD270.4 million).

One of Qudian's original investors, Beijing Kunlun Tech Co. [SHE:300418], notably sold off shares prior to the IPO, transferring 588,200 for USD14.11 million. It also plans to sell an additional 1.7647 million shares at USD24 per share, bringing in a possible USD42.35 million.