After its staff virtually rang the bell on the Toronto Stock Exchange Thursday, Montreal payment-processing company Nuvei made the largest-ever public debut by a tech firm, surpassing even the likes of Canadian giants Shopify and BlackBerry. In a single trading day, the company’s stock surged more than 30 per cent, and appears to be continuing its climb Friday morning as institutional investors swoop in to get a piece of the pie before the offering closes next week, and retail trading begins. As of publishing time, Nuvei’s stock was trading at $45.87, a 34 per cent increase from the IPO price of about $34. 

The investments of Nuvei’s three largest shareholders—CEO and co-founder Philip Fayer, private equity firm Novacap and Quebec pension plan Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ)—are now cumulatively worth billions. 

Here are six takeaways from Canada’s biggest tech IPO to date: 

1. With a 27 per cent stake in Nuvei, 42-year-old Fayer is now worth almost $1.6 billion. He receives an annual salary of US$625,000 and an annual bonus of US$625,000, according to public filings. Fayer could also exercise over 100,000 in options he has, which would add another $4.4 million to his net worth.

2. Nuvei’s biggest shareholder is the Quebec private equity firm Novacap, which owns 38 per cent of the company. When Nuvei went public, Novacap began liquidating some of its holdings, collecting US$75 million in the process—though it still has a $1.7-billion stake in Nuvei.

3. At Friday’s share price of $45.87, Nuvei’s market cap is a whopping $5.79 billion, comfortably placing it among the top 10 Canadian software companies by market value. The biggest software company by market cap in Canada is Constellation Software, at $31 billion.

4. CDPQ, an early investor in Nuvei, has a 17 per cent stake in the company, now worth $974.9 million. It is unclear how much it initially invested in the company, although it was part of a US$270-million equity financing round alongside Novacap last December.

5. Fayer, Novacap and the CDPQ own a cumulative 73 per cent stake in the company, but will have 96 per cent of voting control, according to the terms of the offering. Retail investors who buy into Nuvei will ultimately have very little voting power. In fact, the kind of stock that Fayer, Novacap and CDPQ own—multiple voting shares—entitle them to 10 votes for every one vote that a regular shareholder gets.

6. The syndicate of underwriters that orchestrated Nuvei’s go-public deal, which includes Goldman Sachs Canada, Credit Suisse Securities, BMO Capital Markets and RBC Capital Markets, will receive fees of US$36.75 million.