Eventbrite Stock Up 60% In Market Debut

Concert and event ticketing platform Eventbrite stick soared as much as 70% during its Thursday IPO.  Eventbrite shares had been priced $23 but at opened at $36 and climbed as high as $39.30 before ending the day up 59% at $36.50 per share.

The self-service Eventbrite platform is popular with smaller venues and promoters, and its Ticketfly platform is one of the most aggressive alternatives to Ticketmaster. 

The  Eventbrite IPO is one of the biggest opening-day gains in recent months. The company is now valued above $1.76 billion and the IPO raised $230 million. 

"We really are focused on investing in the future, and so whether that's expanding into more categories or countries, that's really where we're focused," Eventbrite CEO Julia Hartz told CNBC's "Squawk Alley." "I think that we've proven that we can be great stewards of capital, so we're going to keep doing that."

"I think the appetite for a platform like Eventbrite that serves the mid-market of events, ticketing 3 million events last year, is something that's quite rare and I think the appetite is reaffirming for us that we have a strong business and decades more to go," said Hartz.