Shopify Inc. is raising more than US$1 billion as it goes to market shortly after vaulting past Royal Bank of Canada to briefly become the country’s most valuable company.

The Ottawa-based e-commerce platform announced after Thursday's closing bell that it's issuing 1.85 million subordinate voting shares in an offering led by Citigroup and Credit Suisse. The underwriters have been granted an over-allotment option that could increase the size of the share sale by 15 per cent, according to the release from Shopify.

Early Friday, Shopify confirmed it’s pricing the offering at US$700 per share, for gross proceeds of US$1.295 billion. The company said those funds will be used to "strengthen its balance sheet,​ providing flexibility to fund its growth strategies."

As of the close of trading Thursday, Shopify’s market valuation was $119.17 billion, compared to RBC’s $119.87 billion.

The quick move to cash in on the stock's meteoric rise shouldn't come as a surprise, according to one prominent Bay Street money manager.

"If I was sitting there last night thinking about Shopify's price, I would have said to myself they should issue shares at this price because if other people are giving them such a crazy valuation, why not take some money and put it on your balance sheet at a time when cash on your balance sheet is a very valuable thing," said Som Seif, chief executive office of Purpose Investments, in an interview on BNN Bloomberg shortly after the share sale was announced.

"We don't know how this crisis, or pandemic, is going to shift and it only gives them great strength going forward," he added. "[I​] think this is a great move on their part."