Snapchat's parent company was valued at more than $30bn (£24bn) on Thursday as investors brushed off fears about heavy losses to send shares soaring in the biggest technology float for years.

The 41pc share price leap as Snap debuted on the New York Stock Exchange in the biggest listing for a tech company in three years. It makes the messaging app’s 26-year-old founder Evan Spiegel, who founded Snapchat six years ago, worth more than $5bn.

Wall Street and Silicon Valley have waited for the initial public offering with baited breath as a barometer of the appetite for technology flotations, with a wave of start-ups worth billions of dollars primed to tap the public markets.

However, Snap’s heavy losses and slowing user growth have drawn unflattering comparisons to Twitter, which has endured a tumultuous few years as a public company, and the sale of shares without voting rights has created corporate governance concerns.