Zhangmen Education kicked off life as a U.S.-traded public company on Tuesday after its initial public offering raised nearly $42 million.

Shares of Zhangmen (ticker: ZME) opened at $16.13 and hit a high of $20.52 in midday trading. The stock recently changed hands at $16.14, up 43% from its offer price.

The strong debut came after China-based Zhangmen sold 3.6 million shares at $11.50 each, near the bottom of its $11 to $13 price range. Each American depositary receipt represents nine class A ordinary shares, a prospectus said.

Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse are underwriters on the deal.

Zhangmen is the first of nine companies scheduled to list their shares this week. Marqeta, a technology platform for card issuers, is slated to price its IPO later Tuesday and trade Wednesday on the Nasdaq.

Zhangmen is an online education company based in Shanghai offering courses to K-12 students. It also provides an after-school tutoring service in China as well as early-childhood education services. The company had more than 45,000 teachers in its employ as of March 31.

Zhangmen isn't profitable. Losses widened to 497.3 million Chinese yuan ($76 million) for the quarter ended March 31 from losses of 2 million Chinese yuan for the same period in 2020. Revenue rose 20% to 1.35 million Chinese yuan, a prospectus said.

Zhangman is the latest Chinese education company to come to market. First High-School Education Group (ticker: FHS), an operator of private high schools in Western China, fell below its $10 IPO price in March. In December, 17 Education & Technology Group (YQ), a Chinese education technology company, ended its first day nearly flat at $10.57, up seven cents from its $10.50 offer price.

Write to Luisa Beltran at luisa.beltran@dowjones.com