(Reuters) – Wednesday’s Nasdaq Inc report showed a 16% increase in fourth quarter profit. This was a result of Wall Street expectations, driven by the fast pace of U.S. Initial Public Offerings and high demand for investment-related products.

The quarter’s IPO boom was led by technology, health, and financial tech companies. It included Rivian Automobil Inc’s impressive debut on the Exchange that valued Rivian at $100 billion.

The tech-oriented Nasdaq was able to surpass rival New York Stock Exchange in 2021 and host new listings for 1,000 companies. This represents $181 billion capital raised. 752 of the global listings were IPOs. These included Chipmaker GlobalFoundries Inc. as well as fintech Coinbase. (NASDAQ: Global).

Nasdaq recorded an adjusted profit for its quarter ended December 31, at $1.93 per shares. According to Refinitiv’s IBES data, analysts were anticipating $1.78 per share.

Although the transatlantic exchange operator still operates bourses, Nasdaq is expanding into software to position itself as an investment company in financial technology, offering cloud, analytics and data services.

Revenue from the solutions division grew 19% to $581 millions. The company’s investment analytics products which allow customers to research different asset classes and make investments decisions are key growth drivers.

In the same quarter, it also introduced a cloud-based database management platform that is geared to investment management companies.

From $788 million last year, the net revenue of the company was 12% lower at $885million. Over the same time, market services revenues rose by 5% to $303million.

Similar to other financial institutions, Nasdaq saw an increase of 15% in operating expenses due to increased employee compensation and benefits.