May 17 (Bloomberg) -- TechTarget Inc., an operator of Web sites targeted to technology professionals, raised $100.1 million in an initial public offering, including $25 million from its venture capital backer.

Technology Crossover Ventures, which already invested $57.5 million in TechTarget, bought a quarter of the 7.7 million shares sold in the IPO yesterday, regulatory filings show.

TechTarget sold shares at $13 each, valuing the Needham, Massachusetts-based company at $569 million. Technology Crossover's new investment is a twist on the usual venture- capital strategy of selling stock in the IPO or soon after the startups they back go public. Analysts took that as a positive sign for the stock, which jumped 14 percent today.

``It's kind of refreshing to see this long-term interest,'' said William Wilson, an analyst at Morningnotes.com, an IPO research firm in Boulder, Colorado. ``This shows investors they have faith in the company.''

TechTarget's 36 Web sites appeal to technology professionals focused on specific niches, including searchmobilecomputing.com, searchnetworking.com and searchdatacenter.com.

TechTarget sold 6.43 million shares, raising $83.6 million before fees. Selling shareholders, consisting of other early investors, sold 1.27 million in the offering led by Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Morgan Stanley.

The shares, which were sold at the midpoint of TechTarget's predicted range of $12 to $14, rose $1.79 to $14.79 at 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market composite trading.

There isn't reliable data on how often venture firms put fresh money into IPO companies, said John Taylor, research director of the National Venture Capital Association.

The tactic is most common with pharmaceutical companies that are developing new drugs and aren't yet selling them, said Paul Bard, an analyst at Greenwich, Connecticut-based IPO research firm Renaissance Capital Corp.

Second Dip

New Enterprise Associates, the second-largest venture- capital firm by assets, has invested in the IPOs of three of its nine portfolio companies that have gone public since the start of 2006, said Louis Citron, general counsel of the Menlo Park, California-based company. All were pharmaceutical companies. The shares of two, Targacept Inc. in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and Novacea Inc., of South San Francisco, California, have climbed, while Iomai Corp. in Gaithersburg, Maryland, has dropped.

Technology Crossover has taken a similar path with Capella Education Co., a Minneapolis provider of online graduate courses. The shares have risen to $36.13 from a $20 initial price in November.

Profits from Web Ads

Company officials declined an interview request, citing restrictions ahead of the stock offering. Technology Crossover general partners Rick Kimball and Jay Hoag didn't respond to calls seeking comment.

TechTarget's prospectus said the firm sought $25 million in the offering, an amount reiterated by Chief Executive Officer Greg Strakosch at a May 10 presentation to investors in New York. ``They know our company best, and they are very bullish.''

TechTarget, started in 1999, posted net income of $7.17 million last year on sales of $79 million, an 18 percent increase from the prior year. In the first quarter, net income rose 39 percent to $441,000, while sales rose 23 percent to $18.3 million.

Technology Crossover, a Palo Alto, California-based company with $4.6 billion under management, bought 32 percent of TechTarget in 2004 at an average price of $5.50 a share.

The IPO's potential weak spot was a slowdown in sales growth last year, Morningnotes.com's Wilson said. The gains were smaller than those of growth stocks such as WebMD Health Corp., which went public in 2005, Renaissance Capital's Bard said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tim Mullaney in New York at tmullaney1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: May 17, 2007 16:08 EDT