Groupon got its pop.

The daily deals company debuted on Wall Street yesterday with the largest tech IPO since Google, and, despite well-documented flaws in its business model, shares soared more than 50 percent in the first few hours of its public life.

Bankers set the initial share price at $20, $2 over the top of its original range — raising more than $700 million for Groupon at a valuation of $12 billion.

The price was seen as a victory for Groupon, which has had a tumultuous courtship with Wall Street. Earlier this year, the daily deal pioneer and its quirky CEO Andrew Mason were viewed as the second coming of the Internet.

But when the company filed to go public in June and its full financial details were revealed, a number of concerns emerged including wild spending and accounting trickery.

Yesterday, the doubters were ignored and the Chicago company saw its market cap reach $16.5 billion as its stock closed at $26.11, up 30.6 percent.

The valuation was less than the $30 billion bandied about at the peak of Groupon hysteria a few months ago, but it’s still far higher than the $6 billion offer the company declined from Google.

Analysts said that even yesterday’s market cap was not sustainable given Groupon’s fundamentals. A report this week from Yipit, a daily deal research firm, said that without Groupon’s newest offerings in areas such as travel, its daily deals business would have declined in North America last quarter.

A number of analysts have suggested Groupon was on the verge of missing payments on its bills, and needed the money from the IPO to pay merchants. At the end of September, Groupon had more than $500 million in bills to pay.

Despite warning signs, Groupon was the beneficiary of a well-executed IPO, led by Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse.

Bankers goosed demand by only floating about 5 percent of Groupon’s outstanding shares. Also, so as not to spook investors, no insiders sold shares in yesterday’s offering, saving them for a secondary offering that is likely to come.