NEW YORK, May 20 (Xinhua) -- The Nasdaq Stock Market is thrilled to see more and more Chinese companies come and launch initial public offerings (IPOs) in U.S. markets this year, which are driven by upbeat growth prospects, according to a senior official at the U.S. stock exchange.

The impressive numbers of Chinese IPOs listed on Nasdaq to date appear to indicate a rising trend for Chinese companies to seek exposure and new capital in U.S. markets, Robert McCooey, senior vice president of Nasdaq's Listing Services unit, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

"We saw a great year with 22 IPOs from China on Nasdaq last year, already 15 from China this year. So we expect that we should surpass last year's number and the pipeline continues to be very, very strong for Chinese companies who are interested in accessing the U.S. capital markets," McCooey said.

"So we are seeing companies of all shapes, all sizes, all kinds of sectors (in China) coming to the market. Most of them are (of) very high growth with a huge market. And what we're seeing is a big pipeline," said McCooey, who has worked for Nasdaq for 13 years.

The U.S. equity market witnessed an IPO boom with a total of 43 Chinese companies coming in 2018, a marked upswing from the 24 firms in 2017 and 10 in 2016, according to data from Wind, a financial data provider.

The year of 2018, which McCooey called "a terrifically strong year at Nasdaq," witnessed seven of the largest 10 technology IPOs by proceeds landing on the New York City-based stock exchange.

Among them, Chinese video streaming service iQiyi raised 2.25 billion U.S. dollars, and Chinese e-commerce Pinduoduo gathered 1.62 billion dollars, both topping the tally, based on statistics released by Nasdaq.

So far this year, the IPO proceeds of Nasdaq-listed Chinese companies were also significant, said the Wall Street veteran. Prior to Luckin Coffee's U.S. debut on Friday, around 800 million dollars had been collected through the 14 Chinese IPOs.

The Chinese coffee retailer, a key competitor to Starbucks with an aggressive expansion strategy, raised 561 million dollars solely via its IPO at a price of 17 dollars a share.

The optimism came as the McCooey also believed that U.S. investors have remained bullish on the growth prospects of Chinese companies overall in the long term, especially in the fields such as health care, consumer brands, technology and e-commerce, as "they are building amazing businesses."

"We're seeing a whole variety of amazing companies from China who have a terrific total addressable market of 1.4 billion people that they can sell to," he said. "So we are very high on the opportunity for more and more Chinese companies (to) come raise money here on Nasdaq and in the U.S. markets."

He noted that there has been "a very strong tendency" for U.S. investors to look for rapidly-growing companies across the world. "And certainly we're finding more and more of those companies are coming from China."

"Middle class is growing in China. Opportunities to bring new products and services to China are certainly something that's of value. And so investors are looking for that," McCooey said.

The Nasdaq insider also remains bullish on the U.S. equity market as the world's "most liquid market with the most fit, sophisticated investors."

"And we're looking forward to welcoming so many more Chinese companies in the future to come to our market."