Figma just pulled off one of the most electrifying IPOs in recent memory. Three years after Adobe’s $20B acquisition attempt fizzled out, the design platform made its public debut with a $19.3 billion valuation — and by the closing bell, its stock had skyrocketed, pushing Figma’s market cap to nearly $68 billion. With that, early Silicon Valley backers scored monster returns, and Figma instantly cemented its status as the most talked-about IPO of the year.
The IPO priced shares at $33 — already above the revised range of $30 to $32 — and yet that was just the beginning. Figma opened at $85 and surged as high as $124.63 in its first trading session. The company raised a stunning $1.2 billion in fresh capital, signaling massive market confidence and demand for its collaborative design tools.
Behind this breakout moment are some of the biggest names in venture capital. Index Ventures, Greylock, Kleiner Perkins, and Sequoia are now sitting on a collective $24 billion in Figma equity. After bumping its range and pricing just above the top, Figma’s stock exploded 250% on day one — a milestone moment not just for the company, but for the entire startup ecosystem.
Adobe & Figma clash over acquisition
But it wasn’t always that lucky. Figma was supposed to get acquired for $20 billion by Adobe, an agreement the two companies forged in 2022. But the following year, the transaction collapsed after U.K. regulators said the tie-up would harm competition. Figma is now worth more than 3x what Adobe was going to pay, closing on Thursday with a market cap of almost $68 billion.
The next one in the line is Mamoon Hamid, partner at Kleiner Perkins, who first invested in Figma’s Series B round in 2018, when shares were worth 33 cents. The firm put $90 million into the company (according to the unnamed source) which translated into a stake worth $1.82 billion at the company’s IPO price. By the end of Thursday, Kleiner Perkins owned $6.05 billion in Figma shares.
Hamid has invested in several Unicornas and also decacorns, a term for startups worth more than $10 billion. He said to Bloomberg he looks for “founders who want to make history,” and “who have this innate desire to solve problems that extend to millions to billions to people.”
When Sequoia Capital first spotted Figma’s potential back in the Series C days, they invested with serious conviction $150 million into the design platform. This Sequoia’s early bet is now paying off big time. At Figma’s IPO price of $33 per share, that stake was already worth $1.13 billion. Fast forward to today? It’s ballooned to a jaw-dropping $3.75 billion. That’s not a return, that’s a mic drop.
They’re not the only ones cashing in on Figma’s hyper-growth journey. Andreessen Horowitz jumped in during the Series D with a $2 billion valuation, and Durable Capital Partners took the Series E reins when the company was valued at a spicy $10 billion. All in all, Figma raised over $300 million during its private run, according to PitchBook. Not bad for a company that turned digital design into one of the hottest tickets in Silicon Valley.
With the rise of AI, Figma’s position has only strengthened. Rimer pointed out that AI has lowered the barrier to entry for app development, creating a new wave of “vibe coders” and, by extension, a surge in demand for design tools. In this context, Figma’s value proposition is more relevant than ever. The company is no longer just a design tool—it is a foundational element of the future digital landscape.
Field’s early vision, articulated through thoughtful slides as an 18-year-old intern, has proven prescient. Design, once seen as peripheral, is now at the center of technological and cultural progress. Index’s investment in Figma stands as a testament to the power of identifying visionary founders and backing them through long-term, transformative journeys.
As mentioned earlier, Figma’s IPO has became the hottest IPO of the year after a three-year tech IPO drought, as Business Insider named it. Figma even threw a massive block party in front of the New York Stock Exchange for the debut.
