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Figma

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Figma
DevelopersFigma, Inc.
ReleaseSeptember 27, 2016; 9 years ago (2016-09-27)
Stable release(s) [±]
Windows126.7.10 / July 28, 2026; 4 days ago (2026-07-28)[1]
Android26.27 / July 20, 2026; 12 days ago (2026-07-20)[2][3]
iOS[a]26.27 / July 21, 2026; 11 days ago (2026-07-21)[4]
Operating system
Discontinued
Type
LicenseProprietary
Websitefigma.com
Figma, Inc.
TypePublic
NYSE: FIG (Class A)
IndustrySoftware
Founded2012; 14 years ago (2012)
FoundersDylan Field
Evan Wallace
HeadquartersPhelan Building,
San Francisco, California
,
United States
Key people
Dylan Field (chairman and CEO)
ProductsFigma
FigJam
Figma Slides
Figma Sites
Figma Make
Figma Buzz
Figma Draw
Figma Weave
RevenueIncrease US$1.06 billion (2025)
Decrease US$–1.29 billion (2025)
Decrease US$–1.25 billion (2025)
Total assets Increase US$2.35 billion (2025)
Total equity Increase US$1.51 billion (2025)
Members13 million users (2025)
Number of employees
1,886 (2025)
Websitehttps://www.figma.com
Footnotes
[5]

Figma, Inc. is an American company that develops software for user interface design. Founded in 2012 by Dylan Field and Evan Wallace, it provides a collaborative web-based application for interface design, along with companion desktop and mobile apps.[6][7] Figma has 13 million users as of 2025.[8]

Figma began as a startup building a web-based application for user interface design that allowed many simultaneous users. The application was built using WebGL and WebAssembly to render complex vector graphics with hardware acceleration by accessing the host computer's graphics processing unit (GPU) from the browser.[9][10] Over time, Figma added features for designing both user interface and user experience, with an emphasis on real-time collaboration.[11]

Features

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Figma allows users to create designs in three different modes: design mode, prototype mode and developer mode.[12]

Design mode enables users to draw shapes, frames and components, apply styles and modify layers to organize their canvases.

Prototype mode creates interactive flows between frames and screens so that users can test UX, link frames to simulate navigation and set interactions like "On click" or "While hovering".

Developer mode or dev mode allows users to inspect elements for code snippets, download assets marked for export, see variables and tokens, and view dimensions easily.[13]

These tools combined allow users to use Figma to create interactive designs for uses like web development.

In May 2025 at Figma Config 2025, Figma announced Figma Sites in Beta. The feature allows designers to publish designs directly to the web. [14]

History

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2012–2016: Founding, product launch, funding

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Dylan Field and Evan Wallace began working on Figma in 2012 while studying computer science at Brown University. Wallace studied graphics and was a Teaching Assistant for the Computer Science Department, while Field chaired the CS Departmental Undergraduate Group.[15][16]

The original objective behind Figma was to enable "anyone [to] be creative by creating free, simple, creative tools in a browser." Field and Wallace experimented with different ideas, including software for drones and a meme generator, before settling on web-based graphics editor software. In a 2012 article, the company's early scope was vaguely described by The Brown Daily Herald as "a technology startup that will allow users to creatively express themselves online." That article reported that the company's first ideas revolved around 3D content generation, and subsequent ideas focused on photo editing and object segmentation.[16]

Field was named a Thiel Fellow in 2012, earning him $234,460 in exchange for taking a leave of absence from college. Wallace joined Field in California after completing his degree in computer science, and the two began working on the company full time.[17] By 2015, Figma had built a web-based tool for user interface design that allows for many simultaneous users. The company cited the ability of WebGL in accessing a computer's graphics processing unit (GPU) from the browser, and its application utilized WebGL and WebAssembly to render complex vector graphics with hardware acceleration. Figma said its "viewer" application was written in Skew, a new programming language at the time, while the rest of the application was based in C++.[9][10][18]

Figma started offering a free invite-only preview program on December 3, 2015.[19] It saw its first public release on September 27, 2016.[20]

Funding

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In June 2013, Figma raised $3.8 million in seed funding (lead investor Index Ventures and Terrence Rohan).[21] In December 2015, the company raised $14 million in Series A funding (lead investor Greylock).[22] In February 2018, Figma raised $25 million in a Series B round (lead investor Kleiner Perkins).[23]

In February 2019, Figma raised $40 million in Series C funding (lead investor Sequoia Capital).[15] In April 2020, Figma raised $50 million in a Series D funding round (lead investor Andreessen Horowitz).[24] In June 2021, Figma raised $200 million in a Series E funding round (lead investor Durable Capital Partners).[25]

2017–2024: Expansion, Adobe acquisition attempt

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On October 22, 2019, Figma launched Figma Community,[26] allowing designers to publish their work for others to view and adapt.

On April 21, 2021, Figma launched a digital whiteboarding capability called FigJam, allowing users to collaborate with sticky notes, emojis and drawing tools.[27]

On June 9 2021, Figma enters the ICO under management by Polychain Capital.[28]

In June 2022, Google for Education announced that it would be partnering with Figma to bring its design and prototyping platform, as well as FigJam, to education Chromebooks.[29]

In June 2023, Figma launched Dev Mode to help developers translate designs into code faster.[30]

In June 2024, Figma launched Figma Slides (also known as Flides) in beta, a presentation programme that allows users to collaborate on presentation slides.[31]

Attempted acquisition by Adobe

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By April 2020, Figma was valued at more than $2 billion.[24][32] and $10 billion by the end of May 2021.[25] On September 15, 2022, Adobe announced it had entered into an agreement to acquire Figma for about $20 billion in cash and stock, the company's largest acquisition to-date, with Field remaining as CEO.[33][34] Members of the design community showed concerns for the future of the product — including potential or mandatory integration with Adobe Creative Cloud, or being forced to adopt business models otherwise unfavorable in comparison to those presently used by Figma.[35][36] Adobe shares fell by 17% following the announcement.[35]

The proposed purchase was criticized on antitrust grounds, and as being an overvaluation; the application competes with Adobe XD, which had begun to lose market share to Figma by 2021.[37][35] John Naughton went as far as comparing the purchase to Facebook's acquisition of WhatsApp, a move that was intended to prevent it from growing into a competitor to Facebook's core businesses.[37] On November 2, 2022, it was reported that the US Department of Justice had begun an investigation of the merger.[38] In February 2023, it was announced the European Commission would review the acquisition under the European Union merger laws.[39]

On December 18, 2023, Figma and Adobe both announced they were mutually agreeing to abandon their merger,[40][41] with Adobe citing that there was "no clear path to receive necessary regulatory approvals from the European Commission and the UK Competition and Markets Authority."[42] Adobe said it would pay the $1 billion reverse breakup fee to Figma as part of the initial agreement.[43][44] After the Adobe acquisition of Figma fell through, CB Insights noted that based on earning metrics, Figma would be worth between $8.3-9 billion.[45]

2025–present: AI integration, IPO

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At the Config 2025 conference (May 7, 2025) in San Francisco and London, Figma introduced four new major product lines: [46]

  • Figma Sites – AI-driven website and web app builder with CMS features.
  • Figma Make – AI prototype-and-code generation tool powered by Anthropic's Claude 3.7 model.
  • Figma Buzz – AI-enhanced marketing content creator aimed at brands.
  • Figma Draw – A richer vector illustration tool with advanced brushes and editing, rivaling Adobe Illustrator.

By this time, Figma's website provided desktop application versions for macOS, Windows, and Linux for download and installation. The desktop apps supported offline work, allowing the users continue editing without internet connection. Any offline changes would sync once the app reconnects to the internet.[6] The company also offered a companion mobile app,[7] and had over 3000 plugins.[47][48]

Figma acquired Israeli AI startup Weavy for over $200 million in October 2025, and established a new R&D center in Tel Aviv. The company rebranded Weavy under the new name Figma Weave, with the team and technology now integrated into Figma's platform to enhance AI-powered image and video editing tools and creative workflows.[49][50]

Initial public offering

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In April 2025, Figma announced that it had begun to file confidential paperwork for an initial public offering (IPO) with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).[51] On July 1, 2025, the company formally filed for a listing on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) with the ticker symbol "FIG".[52] The company went public on July 31, with shares opening at $85 and closing the day with a market value of $56.3 billion after the stock more than tripled its IPO price.[53][54] Figma had 13 million users by this time.[8][55] The stock has since dropped below $20 at a less than $10 billion market value in June 2026.

In February 2026, Figma announced integrations with both Anthropic's Claude Code and OpenAI's Codex via the Model Context Protocol, allowing engineers to iterate between design and code environments without leaving their existing tools.[56] In April 2026, Mike Krieger, Anthropic's chief product officer and co-founder of Instagram, resigned from Figma's board of directors after reports that Anthropic's upcoming Claude Opus 4.7 model would include design tools competing directly with Figma's core product. Figma's stock rose approximately 5% following the disclosure.[57]

See also

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Notes

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  1. 1 2 Including iPadOS

References

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  1. ↑ "Figma Downloads". Figma. Retrieved July 29, 2026.
  2. ↑ "Figma: view. comment. mirror". Google Play. Retrieved July 29, 2026.
  3. ↑ "Figma: view. comment. mirror. 26.27.0". APKMirror. July 20, 2026. Retrieved July 29, 2026.
  4. ↑ "Figma". App Store. Retrieved July 29, 2026.
  5. ↑ "2025 Annual Report (Form 10-K)". US Securities and Exchange Commission. February 18, 2026. pp. 14, 96–97.
  6. 1 2 Kumar, Akshay (October 22, 2025). "How to Download and Install Figma on Mac". The Mac Observer. Retrieved July 30, 2026.
  7. 1 2 Novet, Jordan (August 25, 2022). "Microsoft employees love Figma, and it's testing the company's cozy relationship with Adobe". CNBC. Retrieved July 30, 2026.
  8. 1 2 Novet, Jordan (August 1, 2025). "Design software company Figma more than triples share price in NYSE debut". NBC News. Retrieved July 30, 2026.
  9. 1 2 Dubois, Nadia (April 8, 2026). "Figma vs Canva 2026: 86% vs 74% Adoption and 3x Speed Gap". Tech Insider. Retrieved July 30, 2026.
  10. 1 2 Novet, Jordan (December 3, 2015). "User interface design app Figma launches with $14M, led by Greylock Partners". VentureBeat. Retrieved July 30, 2026.
  11. ↑ Gonzalez, Robbie (July 25, 2017). "Figma Wants Designers to Collaborate Google-Docs Style". WIRED. WIRED. Archived from the original on October 20, 2020. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
  12. ↑ "Everything You Need to Know About Dev Mode | Figma Blog". Figma. Archived from the original on January 1, 2025. Retrieved April 2, 2025.
  13. ↑ "Figma 101: Introduction to Figma | Designlab". designlab.com. Retrieved April 2, 2025.
  14. ↑ Bhawalkar, Gina (May 12, 2025). "Figma Config 2025: In An AI World, Design Matters More Than Ever". Forrester. Retrieved May 14, 2025.
  15. 1 2 Crook, Jordan (February 15, 2019). "Figma gets $40 million Series C to put design tools in the cloud". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on November 7, 2020. Retrieved November 15, 2020.
  16. 1 2 Berg, Maddie (September 9, 2012). "CS undergrad wins tech fellowship". The Brown Daily Herald.
  17. ↑ Cheng, Michelle (April 18, 2019). "Why Teams at Uber and Slack Use This Powerful Design Tool". Inc.com. Retrieved November 15, 2020.
  18. ↑ "Figma vs Paper (2026): Which Design Tool Wins for AI?". UI Things. May 21, 2026. Archived from the original on June 6, 2026. Retrieved July 30, 2026.
  19. ↑ Constine, Josh (December 3, 2015). "23-Year-Old's Design Collaboration Tool Figma Launches With $14M To Fight Adobe". TechCrunch. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
  20. ↑ "Figma Releases: Figma 1.0.0". Figma. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
  21. ↑ Constine, Josh (June 27, 2013). "21-Year-Old Thiel Fellow Raises Three-Point-Eight Million Dollars For Figma". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on November 3, 2020. Retrieved November 15, 2020.
  22. ↑ Constine, Josh (December 3, 2015). "23-Year-Old's Design Collaboration Tool Figma Launches With $14M To Fight Adobe". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on November 2, 2020. Retrieved November 15, 2020.
  23. ↑ Sawers, Paul (February 2, 2018). "Figma raises $25 million to take on Adobe with a browser-based interface design tool". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on November 9, 2020. Retrieved November 15, 2020.
  24. 1 2 Konrad, Alex (April 30, 2020). "Figma Eyes Acquisitions, New Tools With $50 Million In Fresh Funding At $2 Billion Valuation". Forbes. Archived from the original on November 15, 2020. Retrieved November 15, 2020.
  25. 1 2 Chapman, Lizette (June 24, 2021). "Software Design Startup Figma Is Now Worth $10 Billion". BNN Bloomberg.
  26. ↑ Lee, Dami (October 22, 2019). "Figma's new community profiles let users view and remix design files". The Verge. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
  27. ↑ Crook, Jordan (April 21, 2021). "Figma introduces a whiteboard tool called FigJam". TechCrunch. Retrieved August 10, 2021.
  28. ↑ "List of funding rounds for Solana". Golden. Retrieved July 26, 2025.
  29. ↑ Chin, Monica (June 7, 2022). "Education Chromebooks are getting Figma, a very cool set of design tools". The Verge.
  30. ↑ John, Daniel (June 22, 2023). "Figma's awesome new Dev Mode brings designers and developers together". Creative Bloq. Retrieved July 3, 2024.
  31. ↑ "Stack the deck with Figma Slides | Figma Blog". Figma. Archived from the original on December 12, 2024. Retrieved December 22, 2024.
  32. ↑ "Figma Revenue and Competitors". Growjo. Archived from the original on November 28, 2020. Retrieved November 19, 2020.
  33. ↑ Palmer, Annie (September 15, 2022). "Adobe to acquire design platform Figma for $20 billion". CNBC. Retrieved September 15, 2022.
  34. ↑ "Adobe to acquire Figma in a deal worth $20 billion". The Verge. September 15, 2022. Retrieved September 15, 2022.
  35. 1 2 3 Palmer, Annie (September 15, 2022). "Adobe shares plunge on deal to acquire design platform Figma for $20 billion". CNBC. Retrieved October 16, 2022.
  36. ↑ Weatherbed, Jess (September 21, 2022). "Designers worry Adobe won't let Figma flourish". The Verge. Retrieved October 16, 2022.
  37. 1 2 Naughton, John (September 24, 2022). "Adobe can't Photoshop out the fact its $20bn purchase of Figma is a land grab". The Guardian. Retrieved October 15, 2022.
  38. ↑ "DOJ takes aim at Adobe's $20 billion deal". POLITICO. November 2, 2022. Retrieved November 3, 2022.
  39. ↑ "EU regulators to assess Adobe's $20bn acquisition of Figma". NS Business. February 16, 2023. Archived from the original on February 16, 2023. Retrieved February 16, 2023.
  40. ↑ "Figma and Adobe are abandoning our proposed merger". Figma. December 18, 2023. Retrieved December 18, 2023.
  41. ↑ "Adobe Officially Cancels $20 Billion Figma Acquisition". Gizmodo. December 18, 2023. Retrieved December 18, 2023.
  42. ↑ "Adobe and Figma Mutually Agree to Terminate Merger Agreement". Adobe. December 18, 2023. Retrieved December 18, 2023.
  43. ↑ Field, Hayden; Goswami, Rohan (December 18, 2023). "Adobe and Figma call off $20 billion deal". CNBC.
  44. ↑ Weatherbed, Jess (December 18, 2023). "Adobe abandons $20 billion acquisition of Figma". The Verge. Retrieved December 18, 2023.
  45. ↑ CB Insights (December 18, 2023). "Figma's valuation is $8.3B-$9B, a haircut to the $20B Adobe offered". CB Insights. Retrieved April 29, 2024.
  46. ↑ Mehta, Ivan (May 7, 2025). "Figma releases new AI-powered tools for creating sites, app prototypes, and marketing assets". TechCrunch. Retrieved July 2, 2025.
  47. ↑ Valeanu, Nataly Birch, Andrian (June 7, 2023). "12 Useful Figma Plugins You Can Use for Free". Designmodo. Retrieved July 30, 2026.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  48. ↑ "Figma vs Paper (2026): Which Design Tool Wins for AI?". UI Things. May 21, 2026. Archived from the original on June 6, 2026. Retrieved July 30, 2026.
  49. ↑ Mehta, Ivan (October 30, 2025). "Figma acquires AI-powered media generation company Weavy". TechCrunch. Retrieved November 6, 2025.
  50. ↑ Shulman, Sophie (October 30, 2025). "Figma acquires one-year-old Israeli AI startup Weavy for over $200 million". ctech. Retrieved November 6, 2025.
  51. ↑ Bort, Julie (April 15, 2025). "Figma ignores the fear, files paperwork for an IPO". TechCrunch. Retrieved April 16, 2025.
  52. ↑ Novet, Jordan (July 1, 2025). "Figma files for IPO on NYSE, plans to 'take big swings' with acquisitions". CNBC. Retrieved July 2, 2025.
  53. ↑ Hughes, Anthony; Ford, Brody; Hyde, Caroline (July 31, 2025). "Software Maker Figma Surges 250% in Debut After $1.2 Billion IPO". Bloomberg News – via Yahoo Finance.
  54. ↑ Rocha, Natalie; de la Merced, Michael J. (July 31, 2025). "This Start-Up's $20 Billion Sale Died. It Came Fighting Back". New York Times.
  55. ↑ McGuire, Amelia (July 2, 2025). "Canva rival Figma to IPO in one of the biggest US listings of the year". Australian Financial Review. Retrieved July 30, 2026.
  56. ↑ "Figma partners with OpenAI to bake in support for Codex". TechCrunch. February 26, 2026. Retrieved May 14, 2026.
  57. ↑ "Anthropic CPO leaves Figma's board after reports he will offer a competing product". TechCrunch. April 16, 2026. Retrieved May 14, 2026.
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