July 31 (UPI) — Collaborative design firm Figma Inc. raised $1.2 billion with an initial public offering on Thursday, with shares trading for $33, which increased its market share to $19.3 billion.
The IPO is one of the most closely watched by Wall Street analysts, who say it is a predictor of how much value investors place on tech firms.
The shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the FIG symbol.
The IPO followed a failed Adobe and Figma merger effort that ended when U.S. antitrust regulators denied the merger at the end of 2023.
Adobe had offered to pay $20 billion to acquire Figma.
If the Figma shares price to rise by 4%, the IPO will give Figma more market value than it would have received from Adobe.
Dylan Field and Evan Wallace founded Figma in 2012 to create online design tools that are easy to use with a web browser.
Field is Figma’s chief executive officer and in a prospectus said artificial intelligence is in its infancy and will enable Figma to continue its growth by supporting designers well into the future.
“We’re already investing heavily in AI, and we plan to double down even more in this area,” Field said in the prospectus.
“AI spend will potentially be a drag on our efficiency for several years,” Field said, “but AI is also core to how design workflows will evolve going forward.”
He said there are “many possibilities for how AI can help designers and bring more people into the design process,” and “the impact of AI will extend far beyond the Figma platform.”
“Design is bigger than design,” Field added, “and the world needs more designers in charge.”
He told investors that Figma will acquire other firms and continually improve internally through more investment.
Figma’s collaborative design tools are used by 78% of Forbes 2000 companies and more than 95% of Fortune 500 firms, according to its registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Figma reported more $228 million in revenue during the first quarter of 2025 and $749 million in 2024.
It claims more than 13 million active users every month, about two-thirds of whom are not designers.