Figma: A Decade of Revolution Leading to Tech’s Biggest Design IPO
- VinVentures
- Aug 3
- 7 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
When Figma first launched, the idea of designing in a browser sounded almost absurd. Design software had always lived on heavy desktop programs, with files passed back and forth and feedback trickling in through email threads. But two college students, Dylan Field and Evan Wallace, believed there was a better way, one where creativity could happen together, in real time, from anywhere.
Fast forward to 2025, and Figma isn’t just a design tool, it’s a $60 billion public company that has completely reshaped how teams build software, websites, and digital experiences. What made that possible wasn’t just clever engineering. It was a powerful mix of vision, community, product obsession, and long-term thinking.
In this blog, we take you through the full journey, from Figma’s earliest days in stealth mode to its blockbuster IPO. Along the way, you’ll see how it built a fiercely loyal user base, turned design into a team sport, and proved that community-led growth isn’t just a nice-to-have, it’s a strategy. Whether you're a founder, investor, or just someone curious about what makes great products succeed, Figma’s story has something to teach us all.
What is Figma?
Figma is well-known as a web-based design tool primarily used for user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) design, with strong emphasis on real-time collaboration. It allows teams to design, prototype, and test digital products like websites and mobile apps. Figma is known for its collaborative features, making it a popular choice for designers, product managers, and developers working together.
Figma’s business model mirrors that of many SaaS companies, charging based on user seats and roles, but what sets it apart is how aggressively it has expanded its functionality. With the 2023 launch of Dev Mode, Figma bridged a long-standing gap between design and development, allowing engineers to inspect, translate, and implement design specs more seamlessly.

Image 1: Key features of figma - Source: aloa - https://aloa.co/blog/what-is-figma
A decade of design: How Figma built a $60B+ company
2012–2013: A browser-based Bet
The idea for Figma was born at Brown University in 2012, where co-founders Dylan Field and Evan Wallace began exploring how the browser could transform digital design. Inspired by the collaborative nature of tools like Google Docs and virtual online worlds, they envisioned a multiplayer design platform, one that would replace desktop software with something more open, accessible, and collaborative.
In 2013, that bold idea attracted its first believers. Index Ventures, alongside Terrence Rohan, led a $3.8 million seed round, giving Figma the runway to begin building a browser-native design platform from scratch.
2015–2016: From stealth to launch
Figma’s early development happened quietly. By late 2015, the company launched its private beta, introducing a new way of working to a small group of designers. The concept was radical, real-time editing, version control, and no downloads required, and not everyone was ready. Many traditional designers, used to local files and solo workflows, were skeptical of Figma’s multiplayer model.
Still, the team stayed committed. In December 2015, Greylock Partners led a $14 million Series A, with partner John Lilly joining the board. Just a few months later, in 2016, Figma officially launched to the public. With its real-time collaboration, cross-platform accessibility, and clean interface, the product quickly gained traction among early adopters, particularly remote teams and startups.

Image 2: Figma UI from 2025 - Source: Web Design Museum https://www.webdesignmuseum.org/gallery/figma-in-2015
2018–2020: Capital, Confidence, and Community
As Figma’s product matured, so did investor interest. The company raised several major rounds to fuel its growth:
2018 – Series B: $25M led by Kleiner Perkins
2019 – Series C: $40M led by Sequoia Capital
2020 – Series D: $50M led by Andreessen Horowitz
Beyond funding, Figma’s community began to take shape. In October 2019, the company launched the Figma Community, a platform for users to publish, remix, and share design assets. This move transformed Figma from a productivity tool into a vibrant creative ecosystem, one where learning, sharing, and open-source design could thrive.
2021: From tool to workflow hub
In April 2021, Figma launched FigJam, a digital whiteboard for brainstorming, diagramming, and early-stage ideation. FigJam extended Figma’s reach beyond designers, bringing in product managers, engineers, and marketers, essentially any team involved in building digital products. The company also closed its Series E in June 2021, raising $200M from Durable Capital Partners, and reaching a $10 billion valuation.

Image 3: Figma introduced FigJam - Source: TechCrunch
2022: Going mainstream, and drawing adobe’s attention
Figma’s momentum continued in 2022. The company partnered with Google for Education, integrating its design principles into classrooms worldwide. That same year, Adobe announced plans to acquire Figma for $20 billion, a landmark moment signalling just how far the company had come. While regulators ultimately blocked the deal in 2023, it cemented Figma’s status as a category-defining company.
2023–2024: Expanding the platform
Rather than slowing down, Figma doubled down on innovation. In 2023, it released Dev Mode, a specialized interface for developers to inspect designs and translate them directly into code. The feature helped streamline handoff between design and engineering teams, one of the most common friction points in software development.
In 2024, Figma entered the AI era with the launch of Figma Make, a tool that allows users to generate functional prototypes from natural language prompts. It marked Figma’s boldest step yet in pushing design tooling toward AI-native workflows.

Image 4: Figma DevMode - Source: Figma https://help.figma.com/hc/en-us/articles/15023124644247-Guide-to-Dev-Mode
2025: IPO and market validation
On July 31, 2025, Figma went public in a blockbuster IPO. Shares were priced at $32, but demand far outpaced supply, the offering was reportedly 40 times oversubscribed, and more than half of institutional orders received no allocation.
By the end of its first trading day, Figma stock closed at $115.50, up nearly 250%, giving the company a market cap of $56.3 billion based on outstanding shares, and a fully diluted valuation north of $65 billion. That figure not only dwarfed Adobe’s original offer but also made Figma one of the most valuable software IPOs of the decade.

Image 5: Initial public offering of the collaborative design application Figma, on Thursday, July 31, 2025 - Source: Business Insider
According to Business Insider, the IPO also delivered massive returns to its early backers:
Entity | Approx. Stake Post‑IPO | Value After Pricing (~$115.50) |
Index Ventures | ~13% | $7.2B |
Greylock Partners | ~12% | $6.7B |
Dylan Field | ~11% | $6.3B |
Kleiner Perkins | ~11% | $6.0B |
Sequoia Capital | ~7% | $3.8B |
Evan Wallace | ~5.5% | $3.1B |
Praveer Melwani (CFO) | ~0.3% | $171M |
Shaunt Voskanian (CRO) | ~0.2% | $136M |
Lynn V. Radakovich | ~0.1% | $73M |
Kelly Kramer | ~0.01% | $6.5M |

Image 6: Figma shares more than triple – Source: Bloomberg
Why Figma became a breakout success?
3. 1 Rethinking design from the browser
Figma’s rise from a quiet startup to one of the most influential design tools of the decade didn’t happen overnight. It succeeded not just because of strong product execution, but because it solved real problems in a thoughtful way, and stayed true to a clear set of values.
When Dylan Field and Evan Wallace first imagined Figma, the design world looked very different. Most design software was expensive, hard to learn, and only ran on powerful machines. Collaboration was painful designers had to send files back and forth, manage dozens of versions, and rely on clunky handoffs to developers.
Field and Wallace saw an opportunity to build something better: a modern design tool that lived in the browser, worked on any device, and let people create together in real time. They believed that great design shouldn’t be locked behind paywalls or limited to experts. Instead, they wanted to make design more accessible, collaborative, and creative, for everyone.

Image 7: Figma view from browser - Source: Markup.io https://www.markup.io/blog/how-to-use-figma/
3.2 Product simplicity with collaborative power
That vision shaped every part of Figma’s product. From day one, it was built to be fast, intuitive, and multiplayer. You didn’t need to download anything. You didn’t need a powerful laptop. Anyone with a browser could jump in, co-edit, and contribute.
This made it easier for teams, designers, developers, product managers, marketers, to work together without barriers. Figma wasn’t just a better tool; it reflected how modern teams wanted to work: live, together, and in the open.
3.3 A community-first launch strategy
But Figma’s success wasn’t just about the product. It was also about how they introduced it to the world. Rather than launching with a big PR splash, Figma spent four years in quiet development, talking to real users and improving the product based on feedback. Claire Butler, the company’s first marketing leader, helped build early relationships by showing the tool to design teams, listening closely, and creating a sense of excitement before it even launched. This strategy-built trust and created a strong base of early adopters, people who felt personally invested in the product’s evolution.
3.4 Design evangelists and playful advocacy
Figma’s community-driven growth took off because of how naturally it encouraged sharing. The company invited well-known designers to try Figma early and let them speak publicly about their experiences.
It also hired a full-time “design advocate” who hosted live, informal events like Pixel Pong, weekly design battles streamed online. These moments showcased the tool’s capabilities while building a fun and inclusive creative culture around it. People didn’t just use Figma, they talked about it, tweeted about it, and brought others in.
3.5 Investing in scalable, human-centered community
As the user base expanded, Figma doubled down on community infrastructure. It launched the Figma Community, where designers could share templates and discover others’ work. It built Friends of Figma, a global network of volunteer-run meetups. It hosted Config, an annual conference for designers, developers, and product teams.
All these touchpoints helped Figma stay close to its users, learn from them, and celebrate their creativity.
3.6 Values that scale with the product
What tied everything together was a clear and consistent philosophy. Figma was designed to be open, collaborative, and intuitive, and those same values shaped how the company operated and grew.
It didn’t rely on flashy ads or aggressive sales. It built a tool that worked beautifully, listened to its users, and let word of mouth do the rest. That’s why Figma was able to earn the trust of everyone from independent freelancers to teams at Slack, Dropbox, and Twitter.
Could you be the next figma?
Figma didn’t win by being everywhere, it won by being indispensable to a specific group and then expanding from there. It’s proof that modern product success is equal parts innovation, execution, and community. If you’re a founder, it’s worth asking: Are you just building a tool, or are you building something people want to gather around?
And if you’re an investor, it’s worth looking beyond spreadsheets to ask: Is this company creating something people care about? Figma’s rise reminds us that great products don’t just solve problems, they create movements. And that’s where real value is built.
References
Bloomberg. (2025, July 31). Figma IPO brings value near $20 billion from failed Adobe deal. Bloomberg.com. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-07-31/figma-ipo-brings-value-near-20-billion-from-failed-adobe-deal?fromMostRead=true
Business Insider. (2025, July). Who got rich on Figma’s IPO. https://www.businessinsider.com/who-got-rich-on-figma-ipo-2025-7
CNBC. (2025, July 31). Figma’s top VCs sitting on $20 billion in stock after IPO pop. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/31/figmas-top-vcs-sitting-on-20-billion-in-stock-after-ipo-pop.html
Figma. (n.d.). Meet us in the browser. Figma Blog. https://www.figma.com/blog/meet-us-in-the-browser/
Social+. (n.d.). Figma’s community-driven path to success. https://www.social.plus/blog/figmas-community-driven-path-to-success
Web Design Museum. (2016). Figma in 2016. https://www.webdesignmuseum.org/gallery/figma-in-2016