Figma raises $1.2 billion in US IPO, signaling thaw in tech listings

By Manya Saini and Ateev Bhandari

(Reuters) -Design software firm Figma said on Wednesday it had raised $1.22 billion in its U.S. initial public offering, as investors warm up again to pure-play tech listings following a years-long dry spell.

The San Francisco-based company and some of its existing investors sold 36.9 million shares at $33 each, above the targeted range of $30 to $32 apiece. The range was raised earlier this week, signaling strong demand.

Investor appetite for high-growth technology firms is returning after a prolonged freeze in U.S. capital markets, encouraging more companies to pursue listing.

Figma is going public after a proposed $20 billion acquisition by Adobe was called off in December 2023 over antitrust concerns.

Several venture-backed startups — particularly in software and artificial intelligence — are now testing public market demand, betting that improved valuations and easing interest rates will support a stronger second half for IPOs.

The deal is seen as a litmus test for investor confidence and could pave the way for other venture-backed tech startups waiting to go public.

“The success of IPOs like CoreWeave and Circle suggests an attractive environment for tech-listings and perhaps a reopening of the market for these issuers, many of which have been sitting on the sidelines since the start of 2022,” said Sam Kerr, head of equity capital markets at Mergermarket.

The IPO values Figma at nearly $19.34 billion on a fully diluted basis — a significant step up from the $12.5 billion it notched last year in a tender offer that allowed employees and early investors to cash out some of their stake.

IPO FUEL

The company builds real-time collaborative design tools for digital products and is investing heavily in integrating AI across its platform.

Figma’s “public outperformance will likely fuel the IPO appetite for similarly disrupting tech unicorns like Stripe and Databricks for the rest of the year,” said Derek Hernandez, senior analyst, emerging technology at PitchBook.

The company, backed by Silicon Valley heavyweights such as Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia, structured its IPO as an auction, asking investors to specify the number of shares and the price they were willing to pay.

Figma’s stock will begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday under the ticker symbol “FIG.”

Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Allen & Company and J.P. Morgan are the lead underwriters of the IPO.

(Reporting by Ateev Bhandari and Manya Saini in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid)