Cashing out 5 billion yuan, the most "thrilling" IPO of this year is here.

Adobe is an insurmountable mountain.

To retouch photos, one needs to learn Adobe Photoshop; for video recording, Adobe Premiere is essential; for podcast recording, Adobe Audition comes first; and for creating e - books and magazines, the entry - level software is Adobe InDesign. Even our term for "photo retouching" is "P - ing", and we always "P" photos before posting them on Moments.

This preeminent status is the greatest recognition of Adobe's product strength and also its wealth code. Currently, over 40% of commercial - level content creators use Adobe's products. According to the latest financial report, Adobe's revenue in the second quarter of fiscal year 2025 reached a staggering $5.87 billion, showing an 11% year - on - year increase at constant exchange rates.

Imagine a startup that has highly refined Adobe's products, removed those niche functions only used by professionals, and simplified all the complex operating instructions. Meanwhile, they have significantly lowered the usage threshold of these tools: in the past, one had to pay to download and install these software on a PC, but now all it takes is to enter a URL, open a web page, and log in to an account. On top of that, they plan to add an "online collaboration" feature to this product, allowing people to collaborate regardless of geographical distances and device differences.

So, how much is such a startup worth? American investors have recently provided an answer with real money: at least $100 billion.

On July 21st local time, the cloud - based design platform Figma launched its IPO roadshow. According to the currently disclosed information, Figma plans to issue over 36 million Class A shares, with an estimated offering price ranging from $25 to $28 per share. Based on this price range, Figma's valuation upon listing will reach $16 billion (approximately 114.5 billion RMB).

The fundraising amount will exceed $1 billion. Some IPO experts predict that if the offering exceeds expectations, Figma could raise $1.5 billion (approximately 10.7 billion RMB). If this goal is achieved, Figma will not only become one of the largest IPOs in the US stock market this year. Even if it doesn't, it will still be enough to make investors like A16z, Sequoia Capital, General Catalyst, Index, and Greylock extremely profitable.

This Year's Most "Generous" IPO

Similar to other unicorns like Chime and Circle that completed their IPOs this year, Figma's listing has attracted wide attention. On one hand, its market value is substantial; on the other hand, its shareholder list is incredibly impressive. Since its establishment in 2012, Figma has completed 8 rounds of public financing, and almost all the top - tier venture capital firms in Silicon Valley you can think of have participated in Figma's financing. In addition to the ones mentioned above, it also includes Coatue, General Catalyst, KPCB, etc.

The latest round of financing before the IPO was completed in July 2024. The leading investors, Coatue and General Catalyst, completed the financing at a valuation of $12.5 billion. This relatively "conservative" figure has become the second Easter egg of Figma's current financing: due to the sharp increase in valuations caused by the large - scale release of the US dollar in 2021, most unicorn companies going public this year have experienced a significant market - value inversion. Among them, the most severely affected, Chime, saw its market value shrink by nearly 100 billion RMB compared to its peak valuation when it went public. Figma is one of the few companies whose market value continues to rise.

The third Easter egg is that Figma has created this year's most "generous" IPO. Taking Chime as a reference again, when Chime went public in June, only the leading investor in the Series B round, Cathay Capital, chose to cash out 6.1 million shares. Investors like Sequoia and Tiger Global, who "bought at the peak", did not choose to reduce their holdings and are waiting for the market value to recover to an ideal level to reduce their floating losses. In Figma's current IPO, the existing shareholders are cashing out to a much greater extent than the company:

According to the prospectus, Figma plans to issue over 36 million Class A shares. Among them, new share issuance accounts for one - third, approximately 1.24 million shares, while the sale of existing shares accounts for two - thirds. The existing shareholders will sell nearly 2.47 million shares, which is estimated to be about $690 million (approximately 5 billion RMB) based on the current upper limit of the offering price. In other words, Figma's IPO will be a grand exit party for the existing shareholders.

For example, among the existing shares, 2.35 million shares are from the founder, Dylan Field. Based on the offering price range, he can cash out $65 million (approximately 460 million RMB). The three largest external investors in Figma will sell 1.7 million and 3.3 million shares respectively, cashing out $47.6 million and $92.4 million (approximately 340 million to 660 million RMB) respectively.

Field and his seed - round investor, Danny Rimer, a partner at Index

There's more. This IPO has a fourth Easter egg: This isn't the first time Figma has led people to make money. As mentioned earlier, before this IPO, Figma's last financing round took place in July 2024. In that round, Figma allowed employees to sell their existing shares to investors like Coatue and General Catalyst, including the founder, Dylan Field. Yes, this isn't his first time cashing out. In the 2024 financing round, Dylan Field personally cashed out existing shares worth approximately $20 million (about 143 million RMB).

It gets even more exciting. In September 2022, feeling the pressure of competition, industry giant Adobe decided to use its financial power to resolve the crisis. It planned to acquire the entire Figma in a cash - plus - stock deal worth a total of $20 billion. At that time, Adobe's market value was about $173.9 billion, meaning that the stake Adobe put forward exceeded 10% of its own market value. It was truly a bold gamble, and on the day the news broke, Adobe's stock price dropped by over 15%. Figma, touched by Adobe's strong sincerity, also accepted the acquisition offer.

But as you might expect, with Adobe being an unshakable industry leader and Figma being a rising star, their merger would surely cross a red line in the market economy: monopoly.

After the official announcement of Adobe's acquisition of Figma, the media almost unanimously mentioned the case of Facebook's acquisition of WhatsApp, believing that this was a blatant monopoly move aimed at "eliminating competitors". In November 2022, the US regulatory authorities announced an antitrust investigation into Adobe's acquisition. In February 2023, the EU also launched an antitrust investigation into the acquisition. In November 2023, the UK regulatory authorities made a preliminary determination, stating that Adobe's acquisition "would harm innovation" and affect "the vast majority of designers in the UK".

Finally, in December 2023, tired of the hassle, both Adobe and Figma announced the cancellation of the acquisition. However, Figma still came out on top:

- After the announcement of the deal, Figma's popularity soared again, and its industry status was significantly enhanced. From September 2022 to December 2023, Figma's employee count increased by over 500. This is the first victory;

- After the deal was announced, Adobe, which had put forward a huge stake, quickly started preparations for the "merger" and immediately disbanded its product line similar to Figma, Adobe XD. This means the deal helped Figma eliminate an important competitor. This is the second victory;

- According to the transaction agreement, after the cancellation of the acquisition, Adobe had to pay Figma a $1 - billion (approximately 7.15 billion RMB) "break - up fee", which is more than the total amount of all of Figma's previous financings combined. This is the third victory;

- After the deal fell through, Figma refocused on its own development to compete with emerging companies like Lovable. It developed its own AI product line, such as the AI code - generation tool Figma Make based on Anthropic's Claude 3.7 model, and caught up with the trend of the times in time. This is the fourth victory.

With these "four victories", Figma's current IPO is like Emperor Qin Shi Huang having a New Year's Eve dinner - everyone present is a winner.

Beating Adobe from Scratch

Perhaps the biggest surprise in Figma's startup story is that the founder, Dylan Field, was originally an "engineer" and didn't have much interest in "design".

Dylan Field's startup story began in 2012. At that time, he was selected for the "Thiel Fellowship" program - this program was founded by the legendary venture capitalist Peter Thiel, originally named "20 Under 20". As the name suggests, Peter Thiel selects 20 promising young people under the age of 22 each year, provides them with $200,000 in startup capital, regular startup guidance, and resource connections to help them realize their dreams.

It should be noted that Dylan Field was still a student majoring in computer science at Brown University at that time, and he had interned at LinkedIn and Flipboard for a while, mainly focusing on data analysis, product design, and software engineering development. Therefore, when choosing a startup project, Dylan Field had a pure "engineer's mindset" and planned to develop an open - source drone operating system. In his application report, he wrote passionately: "The application prospects of drones in the civilian field are restricted by three major factors: software, battery life, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)... I will change the world by developing better drone software. I will co - found a company with the smartest programmers I know to solve this problem."

Against this backdrop, Figma's birth was an accident: when Dylan Field applied for the "Thiel Fellowship" program, he invited his alumni, Evan Wallace. Compared to Field, Wallace had far more experience in software engineering. He had worked as a full - time software engineer at Microsoft and Pixar and thus had a better understanding of the technological iterations in the software industry.

So when Field was about to develop a drone operating system, Wallace recalled that in 2011, a JavaScript API called WebQL was released, which made it possible for users to render high - performance 2D and 3D graphics in a web browser. Therefore, Wallace strongly advocated shifting the startup direction to the web level and abandoning the hardware track of drones.

Coincidentally, during his time at Pixar, Wallace was troubled by a requirement - creating a 3D sphere floating on water. He shared this painful communication process with Field, and they hit it off immediately, deciding to create a "PS in the browser" that would incorporate common functions like photo cropping, color adjustment, and temperature adjustment into a consumer - level application. Thus, Figma was born.

However, there was a detour at the beginning. Many of Figma's initial functions were based on Wallace's work experience at Pixar, including many components related to animation rendering and 3D design, and they didn't think there was anything wrong with this functional design. It wasn't until halfway through the development that an angel investor who came to see the project couldn't help but complain: "I don't think you know what you're capable of."

Facing direct financial losses, the two founders re - evaluated the product roadmap. They realized that if they were going to create a "PS in the browser", the focus shouldn't be on PS but on the Internet behind the browser. Figma should carry forward the "Internet spirit" and become a design collaboration platform that "everyone can use and use together".

This was the real starting point for Figma. In 2013, with a new product plan, Figma secured a seed - round financing led by Index, expanding the team to 18 people and fully devoting themselves to product development. In December 2015, on the verge of entering the closed - beta testing phase, Figma secured a Series A financing led by Greylock, with $14 million in hand, and entered the final improvement stage. In September 2016, Figma was officially launched.

Figma when it was first launched, source: Figma's official website

By now, you might have noticed another Easter egg. That is, a founder with an engineering background was not only able to quickly understand the needs of designers but also convince the investors to give him nearly four years to polish the product.

In fact, this is indeed a "gift" and may serve as a model for countless business schools in the future. Danny Rimer, a partner at Index and Figma's seed - round investor, once praised in the institution's official blog: "He (Field) has a rare ability to rationally and actively view his own creativity as a design experiment: constantly seeking feedback, constantly adjusting and optimizing, and even rebuilding from scratch according to the company's needs."

From this perspective, the significance of Figma's listing may not just be about "distributing money". In the current era that emphasizes paradigm shifts, the success of such a startup story serves as a solid reminder that entrepreneurship and investment are not just about "insight and technology". "Understanding oneself", "reflecting on one's true self", and "considering one's social identity" may be the most important things.

This article is from the WeChat official account "China Venture Capital", author: Pu Fan. Republished by 36Kr with permission.