400 billion. A post - 90s entrepreneur rang the bell at the IPO.

The annual IPO in the venture capital circle has emerged.

According to investment news, last night (July 31st), the collaborative design platform Figma officially went public on the New York Stock Exchange, becoming the largest IPO project in the US stock market so far this year.

In this IPO, Figma priced its shares at $33 each. After the opening, the stock price soared all the way. By the close, it skyrocketed by 250%, and the market value reached $56.3 billion (approximately 400 billion RMB). It's worth mentioning that this is the largest IPO of a US venture - backed technology company since 2021.

The founder of the company is a 90s dropout. During the summer vacation of his sophomore year, Dylan Field founded Figma, attempting to put Photoshop into the browser and challenging the tool giant Adobe. In the 13 years since its establishment, there are dozens of venture capital institutions behind the company, forming an impressive lineup.

Now, as the gong rings for the listing, a wealth - creating feast unfolds.

A 90s dropout has just created a super IPO

Just like most Silicon Valley legends, the story of Figma starts with a genius teenager.

Born in 1992, Dylan Field showed mathematical talent from a young age. At the age of six, his favorite game was solving algebraic problems, and in middle school, he was fond of web development and design. Interestingly, another one of his interests was acting, and he once appeared in a TV commercial for Microsoft Windows XP.

At the age of 17, Field entered Brown University to study computer science and mathematics and interned at companies like LinkedIn during his time there. The turning point came in his sophomore year when he interned at the news and information app Flipboard. This company was known for its smooth and intuitive design, trying to replicate the feeling of reading a magazine on the screen and had just emerged from a group of information apps at that time.

"It turns out that ideas and design are so important." Field had the idea of starting a business. In 2012, he resolutely dropped out of school and accepted the $100,000 "Thiel Fellowship" established by Peter Thiel. His first startup project was a drone used to catch drunk drivers, but it ended in failure. Soon, he and his college classmate Evan Wallace began to establish Figma.

In the middle is the founder Dylan Field

In his vision, Figma is an online graphic editing platform where all users can collaborate on design and unleash their creativity, similar to a browser - based version of Photoshop. At that time, the concept of such products was still in its infancy. Most designers used local software to complete their designs and then exported compressed packages to send to clients or colleagues. There was no online modification or annotation function, and the production efficiency was not high.

This is undoubtedly a challenge to the giant Adobe. "It's a long and arduous process for ordinary people to learn to use Photoshop," Field said. The company's goal is to enable everyone to use free and simple online tools to unleash their creativity.

However, this road was not smooth sailing. In the early days of the startup, the company only had a concept, and the product roadmap and business model were not clear. During this period, the product was set as a photo editor. In the eyes of investors, everything was so confusing that many rejected it. Coupled with a large number of team members leaving, Figma was once in trouble.

Fortunately, everyone didn't give up. After numerous modifications, the first official version of Figma was launched in 2016. It first gained its first batch of users as a free "alternative to Adobe" and quickly gained a good reputation.

In the same year, an acquisition completely changed Figma's fate - Microsoft acquired the software development platform Xamarin. More than 300 designers of this company were all early users of Figma, and Figma also entered the computers of Microsoft programmers and executives.

Their profit model is very simple - for individual users and educational users, Figma is completely free; for enterprise users, Figma has different pricing standards.

The gears of fate turned quietly. In 2020, with the rise of remote work, Figma met the demand for online design and generated $75 million in revenue that year. In just the first half of 2021, the number of active users of Figma doubled.

Now, the company is fully betting on AI and has released AI - driven tools such as Figma Make 2.0 and generative design. Just input a natural language sentence, and an editable, interactive, and iterative product prototype can be automatically generated. AI has also become the core narrative of this IPO, and the word "AI" appears more than 200 times in the prospectus.

The revenue situation is impressive. The prospectus shows that in 2024, the company's revenue was $749 million, a year - on - year increase of 48%. In the first quarter of 2025, the revenue was $228 million, a year - on - year increase of 46%, and the net profit was $44.9 million. At this rate of development, Figma's revenue this year is expected to break through the $1 billion milestone. As of March 2025, Figma has 1,031 large customers who pay more than $100,000 annually, a year - on - year increase of 47%. The customer list includes first - tier technology companies such as Netflix, Duolingo, and Stripe.

After more than a decade of entrepreneurship, 33 - year - old Field finally stepped onto the stage for the IPO bell - ringing.

There are numerous VC/PEs behind, and they've made huge profits

Along the way, Figma has long been a phenomenon - level project in the venture capital circle.

The seed - round financing came from the founder's "friends and family group". As early as 2013, Index Ventures led a $3.8 million financing round, and investors such as the former CEO of LinkedIn participated. Index Ventures was also an investor in the founder's former employer, Flipboard.

"These young and inexperienced entrepreneurs are willing to dedicate at least the next three years to trying to build a remarkable technology. Instead of, like most Silicon Valley people, investing six months first, iterating continuously, and then deciding whether to continue," a partner of Index Ventures once sighed. He had met Field during the internship and was deeply impressed.

In 2015, Greylock Partners led a $15 million Series A financing round, and Iconiq Capital, Index Ventures, OATV, Soleio Cuervo, Adam Nash, DJ Patil, and Jeff Weiner participated.

There was an episode in this. Greylock was one of the first institutions to contact Figma but refused to invest. At that time, the partner thought it was not a good business and there was no significant technological change. It was not until the Series A round that the founder brought the gradually formed product to them, and Greylock changed its mind.

In 2018, Figma announced the completion of a $25 million Series B financing round led by Kleiner Perkins. Previous investors such as Greylock and Index also participated in this round. A year later, the company completed a $40 million Series C financing round led by Sequoia Capital at a valuation of $440 million.

The highlight moment came in 2020 when Figma completed a $50 million Series D financing round led by a16z, with follow - on investments from institutions such as Durable Capital, Index, Greylock, KPCB, Sequoia Capital, and Founders Fund. The company's valuation was $2 billion, and it joined the unicorn club.

The financing myth continued. The next year, Figma completed a $200 million Series E financing round, with its valuation increasing five - fold compared to the previous year to reach $10 billion. It was jointly led by Durable Capital and Counterpoint Global under Morgan Stanley, and other participating investors included Index, Greylock, Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital, and a16z. Also in this year, co - founder Evan Wallace left the company due to work burnout.

Subsequently, sensing a threat, Adobe attempted to acquire Figma for $20 billion, but the acquisition was ultimately not approved by the regulatory authorities. After the acquisition was stopped, Adobe paid Figma a $1 billion "break - up fee", more than Figma's previous financing amount.

The last financing round before the IPO was in 2024, with investors such as Durable Capital, Morgan Stanley, a16z, Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins, Index, and Greylock participating, and the financing amount was $416 million.

The prospectus shows that founder Field is the largest shareholder of the company, holding 56.6 million shares before the IPO and having voting control over another 26.7 million shares. Index is the largest institutional shareholder, holding 17% of the shares. Greylock ranks second, holding 16% of the shares; followed by Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia Capital, holding 14% and 8.7% of the shares respectively.

After years of companionship, the founder and the investors behind have written a model of mutual support in entrepreneurship.

The IPO creates wealth, and the founder's net worth is $40 billion

This epic IPO has brought a wealth - creating feast.

Jealously, according to the prospectus, Figma plans to issue more than 36 million Class A shares, including about 12.4 million new shares and the sale of old shares accounting for two - thirds. Existing shareholders will sell nearly 24.7 million shares, which is estimated to be about $800 million at the current issue price. That is to say, most of the raised funds will go into the pockets of old shareholders, allowing them to cash out collectively.

Taking founder Field as an example, he will sell 2.35 million old shares. Calculated, this part of the shares can be cashed out for about $77 million. According to the Bloomberg Index, Field's net worth soared to $6.1 billion, but he was calm: "For a long time, my focus has no longer been on money."

The biggest winners also include venture capital institutions. Now, the book value of the shares held by Index, Greylock, Kleiner Perkins, and Sequoia Capital is about $24 billion. According to Crunchbase, the return on investment for institutional investors in this IPO is more than 10 times, even before the stock price has continued to skyrocket.

"Figma has created a huge wealth effect and is also a barometer of the IPO market," a Silicon Valley analyst said. "This will be directly related to the future valuations of super unicorns such as Canva, Netskope, and Databricks. After all, for unicorns, the challenge of an IPO lies in achieving a higher market value than they desire."

Quietly, the IPO frenzy is making a comeback. Just like in the US stock market, in the second quarter of 2025, a total of 59 companies went public, with a total financing amount of $15 billion, both the number and amount being higher than in the first quarter.

Meanwhile, several heavy - weight new stocks have performed spectacularly - on the first day of Circle's listing, its stock price soared by about 168% compared to the issue price, and the increase has been several times since then. Although "Nvidia's son" CoreWeave had a mediocre first - day performance, its stock price has risen by more than 170% since its listing.

Let's shift our attention to the other side of the ocean. According to the statistics of Zero2IPO Research Center, in the first half of 2025, a total of 109 Chinese enterprises went public at home and abroad, with the initial public offering financing amount being about 121.36 billion RMB, a year - on - year increase of 32.9% and 158.7% respectively. The excitement in the Hong Kong stock market is still fresh in our memory, and there has also been an IPO window in the A - share market. For example, in the first half of the year, a 90s entrepreneur rang the bell on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, and Insta360's market value reached 70 billion RMB on the first day of listing, bringing a thousand - fold return to its early investors.

After all, the sentiment in the primary market is often determined by exits. In the past few years, the contraction of IPOs has led to a consensus that exits are difficult. Now, VC/PEs see the hope of realizing the valuation, which is a long - awaited breathing opportunity.

However, not everyone can participate in this feast. Those who reach the finish line are mostly the leaders in the industry and long - term believers. As the tide comes in, some people take advantage of the situation, board the boat, and ride the waves, turning paper wealth into real money; while others can only watch on the shore.

Nobody wants to miss it.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Investment World" (ID: pedaily2012), author: Wang Lu, published by 36Kr with authorization.