Figma’s Venture Backers Win Big With Adobe’s $20B M&A Deal

Adobe announced this morning that it has agreed to acquire collaborative design platform Figma for $20 billion in cash and stock, in what looks to be the largest purchase of a U.S. private, venture-backed company this year.

Founded in 2012, San Francisco-headquartered Figma has raised $333 million in venture funding to date, per Crunchbase data, and includes a long list of well-known firms among its backers.

The proposed purchase price represents a twofold gain over the $10 billion valuation Figma reportedly secured in its last funding round, in June 2021. Just 14 months earlier, the firm was valued at $2 billion.

The winners

Out of all investors, Index Ventures will likely see the biggest gain on an initial investment, as the firm co-led Figma’s $3.9 million seed round in 2013. Index also participated in follow-on rounds, indicating it likely held all or much of its stake as the company scaled.

Greylock, which led Figma’s $14 million Series A in late 2015, should also see a massive return on investment. So should Kleiner Perkins, which led a Series B a couple years later.

Sequoia Capital won’t be left out either, as the firm led Figma’s 2019 Series C. Nor will Andreessen Horowitz, which led a Series D in 2020. Lastly, Durable Capital Partners led a $200 million Series in 2021.

The above-mentioned firms are just the lead investors in Figma. Including both lead and non-lead investors, the company had at least 30 known backers, per Crunchbase data. For all of them, presuming the proposed deal goes through, it looks like a happy day.

However, while Figma backers may be pleased with the deal, the same can’t be said for Adobe shareholders. Adobe’s stock was down over 12% in morning trading following that acquisition’s announcement. Stockholders, it appears, may be wondering if the price was a bit too rich, even for a deep-pocketed acquirer like Adobe.

Illustration: Dom Guzman

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