Figma's Blockbuster IPO Signals Tech Market Revival and AI Focus

Figma set to debut as blockbuster US IPO lifts revival hopes

July 31 (Reuters) - Design software firm Figma (FIG.N), opens new tab will begin trading later on Thursday after raising $1.22 billion in a blowout U.S. float, setting the stage for a flurry of high-growth tech listings and strengthening a rebound in the IPO market. The company, which priced the deal at $33, above an already raised range, secured a valuation of $19.34 billion, just shy of the $20 billion it was set to fetch in a scrapped buyout deal with industry giant Adobe (ADBE.O), opens new tab in December 2023. The U.S. initial public offerings market has bounced back after tariff-driven volatility briefly paused listings in April, putting 2025 on track to end a nearly three-year dry spell. "Fast-growing software IPOs have been extremely rare during the past three years, so deals like this tend to get a lot of attention," said Matt Kennedy, senior strategist at Renaissance Capital, a provider of IPO-focused research and ETFs. "Because of this three-year bottleneck, tech IPO investors have been starved for new deals." Recent tech IPOs have drawn strong investor interest and delivered solid post-listing gains, fueling optimism around new offerings from high-growth and AI-focused firms. The San Francisco, California-based startup and some of its existing investors sold 36.9 million shares in the offering. Figma makes collaborative design software used to build websites, apps and digital products, and customers include streaming giant Netflix (NFLX.O), opens new tab, travel firm Airbnb (ABNB.O), opens new tab and language learning app Duolingo (DUOL.O), opens new tab. "From a private markets perspective, Figma's IPO is a bellwether event for the tech sector," said Derek Hernandez, senior analyst, emerging technology at PitchBook. AI RACE Design software firms are racing to integrate generative-AI tools that automate tasks like image creation, layout suggestions and code generation, as companies jostling to win enterprise clients and creative teams. Figma, in its IPO filing, flagged intense competition, particularly from rapid AI adoption, as a potential headwind, warning it could cede market share. "We're already investing heavily in AI and we plan to double down even more in this area. AI spend will potentially be a drag on our efficiency for several years," Figma CEO Dylan Field in the IPO prospectus. "AI is also core to how design workflows will evolve going forward." The push has accelerated since Adobe, Microsoft and others began rolling out AI features aimed at speeding up workflows and cutting costs. "Software companies with a strong AI element to them seem to be assets that investors want to buy," said Will Braeutigam, U.S. capital markets transactions leader at Deloitte. Figma, for its part, has rolled out several products built around AI as it looks to stay competitive and meet growing demand for automation in design workflows. "If this company didn't have an AI strategy, it would not be seeing this level of demand," Renaissance Capital's Kennedy said. Figma's prominent backers include Silicon Valley venture capital giants Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia. Its revenue surged 46% year-over-year to $228.2 million in the three months ended March 31. For the full-year 2024, its revenue jumped 48% to $749.01 million. It posted a per share loss of $3.74 versus a profit of $1.62 in 2023. It is common for high-growth startups to be unprofitable at the time of listing, but investors have turned more selective, placing greater focus on those with clear paths to profitability and sustainable growth. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Allen & Co and J.P. Morgan are the lead underwriters of the IPO. Reporting by Manya Saini and Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab * Suggested Topics: * Technology Manya Saini Thomson Reuters Manya reports on prominent publicly listed U.S. financial firms, including Wall Street's biggest banks, card companies, asset managers, and fintechs. She also covers late-stage venture capital funding, initial public offerings on U.S. exchanges, and regulatory developments in the cryptocurrency industry. Her work appears in the finance, markets, business, and future of money sections of the Reuters website. A passionate reader, she loves books across genres, from classics to contemporary fiction. She holds an undergraduate degree in Political Science from the University of Delhi and a master's in journalism from the Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication. Niket Nishant Thomson Reuters Niket Nishant reports on breaking news and the quarterly earnings of Wall Street's largest banks, card companies, financial technology upstarts and asset managers. He also covers the biggest IPOs on U.S. exchanges, and late-stage venture capital funding alongside news and regulatory developments in the cryptocurrency industry. His writing appears on the finance, business, markets and future of money sections of the website. He did his post-graduation from the Indian Institute of Journalism and New Media (IIJNM) in Bengaluru.

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

July 30 (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 (ADBE.O), opens new tab 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 Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab * Suggested Topics: * Technology Manya Saini Thomson Reuters Manya reports on prominent publicly listed U.S. financial firms, including Wall Street's biggest banks, card companies, asset managers, and fintechs. She also covers late-stage venture capital funding, initial public offerings on U.S. exchanges, and regulatory developments in the cryptocurrency industry. Her work appears in the finance, markets, business, and future of money sections of the Reuters website. A passionate reader, she loves books across genres, from classics to contemporary fiction. She holds an undergraduate degree in Political Science from the University of Delhi and a master's in journalism from the Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication.

Design software maker Figma extends gains after blockbuster NYSE trading debut

Aug 1 (Reuters) - Design software maker Figma's (FIG.N), opens new tab shares rose another 10% in premarket trading on Friday, extending strong debut-day gains after a blowout U.S. initial public offering that has reignited the tech listing market. The San Francisco, California-based company's shares closed at $115.5 on Thursday, compared with its IPO price of $33. The 250% surge lifted Figma's market value to nearly $68 billion, far exceeding the $20-billion valuation in a now-scrapped buyout deal with Photoshop maker Adobe (ADBE.O), opens new tab. Figma's $1.22-billion offering, the fourth-largest U.S. IPO of the year, is being seen as a potential catalyst for other startups eyeing a flotation after a three-year freeze in the tech listings market. The deal's strong reception renewed hopes of a broader reopening of the pipeline, as private companies and investors look to capitalize on improving market conditions and strong demand for growth names. Figma, which has highlighted its focus on AI, has also benefited from Wall Street's enthusiasm for the technology. The boom fueled a sharp rally in tech stocks over the past year and drove up valuations and investor demand for companies seen as central to the AI ecosystem. "In order for application software companies to remain relevant and provide value to end users, they will need to implement GenAI capabilities which represents a potential catalyst for adoption and increased usage of Figma," D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria said in a note. Founded in 2012 and led by CEO Dylan Field, Figma provides cloud-based collaborative design tools, with a roster of marquee clients including Google (GOOGL.O), opens new tab, Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab, Netflix (NFLX.O), opens new tab and Uber (UBER.N), opens new tab. Though the blockbuster performance is good news for the IPO market, particularly for high-growth tech listings, the sharp surge suggests Figma may have priced its IPO too conservatively, potentially leaving money on the table. Bankers typically target a first-day rise of 10% to 20% to balance strong demand with optimal fundraising. Reporting by Manya Saini in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

Design software maker Figma's shares set to triple in blowout market debut

July 31 (Reuters) - Design software maker Figma's (FIG.N), opens new tab shares were indicated to open at more than triple their initial public offering price on Thursday, setting the stage for a flurry of high-growth tech listings and strengthening a rebound in the IPO market. If the stock starts to trade at the last indicated range of $95 to $100 on the New York Stock Exchange, it could potentially value the company at nearly $59 billion. That far exceeds the $20 billion price tag from a now-abandoned buyout deal with industry giant Adobe (ADBE.O), opens new tab in December 2023. The U.S. initial public offerings market has bounced back after tariff-driven volatility briefly paused listings in April, putting 2025 on track to end a nearly three-year dry spell. "Fast-growing software IPOs have been extremely rare during the past three years, so deals like this tend to get a lot of attention," said Matt Kennedy, senior strategist at Renaissance Capital, a provider of IPO-focused research and ETFs. "Because of this three-year bottleneck, tech IPO investors have been starved for new deals." The company, which priced the IPO at $33, above an already raised range, secured a valuation of $19.34 billion in the listing. Recent tech IPOs have drawn strong investor interest and delivered solid post-listing gains, fueling optimism around new offerings from high-growth and AI-focused firms. "From a private markets perspective, Figma's IPO is a bellwether event for the tech sector," said Derek Hernandez, senior analyst, emerging technology at PitchBook. Figma makes collaborative design software used to build websites, apps and digital products, and customers include streaming giant Netflix (NFLX.O), opens new tab, travel firm Airbnb (ABNB.O), opens new tab and language learning app Duolingo (DUOL.O), opens new tab. Its prominent backers include Silicon Valley venture capital giants Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia. "If you look at Figma's positioning around AI, and the ability to deliver massively improved experiences to its customers with AI, that was not obvious back in 2022," said Andrew Reed, a partner at Sequoia Capital and a board member of Figma. Sequoia Capital first invested in Figma at $1.10 a share during the company's Series C round. With Figma pricing its IPO at $33 a share, Sequoia stands to make a significant return on its roughly $150 million investment, according to a source familiar with the matter. Meanwhile, the broader markets touched new record highs on Thursday as Microsoft's blockbuster earnings fueled investor confidence in Big Tech's hefty investments in artificial intelligence. AI RACE Design software firms are racing to integrate generative-AI tools that automate tasks such as image creation, layout suggestions and code generation, as companies jostle to win enterprise clients and creative teams. Figma, in its IPO filing, flagged intense competition, particularly from rapid AI adoption, as a potential headwind, warning it could cede market share. "We've embedded different flavors of AI - both to lower the floor (and) allow more people to participate in the design process - while also raising the ceiling for individuals (and) for companies to be able to have even more high craft in what they're creating," said Chief Financial Officer Praveer Melwani. The effort has accelerated since Adobe, Microsoft and others began rolling out AI features aimed at speeding up workflows and cutting costs. "Software companies with a strong AI element to them seem to be assets that investors want to buy," said Will Braeutigam, U.S. capital markets transactions leader at Deloitte. Figma, for its part, has rolled out several products built around AI as it looks to stay competitive and meet growing demand for automation in design workflows. "If this company didn't have an AI strategy, it would not be seeing this level of demand," Renaissance Capital's Kennedy said. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Allen & Co and J.P. Morgan are the lead underwriters of the IPO. Reporting by Manya Saini and Niket Nishant in Bengaluru and Echo Wang in New York; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab * Suggested Topics: * Technology Manya Saini Thomson Reuters Manya reports on prominent publicly listed U.S. financial firms, including Wall Street's biggest banks, card companies, asset managers, and fintechs. She also covers late-stage venture capital funding, initial public offerings on U.S. exchanges, and regulatory developments in the cryptocurrency industry. Her work appears in the finance, markets, business, and future of money sections of the Reuters website. A passionate reader, she loves books across genres, from classics to contemporary fiction. She holds an undergraduate degree in Political Science from the University of Delhi and a master's in journalism from the Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication. Niket Nishant Thomson Reuters Niket Nishant reports on breaking news and the quarterly earnings of Wall Street's largest banks, card companies, financial technology upstarts and asset managers. He also covers the biggest IPOs on U.S. exchanges, and late-stage venture capital funding alongside news and regulatory developments in the cryptocurrency industry. His writing appears on the finance, business, markets and future of money sections of the website. He did his post-graduation from the Indian Institute of Journalism and New Media (IIJNM) in Bengaluru. Echo Wang Thomson Reuters Echo Wang is a correspondent at Reuters covering U.S. equity capital markets, and the intersection of Chinese business in the U.S, breaking news from U.S. crackdown on TikTok and Grindr, to restrictions Chinese companies face in listing in New York. She was the Reuters' Reporter of the Year in 2020.

Design software maker Figma's shares surge 158% in blowout market debut

July 31 (Reuters) - Figma's (FIG.N), opens new tab shares surged nearly 158% in their market debut on Thursday valuing the design software maker at about $50 billion, setting the stage for a flurry of high-growth tech listings and strengthening a rebound in the IPO market. The U.S. initial public offerings market has bounced back after tariff-driven volatility briefly paused listings in April, putting 2025 on track to end a nearly three-year dry spell. Figma's valuation at debut far exceeds the $20 billion price tag from a now-abandoned buyout deal with industry giant Adobe (ADBE.O), opens new tab in December 2023. "Fast-growing software IPOs have been extremely rare during the past three years, so deals like this tend to get a lot of attention," said Matt Kennedy, senior strategist at Renaissance Capital, a provider of IPO-focused research and ETFs. "Because of this three-year bottleneck, tech IPO investors have been starved for new deals." The stock opened for trading at $85 apiece on the New York Stock Exchange, compared with the initial public offering price of $33. Recent tech IPOs have drawn strong investor interest and delivered solid post-listing gains, fueling optimism around new offerings from high-growth and AI-focused firms. "From a private markets perspective, Figma's IPO is a bellwether event for the tech sector," said Derek Hernandez, senior analyst, emerging technology at PitchBook. Figma makes collaborative design software used to build websites, apps and digital products, and customers include streaming giant Netflix (NFLX.O), opens new tab, travel firm Airbnb (ABNB.O), opens new tab and language learning app Duolingo (DUOL.O), opens new tab. Its prominent backers include Silicon Valley venture capital giants Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia. "If you look at Figma's positioning around AI, and the ability to deliver massively improved experiences to its customers with AI, that was not obvious back in 2022," said Andrew Reed, a partner at Sequoia Capital and a board member of Figma. Sequoia Capital first invested in Figma at $1.10 a share during the company's Series C round. With Figma pricing its IPO at $33 a share, Sequoia stands to make a significant return on its roughly $150 million investment, according to a source familiar with the matter. Meanwhile, the broader markets touched new record highs on Thursday as Microsoft's blockbuster earnings fueled investor confidence in Big Tech's hefty investments in artificial intelligence. AI RACE Design software firms are racing to integrate generative-AI tools that automate tasks such as image creation, layout suggestions and code generation, as companies jostle to win enterprise clients and creative teams. Figma, in its IPO filing, flagged intense competition, particularly from rapid AI adoption, as a potential headwind, warning it could cede market share. "We've embedded different flavors of AI - both to lower the floor (and) allow more people to participate in the design process - while also raising the ceiling for individuals (and) for companies to be able to have even more high craft in what they're creating," said Chief Financial Officer Praveer Melwani. The effort has accelerated since Adobe, Microsoft and others began rolling out AI features aimed at speeding up workflows and cutting costs. "Software companies with a strong AI element to them seem to be assets that investors want to buy," said Will Braeutigam, U.S. capital markets transactions leader at Deloitte. Figma, for its part, has rolled out several products built around AI as it looks to stay competitive and meet growing demand for automation in design workflows. "If this company didn't have an AI strategy, it would not be seeing this level of demand," Renaissance Capital's Kennedy said. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Allen & Co and J.P. Morgan are the lead underwriters of the IPO. Reporting by Manya Saini and Niket Nishant in Bengaluru and Echo Wang in New York; Additional reporting by Pritam Biswas; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Tasim Zahid Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab * Suggested Topics: * Technology Manya Saini Thomson Reuters Manya reports on prominent publicly listed U.S. financial firms, including Wall Street's biggest banks, card companies, asset managers, and fintechs. She also covers late-stage venture capital funding, initial public offerings on U.S. exchanges, and regulatory developments in the cryptocurrency industry. Her work appears in the finance, markets, business, and future of money sections of the Reuters website. A passionate reader, she loves books across genres, from classics to contemporary fiction. She holds an undergraduate degree in Political Science from the University of Delhi and a master's in journalism from the Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication. Niket Nishant Thomson Reuters Niket Nishant reports on breaking news and the quarterly earnings of Wall Street's largest banks, card companies, financial technology upstarts and asset managers. He also covers the biggest IPOs on U.S. exchanges, and late-stage venture capital funding alongside news and regulatory developments in the cryptocurrency industry. His writing appears on the finance, business, markets and future of money sections of the website. He did his post-graduation from the Indian Institute of Journalism and New Media (IIJNM) in Bengaluru. Echo Wang Thomson Reuters Echo Wang is a correspondent at Reuters covering U.S. equity capital markets, and the intersection of Chinese business in the U.S, breaking news from U.S. crackdown on TikTok and Grindr, to restrictions Chinese companies face in listing in New York. She was the Reuters' Reporter of the Year in 2020.

Figma's $20 Billion Sale Died. It Came Back to Go Public.

Natallie Rocha reported from San Francisco, and Michael de la Merced from London. Three years ago, Figma, a technology start-up that provides a design platform, was on the cusp of a major payday. The San Francisco-based company had struck a deal to sell itself to the software giant Adobe for a whopping $20 billion. But the sale unraveled under the scrutiny of European Union, British and American regulators, vaporizing Figma's potential windfall and leaving the company to pick up the pieces. On Thursday, Figma bounced back -- and then some. The company went public on the New York Stock Exchange, with its shares opening at $85, soaring more than two and a half times its initial public offering price of $33. That put Figma's market capitalization at $49.8 billion, more than double the $20 billion that Adobe had offered it. "The moments of the past kind of flash through your brain, how you got here, but also just excitement about the future is so palpable," Dylan Field, 33, a Figma co-founder and chief executive, said in an interview after ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange. "We have so much ahead to build." The I.P.O. instantly turned Mr. Field into the latest tech billionaire, with his stake in Figma worth more than $4.6 billion. Figma's stock market debut was one of the biggest public offerings so far this year, as the I.P.O. market picks up after a yearslong lull. After President Trump's inauguration, bankers and start-ups had hoped for a surge in public offerings, only to be hit by turbulence driven by trade wars. Companies including the payments giant Klarna and the digital bank Chime postponed their offerings. Since then, stock markets have stabilized somewhat. CoreWeave, a company that runs data centers that help power giant artificial intelligence systems, went public in March. Chime, too, eventually went public. Klarna and other companies, including the online ticket resale marketplace StubHub, are waiting their turn. "Figma will be a bellwether for the tech sector," said Nick Einhorn, the director of research at Renaissance Capital, which follows I.P.O.s. "If it performs well, then I think a lot of companies will take encouragement from that." Figma was founded in 2012 by Mr. Field and Evan Wallace, who met while studying computer science at Brown University. The company makes online software that allows designers, developers and others to build websites and apps. People can use Figma's platform to collaborate on a project in real time, similar to the way everyone can leave comments on a Google Doc. Will Griffith, a partner at the venture capital firm Iconiq Capital, said he met Mr. Field when the entrepreneur was a 19-year-old dropout from Brown and was working with Mr. Wallace and a dog out of a small apartment in Palo Alto, Calif. Mr. Field had a "fervent passion" for reimagining software that was typically expensive and required powerful computers to run, said Mr. Griffith, who invested in Figma at 9 cents a share in 2013. Figma's products can be used for free, but those who want more features pay for subscriptions, with some plans costing up to $90 a month. Netflix, Duolingo and Uber are among the companies using Figma's products for their websites and mobile applications. Along the way, Figma raised about $333 million in funding, according to its prospectus. Its biggest investors include the venture capital firms Index Ventures, Greylock Partners and Kleiner Perkins. In 2021, Mr. Wallace, who was Figma's chief technology officer, left the company. He is its second-largest shareholder after Mr. Field, with about a 5 percent stake that he owns through a trust. Mr. Field holds a 9 percent stake, though because he owns a special class of shares and has voting control over Mr. Wallace's stock, he controls about 74 percent of the vote at the company. In September 2022, Figma announced its sale to Adobe, the maker of Photoshop and other design software. It was a crowning moment for the start-up, but the deal drew scrutiny from antitrust regulators over whether a combined entity would crowd out competitors. For more than a year, Mr. Field and Adobe executives sought to allay regulators' concerns. But in December 2023, the companies announced that the deal was off. Adobe paid Figma a $1 billion breakup fee. "Ultimately there is some gap between how regulators understand our business and how we understand our business," Mr. Field said at the time. Danny Rimer, a venture capitalist at Index Ventures who sits on Figma's board, said in an interview that there was "frustration" over how regulators "had such authority on an outcome with minimal fluency in what they were deciding upon." "To this day," he continued, "Adobe does not compete with Figma." In the aftermath, Figma reset itself. It set its internal valuation at $10 billion, half of what Adobe had offered. That hurt so-called Figmates -- the nickname for its employees -- who had hoped to cash in on the sale to Adobe but were left holding less valuable stock. Figma later let employees sell their holdings to investors at a $12.5 billion valuation. The company has since focused on new products, particularly those powered by artificial intelligence. This spring, it announced four new offerings to expand its design software. More than two-thirds of its users now are nondesigners, the company said. "It would have been so easy to go, 'OK, good time to pause and rest our feet a little bit,'" Mr. Field said in the interview. "Instead we just kept running." Figma is also profitable. The company posted a $44.9 million profit for the first quarter, more than triple the amount a year earlier, according to its prospectus. Revenue was $228 million, up 46 percent from a year earlier. In April, Figma filed to go public, with Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Allen & Company and JPMorgan Chase managing the I.P.O. On Thursday, the company completed its comeback from the failed sale when its shares began publicly trading. Figma's I.P.O. could help the company take even grander steps, such as transformative takeovers, Mr. Field said in the interview. The company also plans to focus more on developing A.I. tools, he said, calling it "our biggest opportunity." "Investors know that we plan to take big swings," he said.

Analysis: Venture-Backed IPOs Of 2025 Have Done Well Post-Debut; Now It's Figma's Turn

The U.S. tech IPO scene hasn't exactly been busy this year. But for those who have made their debuts, the market reception has been exceptionally positive overall. That could be a helpful tailwind for Figma, which priced its IPO late Wednesday at $33 per share, slightly above the projected range. Shares of the design software provider will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol FIG. If Figma follows in the footsteps of other big IPOs this year, we can expect shares to go up from there. That, at least, was the pattern we found in a Crunchbase review of venture-backed companies that went public on U.S. exchanges this year. Among the nine largest offerings, all were up from where they priced their IPOs. Circle leads Circle Internet Group is the top performer by a long shot. The New York-based stablecoin provider, currently valued above $40 billion, has seen the value of its shares rise more than 5x following its early June IPO. The stupendous performance has helped spur a raft of other newcomers looking to test their luck on public markets. In the past few weeks, BitGo, a provider of secure wallets for digital assets, and Gemini, the crypto exchange founded by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, both submitted confidential draft registrations to go public. Also this month, digital asset platform Bullish filed publicly for its IPO. It also likely helped that Circle's debut coincided with a sharp rise in crypto values, with Bitcoin recently near its all-time high at more than $118,000. CoreWeave, Chime and others still up While Circle is the biggest gainer, AI infrastructure provider CoreWeave is still the most valuable venture-backed company to go public this year, with a recent market cap around $52 billion. Shares of the New Jersey company have also more than doubled since its April IPO. Digital banking provider Chime, the next-largest offering, is also up a bit, albeit not so dramatically. And while a market cap over $12 billion certainly sounds like a lot, it's still far below the $25 billion peak valuation Chime garnered several years ago. Several mid-sized IPOs have also posted big gains. Metsera, a developer of therapies for obesity and metabolic diseases, is trading at roughly double the level it priced shares for its January IPO. And shares of MNTN, a targeted TV advertising platform, are also up sharply from the initial offering price in May. Up next: More huge offerings Even with some large offerings in the mix, the pace of venture-backed IPOs so far this year has been on the slow side. Granted, it's a pickup from the latter part of 2024, which was even slower. But to really be able to declare the IPO market is back in a big way, we'll need to see more large, successful offerings. Fortunately, those are likely on tap. Most anticipated of all is probably design software developer Figma, which recently boosted the proposed price range for its upcoming IPO, raising its expected initial valuation to up to $18.8 billion. Another smaller but nonetheless successful debut came to fruition on Wednesday as Ambiq Micro, a maker of low-power chips for AI computing, began trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Shares closed up 61% in first-day trading. Given that preparing for an IPO is a notoriously demanding process, it remains to be seen how many of today's eligible unicorns will add themselves to the public offering pipeline. If things continue in the current fashion, though, many of those who opted to stay private may be regretting their decision.

Figma Just Raised $1.2 Billion in Its IPO, Valuing the Company at Nearly $20 Billion

The company secured a valuation of $19.34 billion, just shy of the $20 billion it was set to fetch in a scrapped acquisition by Adobe in 2023. Design software firm Figma will begin trading later on Thursday after raising $1.22 billion in a blowout U.S. float, setting the stage for a flurry of high-growth tech listings and strengthening a rebound in the IPO market. The company, which priced the deal at $33, above an already raised range, secured a valuation of $19.34 billion, just shy of the $20 billion it was set to fetch in a scrapped buyout deal with industry giant Adobe in December 2023. The U.S. initial public offerings market has bounced back after tariff-driven volatility briefly paused listings in April, putting 2025 on track to end a nearly three-year dry spell. "Fast-growing software IPOs have been extremely rare during the past three years, so deals like this tend to get a lot of attention," said Matt Kennedy, senior strategist at Renaissance Capital, a provider of IPO-focused research and ETFs. "Because of this three-year bottleneck, tech IPO investors have been starved for new deals." Recent tech IPOs have drawn strong investor interest and delivered solid post-listing gains, fueling optimism around new offerings from high-growth and AI-focused firms. The San Francisco, California-based startup and some of its existing investors sold 36.9 million shares in the offering. Figma makes collaborative design software used to build websites, apps and digital products, and customers include streaming giant Netflix, travel firm Airbnb and language learning app Duolingo. "From a private markets perspective, Figma's IPO is a bellwether event for the tech sector," said Derek Hernandez, senior analyst, emerging technology at PitchBook. Design software firms are racing to integrate generative-AI tools that automate tasks like image creation, layout suggestions and code generation, as companies jostling to win enterprise clients and creative teams. Figma, in its IPO filing, flagged intense competition, particularly from rapid AI adoption, as a potential headwind, warning it could cede market share. "We're already investing heavily in AI and we plan to double down even more in this area. AI spend will potentially be a drag on our efficiency for several years," Figma CEO Dylan Field in the IPO prospectus. "AI is also core to how design workflows will evolve going forward." The push has accelerated since Adobe, Microsoft and others began rolling out AI features aimed at speeding up workflows and cutting costs. "Software companies with a strong AI element to them seem to be assets that investors want to buy," said Will Braeutigam, U.S. capital markets transactions leader at Deloitte. Figma, for its part, has rolled out several products built around AI as it looks to stay competitive and meet growing demand for automation in design workflows. "If this company didn't have an AI strategy, it would not be seeing this level of demand," Renaissance Capital's Kennedy said. Figma's prominent backers include Silicon Valley venture capital giants Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia. Its revenue surged 46 percent year-over-year to $228.2 million in the three months ended March 31. For the full-year 2024, its revenue jumped 48 percent to $749.01 million. It posted a per share loss of $3.74 versus a profit of $1.62 in 2023. It is common for high-growth startups to be unprofitable at the time of listing, but investors have turned more selective, placing greater focus on those with clear paths to profitability and sustainable growth. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Allen & Co and J.P. Morgan are the lead underwriters of the IPO. Reporting by Manya Saini and Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; editing by Sriraj Kalluvila. The final deadline for the 2025 Inc. Power Partner Awards is Friday, August 8, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply now.

Why Investors Are Excited About Design Software Maker Figma's Stock

Kara Greenberg is a senior news editor for Investopedia, where she does work coordinating, writing, assigning, and publishing multiple daily and weekly newsletters. Prior to joining Investopedia, Kara was a researcher and editor at The Wire. Earlier in her career, she worked in financial compliance and due diligence at Loomis, Sayles & Company, and The Bank of New York Mellon. Touted by some as the David to Adobe's Goliath, design software upstart Figma's (FIG) market value could be catching up to that of the company that nearly acquired it more quickly than even it expected. Figma's stock more than tripled in value in its first day of trading yesterday after an upsized initial public offering. And with Friday's further jump -- 6% in recent trading -- its market capitalization is approaching $60 billion, close to half of Adobe's (ADBE). That's also roughly three times the $20 billion Adobe offered to pay for it in 2022, in what was widely seen as an acknowledgement that Figma could -- at least in some ways -- be beating the design giant at its own game. (Pressure from regulators, who viewed the bid as a bald attempt from Adobe to knock out competition, killed that deal.) In the less than 10 years since Figma launched its software publicly in 2016, it's become a mainstay of the design world, particularly for its strengths in real-time collaboration, interactive features, and AI integrations. An estimated 95% of Fortune 500 companies use it, with its clients including many tech heavyweights like Amazon (AMZN), Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL), Oracle (ORCL), and Netflix (NFLX). Figma reported first-quarter net income of $44.9 million on revenue that jumped 46% year-over-year to $228.2 million, according to a regulatory filing. CEO Dylan Field, a budding billionaire thanks to this week's gains, said he expects further growth, with big plans in AI. Figma's revenue surged 48% last year to $749 million. Adobe's climbed 11% to $21.51 billion. "Figma's most innovative days are ahead," he said in a blog post yesterday. "We're already investing heavily in AI and we plan to double down even more in this area. AI spend will potentially be a drag on our efficiency for several years, but AI is also core to how design workflows will evolve going forward." Some high-profile investors are among those buying into Field's vision. Cathie Wood's Ark Invest, which focuses on companies it perceives as innovators and disruptors, was among those that piled into the stock yesterday, snapping up about 60,000 shares.

Figma set to debut as blockbuster US IPO lifts revival hopes - The Economic Times

The company, which priced the deal at $33, above an already raised range, secured a valuation of $19.34 billion, just shy of the $20 billion it was set to fetch in a scrapped buyout deal with industry giant Adobe in December 2023.Design software firm Figma will begin trading later on Thursday after raising $1.22 billion in a blowout US float, setting the stage for a flurry of high-growth tech listings and strengthening a rebound in the IPO market. The company, which priced the deal at $33, above an already raised range, secured a valuation of $19.34 billion, just shy of the $20 billion it was set to fetch in a scrapped buyout deal with industry giant Adobe in December 2023. The US initial public offerings market has bounced back after tariff-driven volatility briefly paused listings in April, putting 2025 on track to end a nearly three-year dry spell. "Fast-growing software IPOs have been extremely rare during the past three years, so deals like this tend to get a lot of attention," said Matt Kennedy, senior strategist at Renaissance Capital, a provider of IPO-focused research and ETFs. "Because of this three-year bottleneck, tech IPO investors have been starved for new deals." Recent tech IPOs have drawn strong investor interest and delivered solid post-listing gains, fueling optimism around new offerings from high-growth and AI-focused firms. The San Francisco, California-based startup and some of its existing investors sold 36.9 million shares in the offering. Figma makes collaborative design software used to build websites, apps and digital products, and customers include streaming giant Netflix, travel firm Airbnb and language learning app Duolingo. "From a private markets perspective, Figma's IPO is a bellwether event for the tech sector," said Derek Hernandez, senior analyst, emerging technology at PitchBook. AI race Design software firms are racing to integrate generative-AI tools that automate tasks like image creation, layout suggestions and code generation, as companies jostling to win enterprise clients and creative teams. Figma, in its IPO filing, flagged intense competition, particularly from rapid AI adoption, as a potential headwind, warning it could cede market share. "We're already investing heavily in AI and we plan to double down even more in this area. AI spend will potentially be a drag on our efficiency for several years," Figma CEO Dylan Field in the IPO prospectus. "AI is also core to how design workflows will evolve going forward." The push has accelerated since Adobe, Microsoft and others began rolling out AI features aimed at speeding up workflows and cutting costs. "Software companies with a strong AI element to them seem to be assets that investors want to buy," said Will Braeutigam, US capital markets transactions leader at Deloitte. Figma, for its part, has rolled out several products built around AI as it looks to stay competitive and meet growing demand for automation in design workflows. "If this company didn't have an AI strategy, it would not be seeing this level of demand," Renaissance Capital's Kennedy said. Figma's prominent backers include Silicon Valley venture capital giants Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia. Its revenue surged 46% year-over-year to $228.2 million in the three months ended March 31. For the full-year 2024, its revenue jumped 48% to $749.01 million. It posted a per share loss of $3.74 versus a profit of $1.62 in 2023. It is common for high-growth startups to be unprofitable at the time of listing, but investors have turned more selective, placing greater focus on those with clear paths to profitability and sustainable growth. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Allen & Co and JP Morgan are the lead underwriters of the IPO.

Design software maker Figma's shares surge 158% in blowout market debut - The Economic Times

The US initial public offerings market has bounced back after tariff-driven volatility briefly paused listings in April, putting 2025 on track to end a nearly three-year dry spell. Figma's valuation at debut far exceeds the $20 billion price tag from a now-abandoned buyout deal with industry giant Adobe in December 2023.Figma's shares surged nearly 158% in their market debut on Thursday valuing the design software maker at about $50 billion, setting the stage for a flurry of high-growth tech listings and strengthening a rebound in the IPO market. The US initial public offerings market has bounced back after tariff-driven volatility briefly paused listings in April, putting 2025 on track to end a nearly three-year dry spell. Figma's valuation at debut far exceeds the $20 billion price tag from a now-abandoned buyout deal with industry giant Adobe in December 2023. "Fast-growing software IPOs have been extremely rare during the past three years, so deals like this tend to get a lot of attention," said Matt Kennedy, senior strategist at Renaissance Capital, a provider of IPO-focused research and ETFs. "Because of this three-year bottleneck, tech IPO investors have been starved for new deals." The stock opened for trading at $85 apiece on the New York Stock Exchange, compared with the initial public offering price of $33. Recent tech IPOs have drawn strong investor interest and delivered solid post-listing gains, fueling optimism around new offerings from high-growth and AI-focused firms. "From a private markets perspective, Figma's IPO is a bellwether event for the tech sector," said Derek Hernandez, senior analyst, emerging technology at PitchBook. Figma makes collaborative design software used to build websites, apps and digital products, and customers include streaming giant Netflix, travel firm Airbnb and language learning app Duolingo. Its prominent backers include Silicon Valley venture capital giants Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia. "If you look at Figma's positioning around AI, and the ability to deliver massively improved experiences to its customers with AI, that was not obvious back in 2022," said Andrew Reed, a partner at Sequoia Capital and a board member of Figma. Sequoia Capital first invested in Figma at $1.10 a share during the company's Series C round. With Figma pricing its IPO at $33 a share, Sequoia stands to make a significant return on its roughly $150 million investment, according to a source familiar with the matter. Meanwhile, the broader markets touched new record highs on Thursday as Microsoft's blockbuster earnings fueled investor confidence in Big Tech's hefty investments in artificial intelligence. AI race Design software firms are racing to integrate generative-AI tools that automate tasks such as image creation, layout suggestions and code generation, as companies jostle to win enterprise clients and creative teams. Figma, in its IPO filing, flagged intense competition, particularly from rapid AI adoption, as a potential headwind, warning it could cede market share. "We've embedded different flavors of AI - both to lower the floor (and) allow more people to participate in the design process - while also raising the ceiling for individuals (and) for companies to be able to have even more high craft in what they're creating," said Chief Financial Officer Praveer Melwani. The effort has accelerated since Adobe, Microsoft and others began rolling out AI features aimed at speeding up workflows and cutting costs. "Software companies with a strong AI element to them seem to be assets that investors want to buy," said Will Braeutigam, US capital markets transactions leader at Deloitte. Figma, for its part, has rolled out several products built around AI as it looks to stay competitive and meet growing demand for automation in design workflows. "If this company didn't have an AI strategy, it would not be seeing this level of demand," Renaissance Capital's Kennedy said. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Allen & Co and J.P. Morgan are the lead underwriters of the IPO.

Fact or Fiction: Figma, the Stock Market's Latest Monster IPO, Is Overvalued | The Motley Fool

Figma hit the public markets in a big way last week, following in the footsteps of other large IPOs this year. In late 2022 and into 2023, Adobe tried to remove a key competitor from its landscape by acquiring the innovative design and coding company Figma (FIG 14.21%) for $20 billion. The deal would ultimately fall apart, and today, most Figma's shareholders are likely thankful it did. Figma went public on Aug. 1, and its stock price more than tripled, quickly catapulting to a more than $59 billion market cap, due to insatiable demand from investors. Large IPOs have seen success this year, as the market has begun to thaw after a few difficult years. While Figma is certainly a very promising company and the stock has begun pulling back to a market cap of $44 billion, it's still valued for more than twice as Adobe's offer. Does Figma truly deserve this monstrous valuation? As I mentioned above, large IPOs like CoreWeave and Circle have performed tremendously well. It could perhaps be due to a lack of IPOs in recent years or exuberance around the crypto and artificial intelligence sectors. IPOs that can show big growth and some semblance of profitability have been met with high praise and excitement. And that's exactly what Figma offered. Between the first quarter of 2023 and the second quarter of 2025, Figma generated average quarterly revenue growth of 10%. In the second quarter of 2025, Figma grew revenue 41% year over year, and is now on pace for $1 billion in annual revenue. The company also achieved decent profitability in the fourth quarter of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025. In its preliminary second-quarter results, management projected $9 million to $12 million in operating profits. At Figma's initial projected valuation of $13.6 billion to $16.5 billion, that didn't look so bad in today's environment. Plus, Figma has an AI angle. The company is essentially the Google Sheets of design and user interface, allowing designers and coders to collaboratively build an array of projects with high-quality graphics. In 2023, Figma released Dev Mode, which easily translates designs into code. Other AI features on Figma include the ability to automate many tasks and First Draft, an AI tool that allows users to transition from a blank canvas to user interfaces that can be edited with a simple prompt. Figma already counts 95% of Fortune 500 companies as clients. Management also sees huge potential to incorporate more AI tools and capture business from the 1 billion new applications that are expected to be made by 2028. At this valuation, Figma trades somewhere in the range of over 44 times 2025 revenue, assuming the company keeps growing quarterly revenue at a 10% rate. That is an extremely expensive valuation. If investors do view Figma as an AI play or a monopoly in the space, that could lead to a higher premium valuation. However, there's no certainty that Figma will hold this position forever because AI is clearly going to have a big use-case in design and coding. After all, OpenAI's ChatGPT already demonstrated some pretty impressive capabilities in this regard. Recently on CNBC, Figma co-founder and CEO Dylan Field said that superintelligence is not likely to replace Figma's graphics engine or technology. "I think that's not stuff that you can learn from looking at code and sort of various places on the internet," said Field. "It's not part of the pretraining data mix. I believe that doing that at scale -- it's quite difficult." However, it's really tough to know how far AI and superintelligence can go. Figma will also likely need to invest heavily in AI. I certainly think Figma has strong potential, and I did expect the stock to jump out of the gate. But at this kind of valuation, the stock has run too far, too fast. The risk-reward proposition is no longer favorable, which is why I think investors should wait for dips before buying.

Figma IPO Tops $58 Billion Valuation: Is It Worth the Price? | The Motley Fool

Software company Figma (FIG 5.43%) burst onto Wall Street as one of the hottest initial public offering (IPO) stocks in recent history. The stock soared 250% on its first day of trading, topping a $58 billion market valuation. As of this writing, shares of Figma have continued to show strength, potentially pushing even higher. As exciting as the stock's price action is, it's wise to step back and think through things. Why has Figma's stock price gone wild so soon, and is the stock worth the prices it has quickly risen to since it began trading? Here is what you need to know. Almost every business needs a great website or smartphone app in today's world. Designing these things is often tedious. Take building a website, for example. The process traditionally involves consulting with a specialized individual or group. You give them your vision, your ideas, and they try to build that for you. Getting to the finished product often involves multiple revisions, meaning more time and money along the way. Even when finished, it's usually just good enough, and not the ideal vision you initially dreamt of. Figma's artificial intelligence (AI) and software tools enable anyone to design, build, and launch websites, apps, and other digital interfaces and products. Users can design and create using simple features and AI prompts, and collaborate with others along the way -- no coding or programming experience needed. The company has become a tremendous success and a potential threat to the creative software giant Adobe, which helps explain why Adobe tried to buy Figma in 2023. Today, Figma has 13 million monthly active users, including 95% of companies in the Fortune 500 and 78% in the Forbes 2000. Figma's users also have a net revenue retention rate of 132%, indicating that customers use it more and spend more over time. Investors can't get enough of Figma right now. According to Bloomberg, the IPO was over 40 times oversubscribed, meaning there were far more orders for shares of the IPO than what was available. IPO shares were difficult to get for most, so when the stock began trading, there was already a frenzied investor base waiting to get in on the action. The high demand results from a culmination of things. First, a strong stock market near all-time highs has boosted investor sentiment, creating a healthy backdrop for IPO stocks. Additionally, Figma is a highly regarded software company with AI upside, which only further fuels excitement surrounding the stock. Next, the IPO valuation may have been too conservative. The IPO valued Figma at $19.3 billion. That is less than the $20 billion price tag that Adobe agreed to pay for Figma in 2023 before the deal fell apart under regulatory scrutiny over anticompetitive concerns. Figma's revenue was $504 million in 2023, which grew to $749 million last year, and may top $1 billion this year. Figma's explosive market debut makes total sense when you consider the company's growth since 2023, as well as the current sentiment in technology and AI stocks. Figma's valuation may have been conservative at IPO, but that's no longer the case after the stock's massive rally. Shares now trade at roughly 54 times estimated 2025 revenue, making Figma one of the most expensive stocks on Wall Street. As promising as Figma's future looks, it's becoming fair to wonder how much of that future upside the stock price now reflects. Buying into a red-hot IPO stock can be risky. Sometimes, the stocks can cool off after the hype fades, and investors start looking ahead to the company's first few earnings reports to see how the business is performing as a publicly traded company. Some popular technology IPO stocks from recent years, like Airbnb and Snowflake, initially surged but eventually faded and have yet to revisit those highs. Time will tell what happens with Figma from here, but the odds are that the quick money has been made, so being patient and waiting for a pullback could be the wise approach if you haven't bought shares yet.

Design software maker Figma's shares surge 158% in blowout market debut

Figma's shares surged nearly 158 per cent in their market debut on Thursday valuing the design software maker at about US$50 billion, setting the stage for a flurry of high-growth tech listings and strengthening a rebound in the IPO market. The U.S. initial public offerings market has bounced back after tariff-driven volatility briefly paused listings in April, putting 2025 on track to end a nearly three-year dry spell. Figma's valuation at debut far exceeds the $20 billion price tag from a now-abandoned buyout deal with industry giant Adobe in December 2023. "Fast-growing software IPOs have been extremely rare during the past three years, so deals like this tend to get a lot of attention," said Matt Kennedy, senior strategist at Renaissance Capital, a provider of IPO-focused research and ETFs. "Because of this three-year bottleneck, tech IPO investors have been starved for new deals." The stock opened for trading at $85 apiece on the New York Stock Exchange, compared with the initial public offering price of $33. Recent tech IPOs have drawn strong investor interest and delivered solid post-listing gains, fueling optimism around new offerings from high-growth and AI-focused firms. "From a private markets perspective, Figma's IPO is a bellwether event for the tech sector," said Derek Hernandez, senior analyst, emerging technology at PitchBook. Figma makes collaborative design software used to build websites, apps and digital products, and customers include streaming giant Netflix, travel firm Airbnb and language learning app Duolingo. Its prominent backers include Silicon Valley venture capital giants Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia. "If you look at Figma's positioning around AI, and the ability to deliver massively improved experiences to its customers with AI, that was not obvious back in 2022," said Andrew Reed, a partner at Sequoia Capital and a board member of Figma. Sequoia Capital first invested in Figma at $1.10 a share during the company's Series C round. With Figma pricing its IPO at $33 a share, Sequoia stands to make a significant return on its roughly $150 million investment, according to a source familiar with the matter. Meanwhile, the broader markets touched new record highs on Thursday as Microsoft's blockbuster earnings fueled investor confidence in Big Tech's hefty investments in artificial intelligence. .N Design software firms are racing to integrate generative-AI tools that automate tasks such as image creation, layout suggestions and code generation, as companies jostle to win enterprise clients and creative teams. Figma, in its IPO filing, flagged intense competition, particularly from rapid AI adoption, as a potential headwind, warning it could cede market share. "We've embedded different flavors of AI - both to lower the floor (and) allow more people to participate in the design process - while also raising the ceiling for individuals (and) for companies to be able to have even more high craft in what they're creating," said Chief Financial Officer Praveer Melwani. The effort has accelerated since Adobe, Microsoft and others began rolling out AI features aimed at speeding up workflows and cutting costs. "Software companies with a strong AI element to them seem to be assets that investors want to buy," said Will Braeutigam, U.S. capital markets transactions leader at Deloitte. Figma, for its part, has rolled out several products built around AI as it looks to stay competitive and meet growing demand for automation in design workflows. "If this company didn't have an AI strategy, it would not be seeing this level of demand," Renaissance Capital's Kennedy said. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Allen & Co and J.P. Morgan are the lead underwriters of the IPO.

Design software maker Figma's shares set to double in blowout market debut

(Reuters) -Design software maker Figma's shares were indicated to open at more than double their initial public offering price on Thursday, setting the stage for a flurry of high-growth tech listings and strengthening a rebound in the IPO market. If the stock starts to trade at the last indicated range of $65 to $70 on the New York Stock Exchange, it would value the company at more than twice the $20 billion price tag from a now-abandoned buyout deal with industry giant Adobe in December 2023. The U.S. initial public offerings market has bounced back after tariff-driven volatility briefly paused listings in April, putting 2025 on track to end a nearly three-year dry spell. "Fast-growing software IPOs have been extremely rare during the past three years, so deals like this tend to get a lot of attention," said Matt Kennedy, senior strategist at Renaissance Capital, a provider of IPO-focused research and ETFs. "Because of this three-year bottleneck, tech IPO investors have been starved for new deals." The company, which priced the IPO at $33, above an already raised range, secured a valuation of $19.34 billion in the listing. Recent tech IPOs have drawn strong investor interest and delivered solid post-listing gains, fueling optimism around new offerings from high-growth and AI-focused firms. "From a private markets perspective, Figma's IPO is a bellwether event for the tech sector," said Derek Hernandez, senior analyst, emerging technology at PitchBook. Figma makes collaborative design software used to build websites, apps and digital products, and customers include streaming giant Netflix, travel firm Airbnb and language learning app Duolingo. Its prominent backers include Silicon Valley venture capital giants Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia. "If you look at Figma's positioning around AI, and the ability to deliver massively improved experiences to its customers with AI, that was not obvious back in 2022," said Andrew Reed, a partner at Sequoia Capital and a board member of Figma. Sequoia Capital first invested in Figma at $1.10 a share during the company's Series C round. With Figma pricing its IPO at $33 a share, Sequoia stands to make a significant return on its roughly $150 million investment, according to a source familiar with the matter. AI RACE Design software firms are racing to integrate generative-AI tools that automate tasks such as image creation, layout suggestions and code generation, as companies jostle to win enterprise clients and creative teams. Figma, in its IPO filing, flagged intense competition, particularly from rapid AI adoption, as a potential headwind, warning it could cede market share. "We've embedded different flavors of AI - both to lower the floor (and) allow more people to participate in the design process - while also raising the ceiling for individuals (and) for companies to be able to have even more high craft in what they're creating," said Chief Financial Officer Praveer Melwani. The effort has accelerated since Adobe, Microsoft and others began rolling out AI features aimed at speeding up workflows and cutting costs. "Software companies with a strong AI element to them seem to be assets that investors want to buy," said Will Braeutigam, U.S. capital markets transactions leader at Deloitte. Figma, for its part, has rolled out several products built around AI as it looks to stay competitive and meet growing demand for automation in design workflows. "If this company didn't have an AI strategy, it would not be seeing this level of demand," Renaissance Capital's Kennedy said. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Allen & Co and J.P. Morgan are the lead underwriters of the IPO. (Reporting by Manya Saini and Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)