Figma, a U.S. design software maker and competitor of Adobe, is pushing for an initial public offering.
Figma said on the 15th that it submitted documents to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an initial public offering. The company's push for an IPO comes 16 months after Adobe withdrew its acquisition agreement, which had been signed in September 2022, following pushback from regulatory authorities in the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom.
Figma garnered significant attention in the market when Adobe announced its acquisition in September 2022. At the time of the announcement, Figma, which had been founded only 10 years earlier, had an acquisition price of $20 billion (28.5 trillion won), making it the largest software acquisition in history. Figma co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dylan Field drew interest as he was expected to show substantial growth despite being in his early 30s at that time.
However, the European Commission and the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced preliminary investigation results indicating concerns that the merger between Adobe and Figma could limit competition in the global web-based design services sector, prompting Adobe to withdraw the acquisition agreement. Adobe also paid a $1 billion termination fee to Figma.
Figma's software is popular among designers within corporations who require collaborative prototypes for websites and apps. The company recorded annual revenues of $600 million and was valued at $12.5 billion last year.
Figma's IPO push comes amid signs that the U.S. IPO market is tightening again. This year, the U.S. IPO market was initially expected to be invigorated due to promises of regulatory relief from the Trump administration. However, with President Donald Trump's imposition of massive tariffs escalating the global trade war, the market froze, causing corporations to postpone their IPOs.
Ticket trading platform StubHub and buy now, pay later (BNPL) fintech company Klarna have postponed their IPO plans that were set for this week. Another fintech company, Chime, has also delayed its submission of financial information to regulatory authorities, and healthcare company Hinge Health is reportedly monitoring the market conditions ahead of its scheduled IPO at the end of April.