Design software startup Figma announced Tuesday it has filed its confidential paperwork for an IPO. We won’t know more until that paperwork becomes public, which, best-case scenario would be in about a month.
However, with the stock market in groundhog mode — seeing its shadow with every new gyration of the Trump Administration’s trade policies and tariffs — pursuing an IPO right now, even at an exploratory level, is surprising. Klarna and StubHub, the two potentially blockbuster tech IPOs that were humming along last month, both hit the pause button in early April after the stock market crashed on tariff news. They have not yet rescheduled.
While Figma is working on an IPO, that doesn’t mean it will proceed in the usual timeline, which is often 4 to 6 weeks after confidential paperwork has been accepted.
Figma, which makes collaborative software and web applications for designers, was last valued at $12.5 billion in May after it completed a tender offer that allowed existing shareholders to cash some of their stake out. Adobe attempted to buy Figma for $20 billion, but that deal fell through in 2023 after regulatory pushback against the deal in Europe and the United States.
The company is backed by venture firms such as Sequoia Capital, Index Ventures, Greylock and Kleiner Perkins, who have investors that sit on its board and a long list of others including Andreessen Horowitz and IVP.
Figma declined further comment.
