Figma Files for IPO amid Market Jitters, Eyes Public Debut despite Risk

When market turmoil and takeover drama are imminent, the massive design software company Figma surprised everyone by submitting confidential IPO filings.

Figma, a design software firm, said on Tuesday that it has submitted its private IPO documents. More information won't be available until that documentation is made public, which should happen in around a month.

However, even at an experimental level, pursuing an IPO at this time is unexpected given that the stock market is in groundhog mode and is feeling the effects of the Trump administration's trade policies and tariffs with every fresh swing. The two potentially huge digital initial public offerings (IPOs) that were booming last month, Klarna and StubHub, both pushed the pause button in early April as the stock market plummeted due to tariff news. They haven't rescheduled as of yet.

The fact that Figma is working on an IPO does not guarantee that it will go forward according to the customary schedule, which is typically four to six weeks following the acceptance of secret documents.

After completing a tender offer that allowed current owners to cash out a portion of their investment, Figma, a company that creates web apps and collaborative software for designers, was last valued at $12.5 billion in May 2024. In 2023, regulatory resistance in the US and Europe caused Adobe's $20 billion acquisition attempt of Figma to collapse.

Sequoia Capital, Index Ventures, Greylock, Kleiner Perkins, and a host of other organizations, including Andreessen Horowitz and IVP, are among the venture firms that support the company and have investors on its board.