Figma, a cloud-based design tool company, announced Thursday that it will let investors, including current and former workers, to sell shares in a tender offer valued at $12.5 billion.
This is a 25% increase from the company’s 2021 fundraising valuation, but lower than Adobe’s 2022 purchase offer of $20 billion. Following regulatory scrutiny, Adobe and Figma called off their proposed transaction in December.
The San Francisco-based business estimates the tender to be worth between $600 million and $900 million, with support from over 25 current and new investors. The offer includes participation from A16z, Sequoia, and Kleiner Perkins.
Microsoft deploys Figma to tens of thousands of employees, resulting in annual costs of millions. Google, Oracle, and Salesforce use the company’s software.
Figma was valued at $10 billion in June 2021, during the peak of mega-financing, in a capital deal that included Morgan Stanley’s Counterpoint Global. That was before the 2022 market fall, which reduced many cloud stocks by more than half and effectively halted pre-IPO preparations.
Adobe initially stated that acquiring Figma would be a natural addition to the company’s portfolio, saying in the original announcement that “the combination of Adobe and Figma will usher in a new era of collaborative creativity.” In a December regulatory filing, Adobe stated that it would pay Figma a $1 billion breakup fee.
