Figma, Inc.
Company History
Figma History: Founding, Growth & Key Milestones
Founded 2012 in San Francisco, California
When was Figma founded?
Figma was founded in 2012 in San Francisco, California by Dylan Field and Evan Wallace, making it 14 years old.
- Founded
- 2012
- Founding place
- San Francisco, California
- Founders
- Dylan Field and Evan Wallace
- Headquarters today
- San Francisco, California, United States
- Milestones documented
- 12 (2012–2025)
- Current CEO
- Dylan Field
- Acquisitions
- 4
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 2012 | Figma Founded by Dylan Field and Evan Wallace |
| 2015 | Launch of Closed Preview & WebGL Canvas |
| 2016 | Public Launch of Figma to the World |
| 2018 | Series B Funding |
| 2019 | Series C Funding & Launch of Figma Community |
| 2020 | Series D at $2 Billion Valuation |
| 2021 | Series E at $10.0B Valuation & FigJam Debut |
| 2022 | Adobe Announces $20 Billion Acquisition Agreement |
| 2023 | Launch of Dev Mode at Config San Francisco |
| 2023 | Merger Abandoned; Figma Collects $1.0B Breakup Fee |
| 2024 | $12.5B Valuation Tender Offer & Figma AI Launch |
| 2025 | Revenue Tops US$1 Billion in First Public Year |
- Where was Figma founded?
- Figma was founded in San Francisco, California in 2012.
- Who founded Figma?
- Figma was founded by Dylan Field and Evan Wallace.
- When did Figma start?
- Figma was founded in 2012.
- How old is Figma?
- Figma is 14 years old as of 2026.
Founding Story
In 2012 Dylan Field, then a Brown University student, received a US$100,000 Thiel Fellowship to leave college and start a company with fellow Brown student Evan Wallace. Their bet was that WebGL would let professional graphics software run inside a browser, the same shift Google Docs had brought to documents. They spent roughly four years building the rendering engine before Figma's free preview in December 2015 and its 1.0 launch in September 2016.
Founders
Dylan Field
Dylan Field is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Figma, Inc. In 2012, alongside Brown classmate Evan Wallace, Field founded Figma with the audacious vision of bringing professional graphics editing to the web browser. Under Field's patient, leadership, Figma spent four years in stealth mode perfecting its WebGL rendering engine before launching publicly in 2016. Field scaled Figma into a global leader in digital product design, reaching US$1.06 billion in revenue in 2025. In 2022, he negotiated the historic $20 billion acquisition agreement with Adobe, and when global antitrust regulators blocked the deal in 2023, Field masterfully steered Figma through the aftermath, collecting a US$1.0 billion breakup fee, executing a 2024 tender offer at a US$12.5 billion valuation, and taking Figma public on the NYSE in July 2025. Field's resilience was put to the ultimate test during the fifteen-month regulatory battle following Adobe's $20 billion acquisition offer. Maintaining exceptional focus across Figma's product and engineering teams despite intense global media scrutiny, Field continued shipping major innovations, including FigJam widgets and Dev Mode. When the transaction collapsed under antitrust pressure, Field transformed the setback into a resounding victory, deploying the $1.0 billion cash termination fee to accelerate AI development and expand international operations, cementing his reputation as one of the preeminent enterprise software leaders of his generation. Dylan Field was born in 1992.
Evan Wallace
Evan Wallace co-founded Figma alongside Dylan Field. As the absolute technical genius of the duo, Wallace spent years building incredibly complex WebGL infrastructure that allowed a full, high-performance vector graphics editor to run smoothly directly inside a web browser—a technical feat that Adobe had completely failed to achieve. He left the company in 2021 after setting the architectural foundation for its massive success. Evan Wallace was born in 1989.
Key Milestones
Figma Founded by Dylan Field and Evan Wallace
Dylan Field accepted the Thiel Fellowship, dropping out of Brown to start Figma with classmate Evan Wallace in San Francisco.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgLaunch of Closed Preview & WebGL Canvas
Unveiled the first closed preview of Figma, astonishing engineers by rendering complex vector graphics inside a browser.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgPublic Launch of Figma to the World
Opened Figma to the public for free, igniting viral adoption across designers at Uber, Microsoft, and Airbnb.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgSeries B Funding
Figma raised $25 million in a Series B round led by Sequoia Capital in 2018.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgSeries C Funding & Launch of Figma Community
Raised $40M led by Sequoia Capital and launched the Figma Community for open-source UI kits and plugins.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgSeries D at $2 Billion Valuation
Figma raised $50 million in 2020 in a round led by Andreessen Horowitz at a $2 billion valuation.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgSeries E at $10.0B Valuation & FigJam Debut
Raised $200M led by Durable Capital at a $10B valuation and launched FigJam collaborative whiteboard.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgAdobe Announces $20 Billion Acquisition Agreement
Adobe announced a definitive agreement to acquire Figma for $20B in cash and stock, setting a software M&A record.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgLaunch of Dev Mode at Config San Francisco
Unveiled Dev Mode, expanding Figma's addressable market to software engineers with native code generation.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgMerger Abandoned; Figma Collects $1.0B Breakup Fee
Adobe and Figma mutually terminated merger under regulatory pressure; Figma received a $1.0B cash termination fee.
Source: en.wikipedia.org$12.5B Valuation Tender Offer & Figma AI Launch
Completed tender offer valuing Figma at $12.5B, launched Figma AI, and crossed $700M in annual recurring revenue.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgRevenue Tops US$1 Billion in First Public Year
Figma reported US$1.06 billion in 2025 revenue, up 41%, and ended the year with 1,886 employees.
Source: sec.govMajor Acquisitions
Visly
2021Brought in a team experienced in design-to-code and component layout tooling.
Diagram
2023Acquired the AI design-tools startup founded by Jordan Singer, maker of the Magician and Automator plugins.
Weavy
2025Added generative AI image, video, animation and motion-editing tools to the Figma canvas.
Bud (formerly Orchids) team
2026Acqui-hired the team behind a vibe-coding and AI agent-building platform to bring coding and prototyping closer to the canvas.
Keep researching Figma
Figma Company History FAQ
When was Figma founded and when was its first public preview launched?
Figma was founded in 2012 by Dylan Field and Evan Wallace in San Francisco. After more than three years in stealth development, Figma launched its first free public preview on December 3, 2015, immediately generating viral buzz across the global design community.
When did Figma officially launch to the public and introduce paid plans?
Figma officially exited preview on September 27, 2016, launching its 1.0 release with real-time multiplayer co-editing, and introduced paid subscription pricing tiers (Professional and Organization) in 2017.
When did Figma launch the Figma Community marketplace?
In October 2019, Figma launched Figma Community, enabling designers worldwide to publish, discover, and remix open-source design systems, UI kits, and custom plugins, establishing powerful ecosystem network effects.
When did Figma introduce FigJam for collaborative digital whiteboarding?
In April 2021, Figma launched FigJam, an intuitive online whiteboard built directly on Figma's multiplayer engine for team brainstorming, agile standups, user journey mapping, and visual diagramming.
What was the landmark September 2022 Adobe acquisition agreement?
On September 15, 2022, Adobe announced a definitive agreement to acquire Figma for approximately $20 billion in cash and stock, representing one of the largest proposed takeovers of a private software company in tech history.
When was the Adobe-Figma merger officially terminated?
On December 18, 2023, Adobe and Figma announced the mutual termination of their $20 billion merger agreement after regulators in the UK (CMA) and Europe (EC) signaled they would block the deal on antitrust grounds, resulting in Adobe paying Figma a $1.0 billion cash termination fee.
When did Figma launch Dev Mode and Figma Slides at Config?
Figma officially launched Dev Mode out of beta in early 2024 and unveiled Figma Slides alongside native Figma AI at Config 2024 in San Francisco, expanding its footprint across engineering handoff and corporate storytelling.
How did Figma transform the global digital software development industry?
By bringing design into the web browser and making it real-time and multiplayer, Figma dismantled corporate silos between designers, product managers, and developers, establishing the modern collaborative standard for building digital products globally.
How did Figma start?
Figma was founded in 2012 by Dylan Field and Evan Wallace. Field famously secured a $100,000 Thiel Fellowship, which paid him to drop out of Brown University. They spent four grueling years aggressively engineering the complex WebGL backend before even releasing the product to the public in 2016.
Related Strategic History
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