Atlassian vs Figma: Founders, CEOs and History
Atlassian was founded in 2002 by Mike Cannon-Brookes, Scott Farquhar and is led by Mike Cannon-Brookes. Figma was founded in 2012 by Dylan Field, Evan Wallace and is led by Dylan Field.
Company facts
Founders
Atlassian
Mike Cannon-Brookes
Atlassian was founded in 2002 in Sydney, Australia, by Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar. The founding of the company is a notable departure from the traditional Silicon Valley startup narrative.
Scott Farquhar
Scott Farquhar co-founded Atlassian in 2002 and served as co-CEO alongside Mike Cannon-Brookes until he stepped down on August 31, 2024, one of the longest co-CEO partnerships among listed technology companies.
Figma
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.
Evan Wallace
Evan Wallace is the co-founder and former Chief Technology Officer of Figma. An engineering prodigy in computer graphics and compilers, Wallace was the primary technical architect who made Figma possible.
CEOs and their tenures
Atlassian
- Mike Cannon-Brookes2002–present
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Cannon-Brookes has led Atlassian since founding it in 2002, taking it from a $10,000 startup to $6.57 billion of fiscal 2026 revenue, and has been sole chief executive since Scott Farquhar stepped down on August 31, 2024.
Source - Scott Farquhar2002–2024
Co-Founder and Co-Chief Executive Officer
Farquhar served as co-CEO alongside Cannon-Brookes from 2002 until August 31, 2024, overseeing technical and engineering areas of the company as it grew from the original Jira issue tracker to a cloud platform serving more than 350,000 customers.
Source
Figma
- Praveer Melwani
Chief Financial Officer
Leads Figma's finance organization through its first years as a public company, including the 2026 introduction of AI credit monetization.
Source - Dylan Field2012–present
Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder
Founding who dropped out of Brown on a Thiel Fellowship to build Figma; guided the company through a four-year stealth sprint, built Figma past US$1.06 billion in 2025 revenue, collected a US$1.0B breakup fee from Adobe, and took the company public on the NYSE…
Source - Evan Wallace2012–2021
Co-Founder
Evan Wallace co-founded Figma alongside Dylan Field. As the Chief Technology Officer, he developed the revolutionary core WebGL rendering engine and C++ architecture that enabled a complex design tool to run flawlessly and collaboratively in a standard web bro…
Source
Timeline: Atlassian and Figma side by side
2002Atlassian
Company founded by Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar in Sydney
Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar founded Atlassian with $10,000 in credit card debt while students at the University of New South Wales. They launched Jira, a bug-tracking and project management tool for software developers.
2004Atlassian
Launch of Confluence team collaboration platform
Atlassian launched Confluence, a team collaboration and documentation platform that complemented Jira and expanded the addressable market beyond software development into general team collaboration and knowledge management.
2005Atlassian
Reaches $1 million in annual revenue with no salespeople
Atlassian reached $1 million in annual revenue entirely through self-service online sales, validating the product-led growth model and demonstrating that enterprise software could be sold without a traditional sales force.
2010Atlassian
Raises $60 million from Accel Partners
Atlassian raised its first outside investment, $60 million from Accel Partners, after eight years of bootstrapped growth. The money went to product development and international expansion, not to building a sales force.
2012Atlassian
Acquisition of HipChat for real-time messaging
Atlassian acquired HipChat, an enterprise messaging platform, entering the real-time communication market and expanding the product suite beyond project management and documentation.
2012Figma
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.
2015Atlassian
Initial public offering on NASDAQ
Atlassian completed its IPO on the NASDAQ Global Select Market, raising $462 million at a valuation of $4.37 billion. Shares were priced at $21 and rose 32% on the first day to close near $28.
2015Figma
Launch of Closed Preview & WebGL Canvas
Unveiled the first closed preview of Figma, astonishing engineers by rendering complex vector graphics inside a browser.
2016Figma
Public Launch of Figma to the World
Opened Figma to the public for free, igniting viral adoption across designers at Uber, Microsoft, and Airbnb.
2017Atlassian
Acquisition of Trello for $425 million
Atlassian acquired Trello, a visual task management platform built on Kanban boards, for $425 million in cash and stock. The deal extended its reach to non-technical teams and smaller organizations, complementing Jira.
2018Atlassian
Launch of Jira Service Management
Atlassian launched Jira Service Management, entering the IT service management market and extending Jira from software development into IT operations and service desk work.
2019Figma
Series C Funding & Launch of Figma Community
Raised $40M led by Sequoia Capital and launched the Figma Community for open-source UI kits and plugins.
2020Atlassian
Acquisition of Mindville for asset management
Atlassian acquired Mindville, an IT asset management company, to add asset and configuration management to Jira Service Management for enterprise customers.
2021Atlassian
Acquisition of Chartio for data visualization
Atlassian acquired Chartio, a cloud data visualization and analytics company, to improve reporting across the product suite. The standalone Chartio product was later discontinued.
2021Figma
Series E at $10.0B Valuation & FigJam Debut
Raised $200M led by Durable Capital at a $10B valuation and launched FigJam collaborative whiteboard.
2022Atlassian
Acquisition of Percept.AI for AI virtual agents
Atlassian acquired Percept.AI, an AI virtual agent company, to add automated ticket handling to Jira Service Management ahead of its broader AI push.
2022Figma
Adobe 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.
2023Atlassian
Acquisition of Loom for approximately $975 million
Atlassian acquired Loom, an asynchronous video messaging platform, for about $975 million, its largest acquisition by announced value, adding recorded video to Jira and Confluence workflows.
2023Figma
Launch of Dev Mode at Config San Francisco
Unveiled Dev Mode, expanding Figma's addressable market to software engineers with native code generation.
2023Figma
Merger Abandoned; Figma Collects $1.0B Breakup Fee
Adobe and Figma mutually terminated merger under regulatory pressure; Figma received a $1.0B cash termination fee.
2024Atlassian
Launch of Rovo AI assistant
Atlassian launched Rovo, an AI assistant embedded across its products, providing search, summarization, automation, and agents that draw on the Teamwork Graph.
2024Atlassian
Server end-of-life forces cloud and data center migration
Atlassian ended support for its Server product line in February 2024, requiring remaining on-premises customers to move to either Cloud or Data Center subscriptions.
2024Figma
$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.
2025Atlassian
Launch of Atlassian Collections
Atlassian began selling Collections, bundles of apps and AI agents priced around an outcome rather than per product: the Teamwork Collection, Software Collection, Service Collection, and Strategy Collection.
2025Atlassian
Announces end of life for Data Center products
On September 8, 2025, Atlassian announced the end of life of its Data Center products under a migration program called Atlassian Ascend.
2025Atlassian
Acquisition of The Browser Company of New York
Atlassian completed the acquisition of The Browser Company of New York, maker of the Dia and Arc browsers, on October 20, 2025, for a total purchase price of $488.3 million, taking the company into enterprise browsers.
2025Atlassian
Acquisition of engineering intelligence vendor DX
Atlassian acquired A Software Company, which trades as DX, on November 10, 2025 for $720.4 million in cash. DX measures how engineering investment turns into delivered work and is being folded into Atlassian Collections.
2025Figma
Revenue 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.
2026Atlassian
Restructuring eliminates roles covering about 10% of the workforce
Atlassian initiated a second restructuring plan in the third quarter of fiscal 2026, eliminating roles covering approximately 10% of its workforce to fund investment in AI and enterprise sales.
2026Atlassian
Rovo reaches over 80% of the Fortune 500
Atlassian reported that Rovo was in use at over 80% of Fortune 500 companies and that its MCP server and Teamwork Graph CLI passed one million monthly active users in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, more than doubling in a quarter.
Acquisitions
Atlassian
- The Browser Company of New York Inc.2025$488.3M
- A Software Company (DX)2025$720.4M
- Loom, Inc.2023$975M
- Percept.AI2022Undisclosed
- Chartio2021Undisclosed
- Mindville2020Undisclosed
Figma
- Bud (formerly Orchids) team2026Undisclosed
- Weavy2025Undisclosed
- Diagram2023Undisclosed
- Visly2021Undisclosed
Questions about Atlassian vs Figma
Who is the CEO of Atlassian Corporation and Figma, Inc.?
Atlassian Corporation is led by Mike Cannon-Brookes and Figma, Inc. is led by Dylan Field. Both serve as the top executive responsible for the company's strategy, operations, and financial performance.
When was Atlassian Corporation founded vs Figma, Inc.?
Atlassian Corporation was founded in 2002 — 10 years before Figma, Inc., which was founded in 2012. Atlassian Corporation's longer operating history gives it a deeper track record but also potentially more institutional inertia compared to the younger Figma, Inc..
How many employees does Atlassian Corporation have compared to Figma, Inc.?
Atlassian Corporation employs approximately 13,301 people, while Figma, Inc. employs approximately 1,886. Atlassian Corporation has the larger workforce at 13,301 employees, compared to Figma, Inc.'s 1,886. A higher headcount does not necessarily imply greater efficiency — it often reflects differences in business model (e.g., manufacturing vs. software).
Where are Atlassian Corporation and Figma, Inc. headquartered?
Both Atlassian Corporation and Figma, Inc. are headquartered in United States, meaning they operate under the same primary regulatory and tax environment.
Who founded Atlassian Corporation and Figma, Inc.?
Atlassian Corporation was founded by Mike Cannon-Brookes, Scott Farquhar. Figma, Inc. was founded by Dylan Field, Evan Wallace.
Which company has a longer operating history — Atlassian Corporation or Figma, Inc.?
Atlassian Corporation has been operating for approximately 24 years, making it the more established of the two companies. Figma, Inc. has been in operation for around 14 years. A longer operating history often signals greater institutional resilience and brand recognition, though it can also mean slower adaptation to new market conditions.
Figures come from each company's filings and the sources linked beside them. Amounts reported in another currency are shown in US dollars at an approximate rate and marked with ~. Back to the Atlassian vs Figma overview