MW Figma's IPO triples in a 'bellwether event.' Here's why investors want in.

By Steve Gelsi and Mike Murphy

Design-software company's stock jumps 200% to $109 after it priced at $33 a share to raise more than $1.2 billion for the company and shareholders

The initial public offering from design-software company Figma Inc. rocketed 200% Thursday in the largest ever first-day gain of an IPO with $500 million or more in proceeds.

If Figma's $(FIG)$ gains hold through the session, they will outpace the 168% rise by Circle Internet $(CRCL.UK)$ as the biggest first-day performance from a larger IPO, according to Renaissance Capital.

Matthew Kennedy of Renaissance Capital said there has never been a $500 million-plus IPO that tripled in its debut.

After Circle Internet's 168% gain, the next-highest gain from a $500 million-plus IPO was the 150% jump by Palm Inc. in 2000, Kennedy said. Palm was acquired by HP Inc. (HPQ) in 2010.

Figma's (FIG) IPO stands out as a "bellwether event for the tech sector," said Derek Hernandez of PitchBook Data, adding that the company is a "generational software-as-a-service company that has achieved a near-monopolistic hold on the product design market."

Figma's IPO opened at $85.54 a share, well above its $33 price, but then rose to $107.87 a share for a gain of about 200% in recent trading. The stock drew volume of 12 million shares and was halted at times for volatility.

Figma has "systematically displaced" larger rivals such as Adobe Inc.'s $(ADBE)$ Adobe XD product and the privately held Sketch BV, Hernandez said.

Adobe tried to buy its fledgling rival for about $20 billion several years ago, but the deal was called off due to concerns about regulatory scrutiny.

The pricing of Figma's IPO at $33 a share topped the projected range of $30 to $32 a share, which had been raised earlier this week from an original range of $25 to $28.

At the IPO price, Figma had a market capitalization of $19.3 billion, based on 585 million shares outstanding on a fully diluted basis, which includes unvested stock options.

A total of 36.94 million shares were sold in the IPO, raising $1.22 billion. That included the company selling 12.47 million shares to raise $411.7 million, and shareholders selling 24.46 million shares to raise $807.3 million.

Figma offers investors a "strong and consistent growth rate for a long time" due partly to its international presence and potential domestic expansion, Pitchbook analyst Hernandez said.

He said he wasn't surprised that the underwriters of the deal raised Figma's estimated price range, given the company's high profile as a private software company that had been eyeing an IPO for years before market conditions improved enough in 2025 to move ahead.

"I don't think we've seen a company as good as this for a while," Hernandez told MarketWatch. "It's a very unique opportunity. It would have gone public a while ago in another market."

Read more: Figma files for an IPO. What investors should know about the Adobe design rival.

Experts say Figma's IPO will likely persuade other private software companies to go public and help re-energize the market. That group could include AI customer-service provider Genesys Cloud Services Inc., graphic-design-software maker Canva Pty Ltd. and data-analytics company Databricks Inc.

"Investors have been starved of new entrants into public markets in recent years," DA Davidson analyst Gil Luria said in a Monday note. "With elongated timelines between capital raises and a liquidity event, these organizations have gotten fit."

Hernandez said the $20 billion valuation for Figma by Adobe was like a "line in the sand" for Figma's IPO pricing, so he wasn't surprised when the price target for the IPO was raised on Monday.

With more than 1,600 employees and 13 million monthly active users, Figma products were being used by 95% of Fortune 500 companies as of March, with more than half of its revenue coming from outside the U.S.

Dylan Field, co-founder and chief executive of the company, won a Thiel Fellowship to pursue entrepreneurial projects early in his career.

Field is selling 2.35 million shares in the IPO, for proceeds of $77.6 million, according to a filing.

Mamoon Hamid, a board member at Figma and a managing member at venture-capital firm Kleiner Perkins, is selling up to 2.76 million shares, valued at about $91 million.

Other principal shareholders of Figma include affiliates of Index Ventures, Greylock Partners and Sequoia Capital.

The IPO from Figma comes after several successful larger IPOs this year, including AI data-center specialist CoreWeave Inc. (CRWV), payments-technology company Circle Internet Group Inc. (CRCL), online brokerage eToro Group Ltd. (ETOR) and online banking-services company Chime Financial Inc. $(CHYM)$.

More: Ambiq's stock soars after IPO. Here's where the company sees its place in the AI boom.

-Steve Gelsi -Mike Murphy

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July 31, 2025 14:46 ET (18:46 GMT)

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