Figma overview
Figma makes software for designing digital products as a team. Its flagship app, Figma, runs in a web browser or a desktop app and lets designers, developers and product managers work in the same file at the same time, each with a visible cursor. Around that editor the company has built a family of tools: FigJam for whiteboarding and workshops, Dev Mode for turning designs into code, Figma Slides for presentations, and a group of AI-driven products introduced in 2025, including Figma Make, which turns text prompts into working prototypes, and the website builder Figma Sites.
Dylan Field and Evan Wallace met as computer science students at Brown University and started the company in 2012, after Field accepted a Thiel Fellowship that paid him to leave college. The pair moved to San Francisco and spent about four years on the product, writing a custom rendering engine on top of WebGL, and later adopting WebAssembly, so that a professional vector editor could run smoothly in a browser. Figma opened an invite-only preview in December 2015 and released the app to the public in September 2016.
Free access for individuals and real-time collaboration helped Figma spread from designers to entire product teams, and in late 2025 about two-thirds of its monthly active users were not designers. In September 2022 Adobe agreed to buy the company for about $20 billion in cash and stock, but the two sides abandoned the deal in December 2023, saying they saw no clear path to approval from European and British competition regulators. Adobe paid Figma a $1 billion termination fee.
Figma’s shares began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker FIG on July 31, 2025, and more than tripled on the first day. The company reported revenue of about $1.06 billion for 2025, up 41 percent from the year before, and had 1,886 employees at the end of that year. It has since pushed further into AI, buying the Tel Aviv-based media generation startup Weavy, now sold as Figma Weave, and adding an AI agent, code layers and motion design tools to its canvas in 2026.
Software by Figma
2 products profiled, from Figma (2016) to FigJam (2021).
Figma history and milestones
- 2012
Dylan Field and Evan Wallace found Figma, and Field receives a Thiel Fellowship to work on the company full time.
- 2015
Figma opens an invite-only preview of its browser-based design tool and raises a $14 million Series A led by Greylock.
- 2016
Figma releases its design app to the public on September 27.
- 2021
Figma launches the FigJam whiteboard and raises $200 million in a round that values it at $10 billion.
- 2022
Adobe agrees to acquire Figma for about $20 billion in cash and stock.
- 2023
Figma launches Dev Mode, and in December Adobe and Figma abandon their merger, with Adobe paying a $1 billion termination fee.
- 2024
Figma introduces Figma Slides in beta along with its first built-in AI design features.
- 2025
Figma unveils Figma Make, Sites, Buzz and Draw in May and lists on the New York Stock Exchange on July 31.
- 2026
Figma adds code layers, motion design tools and generative plugins to its canvas at its Config conference in June.
Who founded Figma?
Dylan Field
Co-founder; CEO since 2012 and chair of the board since 2025
Dylan Field grew up in Penngrove, California, and studied computer science at Brown University, where he met Evan Wallace. He had interned at LinkedIn and at Flipboard before winning a Thiel Fellowship in 2012, a $100,000 grant awarded on the condition that recipients leave school, which he used to start Figma full time.
Field has run Figma since its founding, leading it through years of product development, the collapsed Adobe acquisition and its 2025 initial public offering. He became chair of the board in April 2025 and controls a majority of the company’s voting power through high-vote Class B shares. He has also made angel investments in other startups, including Loom.
Evan Wallace
Co-founder; chief technology officer until 2021
Evan Wallace studied computer science at Brown University, where he focused on graphics and worked as a teaching assistant, and joined Dylan Field in California after finishing his degree. As Figma’s chief technology officer he co-developed the app’s original rendering engine, later built a faster successor, and designed the syncing protocol behind Figma’s multiplayer editing.
Wallace left Figma in 2021 after nearly a decade as CTO. He is also well known among web developers as the creator of esbuild, a fast open-source bundler for JavaScript and CSS, and he retains a stake in Figma whose votes Field exercises under a proxy arrangement.
How Figma makes money
Figma sells subscriptions priced per seat. Its free Starter plan gives individuals unlimited drafts and a small daily allowance of AI credits, while paid Professional, Organization and Enterprise plans add shared team spaces, design system libraries, administration and security controls, and larger AI credit allowances. Customers choose among seat types: a Full seat unlocks every product, including Figma Design, Figma Make and Dev Mode; a Dev seat is aimed at engineers; and a lower-cost Collab seat covers FigJam, Figma Slides and Figma Buzz.
Growth follows a land-and-expand pattern. Individuals and small teams often adopt Figma on their own, and companies later move to Organization or Enterprise contracts as use spreads to developers, product managers and marketers. The second quarter of 2026 was Figma’s first full quarter of charging for AI usage through credits, and in that quarter more than 80 percent of customers paying over $10,000 a year consumed AI credits every week.
Who owns and runs Figma?
Co-founder Dylan Field has been Figma’s chief executive since 2012 and has also chaired its board since April 2025. John Lilly is lead independent director, and Praveer Melwani is chief financial officer. Co-founder Evan Wallace left the company in 2021. Figma has been publicly traded on the NYSE since July 2025, but its multi-class share structure gives Class B shares 15 votes each, and at the end of 2025 Field held about 72 percent of the total voting power, including votes on Wallace’s shares that he exercises by proxy.
- Dylan FieldCo-founder, CEO and chair of the board
- Evan WallaceCo-founder; chief technology officer until 2021
- Praveer MelwaniChief financial officer
- John LillyLead independent director
Figma: frequently asked questions
Who founded Figma?
Figma was founded in 2012 by Dylan Field and Evan Wallace, who met as computer science students at Brown University. Field left college on a Thiel Fellowship to build the company and has been its CEO ever since, while Wallace served as chief technology officer until he left in 2021.
Who owns Figma?
Figma, Inc. is a public company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker FIG, so it is owned by its shareholders. Co-founder and CEO Dylan Field controls most of the voting power through Class B shares carrying 15 votes each, holding about 72 percent at the end of 2025, including votes on co-founder Evan Wallace’s shares.
Who is the CEO of Figma?
Dylan Field is the CEO of Figma. He co-founded the company in 2012 and has led it since then, including through the abandoned Adobe acquisition and its 2025 stock market listing. Field also became chair of Figma’s board in April 2025, a few months before the initial public offering.
Where is Figma headquartered?
Figma is headquartered on Market Street in San Francisco, California, the city where its founders moved to build the company. It also has employees in countries including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Israel, Japan, Singapore and the United Kingdom.
What software does Figma make?
Figma’s main product is its collaborative interface design tool, often called Figma Design. The company also makes FigJam for whiteboarding, Dev Mode for developers, Figma Slides for presentations, Figma Make for AI-generated prototypes and apps, Figma Sites for publishing websites, Figma Buzz for marketing assets, Figma Draw for illustration and Figma Weave for AI image and video work.
Is Figma a public company?
Yes. Figma’s shares began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker FIG on July 31, 2025, after the company priced its initial public offering at $33 per share. The stock more than tripled on its first day of trading, although Dylan Field retains voting control.
How does Figma make money?
Figma makes money from subscriptions billed per seat. Individuals can start on a free plan, while teams and companies pay for Professional, Organization or Enterprise plans with Full, Dev or Collab seats, and heavier AI use is charged through credits. The company reported revenue of about $1.06 billion for 2025.
Sources
- Figma investor relations investor.figma.com
- Figma Announces Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2025 Financial Results investor.figma.com
- Figma, Inc. annual report on Form 10-K for 2025 sec.gov
- Adobe and Figma mutually agree to terminate merger agreement news.adobe.com
- Figma’s IPO: Design Is Everyone’s Business, Figma Blog figma.com
- Figma, Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org
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