UPDATED 15:56 EST / APRIL 30 2020

CLOUD

Interface design startup Figma lands $2B valuation after raising $50M

Figma Inc., a startup whose interface design platform is used by the likes of Microsoft Corp. and Twitter Inc., today announced that it has picked up $50 million from an Andreessen Horowitz-led investor group.

The Series D round reportedly values Figma at $2 billion. Andreessen Horowitz was joined in the investment by Index Ventures, Greylock, Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia and others. 

San Francisco-based Figma’s namesake platform is a cloud-based workbench that designers can use to create the interface for a website or an application. It also lends itself to other uses, such as creating presentations. Figma provides tools both for drawing the initial concept sketches that precede a design project and for creating functional, interactive interface prototypes later on.

Figma competes in a fairly crowded field. It’s going up against Adobe Systems Inc., which has long led the digital design market with products such as Photoshop, as well as a number of fellow startups. InVision Inc., an Adobe competitor likewise backed by high-profile venture capital firms, was valued at $1.5 billion after its last funding round in late 2018.

Figma has sought to set itself apart by providing collaboration features to make the project management aspect of design work easier. The platform provides a co-editing tool that allows multiple users to work on a file simultaneously and an embedded comment system for sharing feedback. Figma also has Project Pages, which serve as a kind of home page for design teams where users can keep track on what their colleagues are working on.

“Since it launched in December 2015, over 4 million users have registered for Figma,” detailed Peter Levin, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, in a blog post explaining why the firm decided to back the startup. “And shortly after they launched their plugin platform last summer, more than 700+ third-party plugins have been built for the platform with over 3 million plugin installs.”

Dylan Field, the startup’s chief executive officer, told TechCrunch that the startup is not yet profitable. He said the $50 million round extends Figma’s financial runway to four years when taking into account planned efforts to ramp up sales efforts and hiring. The startup will reportedly also explore opportunities to use some of its new funding on acquisitions. 

Photo: Unsplash

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