Figma IPO: Existing Investors Drive $47B Debut with Share Sales - InforCapital

Figma’s highly anticipated IPO marked a major milestone not only for the company but for its earliest backers. With shares debuting at $33 and closing at $115.50, giving Figma a $47 billion market cap, most of the offering came from existing investors selling shares, rather than the company issuing new ones.

This IPO structure allowed early investors such as Iconiq Capital, which first invested when Figma was just two founders in a Palo Alto apartment, to realize gains on a business they’ve supported for nearly a decade. While Iconiq didn’t disclose a 5%+ stake in Figma’s S-1, it holds a significant enough position to benefit from the offering — and celebrated the listing internally with a stock prediction contest and cash bonuses.

“We’ve been with Figma since 2015, and we haven’t sold a share — until now,” said Will Griffith, a founding partner at Iconiq. “We’ll also be meaningful buyers in the IPO.”

According to Griffith, the choice to let existing investors sell was largely strategic. “It’s generous,” he said, emphasizing that selling stake ensured sufficient share supply for the IPO and reduced the risk of post-listing price volatility.

Many large institutional investors avoid IPOs with tight float, where insufficient shares hinder large-scale trades. “Undersupplied IPOs can create false inflation, leading to incorrect valuation signals,” Griffith explained. Figma’s IPO was reportedly 40x oversubscribed, a rare feat that risked pushing prices too high without enough liquidity. Letting early investors sell helped normalize that.

Among those selling were a mix of venture funds and early insiders. While Griffith did not name them directly, data shows participants from Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and Andreessen Horowitz had invested in previous rounds. Many of these firms have seen record-breaking returns over the past two years from software IPOs and are now opting for partial exits to return capital to LPs.

Even Dylan Field, Figma’s co-founder and CEO, reportedly sold a portion of his holdings, though he remains the company’s public face and strategic leader post-IPO. His long-standing connection with Jeff Weiner and early support from tech heavyweights helped propel Figma’s credibility at a time when browser-based design tools were seen as a risky bet.

“This was about vision and conviction,” said Griffith, who backed Figma when seed shares were priced at $0.0878 each. “From two founders and a dog in an apartment to $47 billion, that’s the kind of journey VCs dream of.”

Figma raised roughly $332 million in venture funding before going public, and despite existing investors selling in the IPO, the company remains well-capitalized. Most of the proceeds from share sales went to investors, not Figma itself — a notable structure seen increasingly in high-demand IPOs.