Figma going public: The CEO had a fellowship with Peter Thiel’s foundation

Design software maker Figma will debut with shares indicated to open at more than triple their initial public offering (IPO) price, with the deal oversubscribed.

Figma CEO Dylan Field co-founded the firm and has served as CEO since 2012, becoming chair of the board of directors in April 2025.

The company’s biography of Fields included in a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) noted he attended Brown University for 2½ years before he accepted a Thiel Fellowship from investor Peter Thiel’s foundation to pursue entrepreneurial projects.

Field received a $100,000 grant through the Thiel Fellowship that was conditioned on him leaving school for at least two years to work full-time on the company, which he founded in 2012. He dropped out of Brown, where he was studying math and computer science, to accept the grant and pursue his work on Figma.

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Figma will debut on the New York Stock Exchange, and if the stock starts to trade in the range of $95 to $100 per share on the NYSE as was indicated early Thursday, it could potentially value the company at nearly $59 billion. The company valued its IPO at $33 a share.

That would far exceed the $20 billion buyout deal with Adobe that fell through in December 2023. It comes amid strong investor interest in recent tech IPOs, which have spurred optimism around new offerings from high-growth and AI-focused firms.

Figma makes collaborative design software that’s used to build websites, apps and digital products. Some of its customers include streaming giant Netflix, travel lodging firm Airbnb and language learning app Duolingo.

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As the company goes public, Field will remain CEO and chair of the board at Figma.

“We believe Mr. Field is qualified to serve as a member of our Board of Directors because of his operational expertise, industry knowledge, leadership, and the continuity that he brings to our Board of Directors as our Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer, and President,” the company wrote.

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Silicon Valley venture capital firms, including Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia, are among Figma’s prominent backers.

The company noted intense competition in the design software space, particularly amid the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI), which could serve as a headwind that affects its market share.

“We’ve embedded different flavors of AI — both to lower the floor (and) allow more people to participate in the design process — while also raising the ceiling for individuals (and) for companies to have even more high craft in what they’re creating,” CFO Praveer Melwani said in the IPO filing.

The lead underwriters of the IPO are Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Allen & Co. and J.P. Morgan.

Reuters contributed to this report.