
Listing or blitzing?! Figma stock soars 250% higher on Day 1 on Wall Street
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Figma Inc stock jumped 250% on Thursday in the largest first-day pop in at least three decades for a US-traded company raising more than $1 billion. They turned volatile on their second trading day, rising as much as 333% above the initial public offering (IPO) price, before paring gains.The San Francisco-based company's stock traded at $126 each, as of press time, versus the IPO price of $33 per share.The trading gives Figma a market value of $61.5 billion, based on the outstanding shares listed in its filings. Accounting for employee stock options and restricted stock units, and restricted stock units for chief executive Dylan Field, which are subject to vesting conditions, the fully diluted value is roughly more than $73 billion.That's well in excess of the $20-billion mark it would have reached in a now-scrapped merger with Adobe Inc.The shares offered in Figma's IPO were ultimately more than 40 times oversubscribed, with more than half of the orders receiving no stock, people familiar with the matter have said.Figma's IPO made billions of dollars for its largest venture capital investors too. The company's biggest VC backer, Index Ventures, invested nearly $100 million in the company when it was a startup. By the end of trading Wednesday, Index's stake in Figma was worth $7.23 billion.Second-largest backer Greylock Partners led the company's Series A funding round in 2015, when it was valued at 20 cents per share. It has made investments of about $50 million into Figma, according to a person familiar with the deal. Its stake was worth $2.03 billion stake at the time of the IPO - representing a multiple of more than 40 times what the firm invested, the person said. Greylock's stake, excluding shares sold, climbed on Thursday to about $6.75 billion.The firms reaping multibillion-dollar gains are joined by other big-name investors.These include Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia Capital, both of which bet on the company when it was still an upstart. The windfalls are particularly significant for the VC industry, which has until recently endured a long drought in the IPO markets. The offering is being seen as a potential catalyst for other startups after a three-year freeze in the tech listings market.Figma is used to design web and mobile application interfaces. It charges clients based on the number of users and the kind of seat those users have.The firm, which has highlighted its focus on AI, has also benefited from Wall Street's enthusiasm for the technology. The boom fuelled a sharp rally in tech stocks over the past year and drove up valuations and investor demand for companies seen as central to the AI ecosystem."In order for application software companies to remain relevant and provide value to end users, they will need to implement GenAI capabilities which represents a potential catalyst for adoption and increased usage of Figma," said Gil Luria, analyst at DA Davidson, in a note.Figma had net income of $44.9 million and revenue of $228 million in the three-month period ended March 31, according to its filings. It reported revenue growth in 2024, though rising operating expenses contributed to a net loss of $732 million for the year.Adobe, a maker of software for creative professionals, walked away from the deal to buy Figma following clashes with regulators. It paid a $1 billion termination fee.

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