Danny Rimer first invested in Figma in 2012, rapidly after the enterprise changed into mounted and commenced developing software program equipment for designers. Rimer, a accomplice on the venture capital company Index Ventures, invited Figma’s co-founder and leader govt officer, Dylan field, to dinner and ordered a bottle of wine to have a good time the deal. It became then that the younger entrepreneur hesitated. “Danny, I’m 19,” subject said. Rimer went beforehand, he recalled, and ordered the Pinot besides.
On Thursday, Adobe Inc. Stated it’s going to buy Figma in a deal valued at approximately $20 billion — the most important exit of a VC-backed company in at the least 20 years, in step with PitchBook facts. Field, 30, is now of felony drinking age inside the US, and each he and Rimer stand to make a whole lot of cash from the sale.
Index is the biggest out of doors shareholder in Figma. It holds extra than 12%, stated someone acquainted with the enterprise who asked not to be recognized due to the fact the statistics is private. Rimer and Figma declined to comment on the scale of Index’s stake. The company’s first check and its next investments are actually really worth about $2.6 billion.
Discipline had made an early impact on Rimer as an intern at Flipboard, which makes a information aggregation app. Rimer became at the board and watched a younger field provide a polished presentation. Area in short attended university, however dropped out to sign up for a fellowship application funded through Peter Thiel and shortly went to work on Figma. At the outset, field instructed Rimer he might spend up to 3 years developing Figma’s design gear before liberating them to the public. “It wasn’t an incremental, small factor,” Rimer stated.
Figma amassed a roster of some of the top VC firms as its backers. Greylock companions got in because the lead investor of a $14 million investment spherical in 2015, and Kleiner Perkins led a $25 million spherical in 2018; its stake is almost 11%, stated human beings familiar with the business. The early backers each ended up with at the least $2 billion, said every other individual, who additionally requested now not to be diagnosed discussing personal info.
Sequoia Capital invested in 2019, valuing Figma at $440 million. (The Sequoia associate who did the deal, Andrew Reed, tweeted a image of area signing the unique office work with some of the terms in reality legible.) Sequoia installed $97 million in general and snatched a 6% stake in Figma, stated someone acquainted with the details. Sequoia’s stake is now worth $1.3 billion, and the single funding had a return exceeding the total value of the united states increase fund it came from, the person said.
Any other storied company, Andreessen Horowitz, invested in Figma in 2020 and its stake is now worth about $500 million, according to a person acquainted with the state of affairs.
As for Rimer, he’s been wondering loads approximately the dinner in 2012. To mark Thursday’s news, Rimer stated he plans to ship field a case of wine.
