Figma Inc., the startup behind a cloud service used by Microsoft Corp. and Uber Technologies Inc. to design interfaces for their applications, landed a funding round of $ 200 million for a valuation of $ 10 billion.
Figma shared the news with Bloomberg today. According to the publication, the investment included participation from Durable Capital Partners, Morgan Stanley and Sequoia, who also participated in the startup’s previous $ 50 million fundraiser last April.
Between Figma’s stealth launch in December 2015 and its $ 50 million fundraising round last April, the startup has built an installed base of over 4 million users. Its clients include many of the biggest players in the tech industry. Figma’s platform is primarily used by corporate software design teams, which rely on it to create sketches of an interface and then turn them into an interactive prototype that works as if it were of an application.
Figma provides a number of unique features for the sketching and prototyping phase of a project. When creating the initial mockup of an interface, users have access to a technology called vector networks, which Figma presents as an improved version of the digital pen found in most graphic design programs. The startup’s vector networks simplify some common design tasks such as drawing geometric shapes.
For the prototyping phase of projects, Figma offers a feature called Auto Layout. The technology automatically transforms design details, such as the distance between two buttons or their location in the interface, into code, speeding up application projects by reducing the need for developers to perform the task manually. Figma’s platform also automates some of the tasks involved in updating an interface prototype. For example, if a designer drags a list item that was originally in the center of the list up, Figma can automatically rearrange the other entries.
Built on top of Figma’s core design capabilities is a collaborative feature set. Several designers can edit a file at the same time and exchange inputs via a built-in commenting system.
“Our vision is to make design accessible to everyone,” Figma co-founder and CEO Dylan Field wrote in a statement. blog post today. “It means creating expert tools for designers and also taking on all the roles involved in product development. But above all, it’s about opening access and empowering teams to think, feel and work in a design-driven way.
Figma plans to increase its workforce to 500 employees by the end of the year, according to Bloomberg, more than triple the number of employees it had at the start of 2020. The startup also hinted that it was considering to make acquisitions.
Figma has raised over $ 332 million in total funding to date. Its main competitors are Adobe Inc. and InVision Inc., a publicly traded startup that received a valuation of $ 1.9 billion after its last funding round in 2018.