After Adobe collapse, Figma deal allows employees to sell shares at $12.5 billion valuation

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Figma, a cloud-based design tool company, said Thursday it will allow investors, including current and former employees, to sell their shares in a tender offer that values the company at $12.5 billion.

That's up 25% from the valuation at which the company fundraised in 2021, but below the $20 billion acquisition offer Adobe made in 2022. Adobe and Figma called off the planned acquisition in December following regulatory scrutiny.

The San Francisco-based startup expects the size of the tender to be between $600 million and $900 million, with support from more than 25 current and new investors. A16z, Sequoia and Kleiner Perkins are participating in the offer.

Figma is used by tens of thousands of employees inside Microsoft, which spends millions per year on its deployment. Google, Oracle and Salesforce also use the company's software.

In June 2021, during the heyday of mega financings, Figma was valued at $10 billion in a funding round that included participation from Morgan Stanley's Counterpoint Global. That was before the 2022 market plunge sent many cloud stocks down by more than half and largely halted pre-IPO rounds.

Adobe initially said acquiring Figma would be a natural complement to the company's portfolio, writing in the original announcement that "the combination of Adobe and Figma will usher in a new era of collaborative creativity." In December, a regulatory filing said Adobe would pay Figma a $1 billion breakup fee.

— CNBC's Jordan Novet contributed to this report.