Adobe to buy company started in 2012 by entrepreneur too young to legally drink in a deal valued at about $20bn
18 September 2022 - 18:49Early investors, including Danny Rimer, in the design software start-up each ended up with at least $2bn. Picture: Bloomberg
On Thursday, Adobe said it will buy Figma in a deal valued at about $20bn, the largest exit of a privately held, venture capital-backed start-up in at least 20 years, according to PitchBook data. Field, 30, is now of legal drinking age in the US, and both he and Rimer stand to make a lot of money from the sale.
Field had made an early impression on Rimer as an intern at Flipboard, which makes a news aggregation app. Rimer was on the board and watched a young Field give a polished presentation. Field briefly attended college, but dropped out to join a fellowship programme funded by Peter Thiel and soon went to work on Figma. At the outset, Field told Rimer he would spend up to three years developing Figma’s design tools before releasing them to the public.
Sequoia Capital invested in 2019, valuing Figma at $440m. Sequoia put in $97m in total and snatched a 6% stake in Figma, said a person familiar with the details. Sequoia’s stake is now worth $1.3bn, and the single investment had a return exceeding the total value of the US growth fund it came from, the person said.
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