Figma founder Dylan Field to get $2 bn after selling startup to Adobe

Figma founder Dylan Field, who's also an Ivy League dropout, has received a stake worth more than $2 billion in his company post its acquisition by Adobe. The software giant is buying Field's online design company in an approximately $20 billion cash-and-stock deal.

Field, in a statement, said, "With Adobe's amazing innovation and expertise, especially in 3D, video, vector, imaging and fonts, we can further reimagine end-to-end product design in the browser, while building new tools and spaces to empower customers to design products faster and more easily."

Online design company Figma aims to help those who design interactive mobile and web applications to collaborate through multi-player workflows, sophisticated design systems and a rich developer ecosystem. On the other hand, Adobe sells software for creating, publishing and promoting content, and managing documents.

Shantanu Narayen, Chief Executive Officer of Adobe, called Figma's business "the future of work" and said there were "tremendous opportunities" in combining it with his company's offerings, such as document reader Acrobat and online whiteboard Figjam.

Both Adobe and Figma will run independently until the transaction closes and Field, who will continue to lead the Figma team, will report to the president of Adobe's Digital Media business David Wadhwani. The deal is expected to close in 2023, subject to regulatory approvals.

Field had dropped out of the Ivy League school in 2012 to accept a $100,000 grant from billionaire Peter Thiel to start Figma and become the wealthiest person to go through Thiel Fellowship.

Adobe and Figma's cash-and-stock deal will give Adobe the ownership of a company whose web-based platform for brainstorming and designs is widely popular among tech firms including Airbnb Inc, Zoom Video Communications, and Coinbase.

The $20-billion exit marked a major win for Figma's venture capital backers, including Index Ventures, Greylock Partners and Kleiner Perkins.

Josh Coyne, a partner at Kleiner Perkins, who first invested in Figma in 2018, said, "This partnership will give Figma users access to Adobe's photography, illustration, and video technology, all in one place. And Figma in return can offer its deep expertise in building in the browser." Coyne's investment is expected to deliver more than 100 times in return once the deal closes.

Adobe also revealed that it expects the deal to be accretive to its earnings three years after its completion. Before Figma, Adobe's largest acquisition was that of software maker Marketo for $4.75 billion in 2018.