Figma just announced a new round of funding of $200 million, which will give it a valuation of $10 billion — five times its valuation last year at the beginning of the pandemic. This continues the trend of money flowing into the $162 billion design industry. However, unlike recent analytics investments, this money is going into the making side of design, versus the user/customer understanding side. 

Our data suggests that Figma is becoming more popular, as are design systems — a key use case. It’s also valued for its remote collaboration capabilities — something that our new world of hybrid work demands.

Figma faces Adobe, InVision, and many others, but the future is bright for every single one of these companies. 

Here’s why: 

  • We’re at the beginning of design’s impact. Our data suggests that 73% of companies are design beginners. This means that they self-report that they don’t reliably use customer understanding and iteration to refine what they create. 
  • Design deficits abound. Design’s ability to make people more productive, more creative, and happier at work is only just now being harnessed. Plus, there’s little design effort on chatbots or notifications. These are just a few of many common design deficits. 
  • Design teams keep growing. Our data suggests most design teams expect to grow this year — one-third by 25% or more. Even if automation could affect some of these jobs, many design deficits can’t be solved without the hard work of humans employing research and using their creativity. 
  • The biggest player keeps growing — but it’s complementary. Adobe grew Creative Cloud by 24% last quarter. Adobe’s Creative Cloud business likely has a market cap of 13 times Figma’s valuation. But most companies have multiple design tools, meaning Adobe and Figma can be complementary. Plus, there’s a whole new world of design coming in the growth of 3D, augmented reality, and VR. 

What we expect to happen: 

  • A greater push into using these tools as centerpieces of collaboration beyond the design team 
  • More demand for design 
  • More open sourcing and sharing of file types (all players become frenemies) 
  • More designers will mean more licenses 
  • More money flows in 

More good news for anyone looking to make experiences better for people!