Brown University dropout sells design company for $20B in cash and stock

SOFTWARE COMPANY Adobe Inc. is buying online design platform maker Figma Inc. in an approximately $20 billion cash-and-stock deal. Figma was created by Dylan Field, a Brown University dropout, and Evan Wallace in 2012. / AP FILE PHOTO/PAUL SAKUMA

PROVIDENCE – Software company Adobe Inc. is buying online design platform maker Figma Inc., founded in 2012 by Dylan Field, a Brown University dropout, and Evan Wallace, in an approximately $20 billion cash-and-stock deal. 

Field left Brown University in 2012 after receiving a $100,000 Thiel fellowship from billionaire Peter Thiel to drop out of college to pursue entrepreneurial aims. It was during that time both he and Wallace began to develop Figma, according to Forbes magazine.  

Figma allows those who design interactive mobile and web applications to collaborate through multiplayer workflows, sophisticated design systems and a rich developer ecosystem. 

The companies said that Figma’s web-based, multiplayer capabilities will accelerate the delivery of Adobe’s creative cloud technologies on the web, making the creative process more productive and accessible to more people. 

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San Jose, Calif.-based Adobe sells software for creating, publishing and promoting content and managing documents. 

“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,” Field said in a statement. 

Each company will run independently until the transaction closes. At that time, Field, who will continue to lead the Figma team, will report to David Wadhwani, president of Adobe’s Digital Media business. 

The deal is expected to close next year. It still needs approval from Figma’s shareholders. 

(Providence Business News contributed to this report.)

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