Wall Street IPO (initial public offering) fever blazed new heights as design software company Figma (FIG:NYSE) hit public markets at a sprint, its shares soaring 250% on opening day (31 July).

The IPO was priced at $33 per share but the stock quickly raced as high as $125, giving the company a $60 billion market cap, outstripping the valuations of other venture capital-backed tech IPOs like CoreWeave (CRWV:NASDAQ) and Circle Internet (CRCL:NYSE) this year.

The excitement is not without foundation. In its filings to go public, Figma disclosed a client base that includes 78% of the Forbes 2000, a list of 2,000 of the biggest publicly traded companies in the world. Figma’s revenue grew 48% last year.

Figma’s IPO lit up the New York Stock Exchange in both optics and economics. Less than three years ago, Adobe (ABDE:NASDAQ) agreed a $20 billion deal to buy the company, only for the deal to get pulled in 2023 after monopolies regulators raised concerns.

The New York listing also created a lot of money for early VC backers and its bankers. Greylock Partners, Kleiner Perkins, Index Ventures and Sequoia all saw substantial fund returns, some exceeding 17-times, according to reports.

But not everyone was cheering. Investor Bill Gurley, a partner at VC firm Benchmark, argued that the bankers drastically underpriced the deal, enabling insiders to reap disproportionate gains while retail investors bought in after the jump. Time will tell if Figma can successfully grow into its rapidly expanded valuation.

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