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As Figma goes public, a turning point in the long-awaited IPO market recovery takes shape

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They’re about the past and the future, about the company that’s going public and the wider market. IPOs are moments of truth—will public market investors, literally, buy what VCs have been backing for years? It’s also an event that tests how people are thinking about the wider IPO market. Are we, after all this time, so back?

On Wednesday, Figma, the design software unicorn led by Dylan Field, completed its initial public offering, raising $1.2 billion in proceeds ($1.4 billion if you include the over-allotement) for the company and some of its early shareholders, signaling strong demand for its shares which will begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange this morning. Figma seemingly sailed through its investor roadshow, upping its share price from the initial $25 to $28 range to the $33 it ultimately priced at. And after the company’s $20 billion planned merger with Adobe fell apart a year-and-a-half ago, the $19 billion valuation that Figma has fetched in its IPO is a pretty remarkable testament to its potential as a standalone business.

Derek Hernandez, emerging technology senior analyst at PitchBook, says that even compared to successful IPOs of late, Figma is singular, with its year-over-year revenue growth approaching 50%, and its Q1 profitability (Figma’s Q1 net income was $44.9 million). 

“Figma stands out even among recent high-growth software IPOs like Circle and CoreWeave,” Hernandez said via email. “Figma has both scale and earnings and is a prime example of a high-growth, VC-backed company with a strong narrative that the market is eager for, positioning it as one of the most credible high-growth listings this year.”

This is, ultimately, high praise—in June, stablecoin firm Circle was priced at $31 a share, and closed yesterday at about $190, while CoreWeave’s initially muted IPO still has the company up about 150% year-to-date. High praise, of course, also means high expectations. This, perhaps, has long been true of Figma: A look at the company’s SEC filings shows that a staggering four top VC firms have stakes in Figma valued north of $1 billion—Index, Greylock, Kleiner Perkins, and Sequoia. 

And while the fallout from the failed Adobe merger was public, that attempted merger also lingers in the background as a positive signal of sorts, “which served as a massive validation of Figma’s strategic importance and market position,” said Greg Martin, managing director at Rainmaker Securities, via email. Adobe looms in Figma’s past and its future, added Martin, who noted that Figma has both the opportunity and challenge of “overtaking Adobe as the leading design software company, with its cloud-native collaborative platform.”

One interesting detail: Figma itself only raised $411 million. Most of the proceeds are going to a group of selling shareholders (including VCs) each taking a small slice off the table. But the biggest selling shareholder is MCF Gift Fund, part of the Marin Community Foundation, a philanthropic organization which sold 13.4 million shares for a cool $441 million.

For today, though, it appears that Figma could be the harbinger of a simmering truth: that the market for venture-backed IPOs is in a thoughtful recovery. PitchBook’s Hernandez points out via email that there have been 119 offerings year-to-date, up 45% year-over-year. 

“Figma could serve as a bellwether for the market today,” Hernandez wrote Fortune. “It may provide proof-of-concept for other SaaS names, such as Canva, Netskope, and Databricks… Should Figma stumble out of the gate, especially with all its strengths, this may reinforce some caution among late-stage VCs and delay other large tech floats.”

This isn’t a 2021 deluge, but it’s not an early-2024 drought either. 

“While investor appetite has been selective, Figma shows that there’s still strong demand for companies with compelling growth stories, strong fundamentals, and clear differentiation—especially in categories like SaaS and AI,” said Rainmaker Securities’ Martin via email. “We’re not back to the frothy environment of 2021, but high-quality companies are beginning to test the waters successfully again.”

If IPOs are prisms, Figma’s a flashpoint. Now, we see what shines through. 

Introducing the Term Sheet Podcast… After years in your inbox, Term Sheet’s coming to a podcast feed near you. Today, we’re launching the Term Sheet Podcast—bringing this long-loved newsletter to life in audio and video. Each week, I’ll sit down with investors and founders to break down the biggest deals, trade takes, and drop at least one dad joke. First up: Will Hurd, Chief Strategy Officer at CHAOS Industries. He’s been a presidential candidate, congressman, and undercover CIA officer. You won’t want to miss it, so listen here. And, as always, hot takes, reviews, and general feelings go to alexandra.garfinkle@fortune.com. 

See you tomorrow,

Allie Garfinkle
X: @agarfinks
Email: alexandra.garfinkle@fortune.com
Submit a deal for the Term Sheet newsletter here.

Joey Abrams curated the deals section of today’s newsletter. Subscribe here.

Venture Deals

– Ramp, a New York City-based financial operations platform, raised $500 million in Series E-2 funding. ICONIQ led the round and was joined by Sutter Hill Ventures, Lightspeed Ventures, T. Rowe Price Associates, GV, and others.

– Oxide Computer Company, an Emeryville, Calif.-based cloud computing company, raised $100 million in Series B funding. US Innovative Technology Fund led the round and was joined by existing investors Eclipse, Intel Capital, Riot Ventures, and others. 

– Motive, a San Francisco-based AI-powered Integrated Operations Platform for the physical economy, raised $150 million in funding. Kleiner Perkins led the round and was joined by AllianceBernstein and existing investors.

– Prophet Security, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based security platform, raised $30 million in Series A funding. Accel led the round and was joined by Bain Capital Ventures and others.

– PlayerZero, an Atlanta-based predictive software company that uses AI agents to fix coding problems before that code is released, raised $15 million in Series A funding and $5 million in seed funding. Foundation Capital led the Series A round and Green Bay Ventures led the seed round. 

– C8 Health, a New York City-based practices implementation platform for health care, raised $12 million in Series A funding. Team8 led the round and was joined by 10D and Vertex Venture Israel.

– Metaforms, a San Francisco-based AI platform for market research agencies, raised $9 million in Series A funding. Peak XV Partners led the round and was joined by Nexus Venture Partners and Together Fund.

– FloVision Solutions, a South Bend, Ind.-based company developing AI-powered yield and quality analytics for protein production, raised $8.7 million in Series A funding. Insight Partners led the round and was joined by Serra Ventures, SOSV, and Rockstart.

– Cyata, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based control plane for agentic identities, raised $8.5 million in seed funding. TLV Partners led the round.

– Runloop, a San Francisco-based infrastructure platform for developing and deploying AI coding agents, raised $7 million in seed funding. The General Partnership led the round and was joined by Blank Ventures.

– RunReveal, an Austin, Texas-based security data platform, raised $7 million in seed funding. Costanoa led the round and was joined by Runtime Ventures, Modern Technical Fund, Okta Ventures, and angel investors.

– Tonic Security, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based cybersecurity startup, raised $7 million in seed funding. Hertz Ventures led the round and was joined by Vesey Ventures and angel investors.

– Caseflood.ai, a San Francisco-based legal AI agent, raised $3.2 million in funding from Acquisition.com, Y Combinator, Rebel Fund, Four Cities Capital, Elevation Capital, Amino Capital, and others.

– Dawnguard, an Amsterdam-based cybersecurity company, raised $3 million in pre-seed funding. 9900 Capital led the round and was joined by angel investors. 

Private Equity

– Contentsquare, backed by Sixth Street, acquired Loris AI, a New York City-based conversation intelligence platform. Financial terms were not disclosed.

– DataServ, a portfolio company of Renovus Capital, is merging with FactX, a North Andover, Mass.-based IT and consulting firm. Financial terms were not disclosed.

– KKR acquired a majority stake in HealthCare Royalty Partners, a Stamford, Conn.-based biopharma royalty company. Financial terms were not disclosed.

– Partners Group acquired a minority stake in Nozomi Networks, a San Francisco- and Mendrisio, Switzerland-based provider of industrial cybersecurity software. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Other

– Evercore agreed to acquire Robey Warshaw, a London, U.K.-based independent advisory firm, for a total consideration of $196 million.

– Silvaco agreed to acquire Mixel Group, a San Jose, Calif.-based mixed-signal IP provider. Financial terms were not disclosed. 



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‘This species is recovering’: Jaguar spotted in Arizona, far from Central and South American core

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December 5, 2025

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The spots gave it away. Just like a human fingerprint, the rosette pattern on each jaguar is unique so researchers knew they had a new animal on their hands after reviewing images captured by a remote camera in southern Arizona.

The University of Arizona Wild Cat Research and Conservation Center says it’s the fifth big cat over the last 15 years to be spotted in the area after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. The animal was captured by the camera as it visited a watering hole in November, its distinctive spots setting it apart from previous sightings.

“We’re very excited. It signifies this edge population of jaguars continues to come here because they’re finding what they need,” Susan Malusa, director of the center’s jaguar and ocelot project, said during an interview Thursday.

The team is now working to collect scat samples to conduct genetic analysis and determine the sex and other details about the new jaguar, including what it likes to eat. The menu can include everything from skunks and javelina to small deer.

As an indicator species, Malusa said the continued presence of big cats in the region suggests a healthy landscape but that climate change and border barriers can threaten migratory corridors. She explained that warming temperatures and significant drought increase the urgency to ensure connectivity for jaguars with their historic range in Arizona.

More than 99% of the jaguar’s range is found in Central and South America, and the few male jaguars that have been spotted in the U.S. are believed to have dispersed from core populations in Mexico, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Officials have said that jaguar breeding in the U.S. has not been documented in more than 100 years.

Federal biologists have listed primary threats to the endangered species as habitat loss and fragmentation along with the animals being targeted for trophies and illegal trade.

The Fish and Wildlife Service issued a final rule in 2024, revising the habitat set aside for jaguars in response to a legal challenge. The area was reduced to about 1,000 square miles (2,590 square kilometers) in Arizona’s Pima, Santa Cruz and Cochise counties.

Recent detection data supports findings that a jaguar appears every few years, Malusa said, with movement often tied to the availability of water. When food and water are plentiful, there’s less movement.

In the case of Jaguar #5, she said it was remarkable that the cat kept returning to the area over a 10-day period. Otherwise, she described the animals as quite elusive.

“That’s the message — that this species is recovering,” Malusa said. “We want people to know that and that we still do have a chance to get it right and keep these corridors open.”



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MacKenzie Scott tries to close the higher ed DEI gap, giving away $155 million this week alone

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December 5, 2025

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MacKenzie Scott has arguably been the biggest name in philanthropy this year—and has nonstop been making major gifts to organizations focused on education, DEI, disaster recovery, and many other causes.

This week alone, several higher education institutions announced major gifts from the billionaire philanthropist and ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos—donations totaling well over $100 million. In true Scott fashion, many of these donations are the largest single donations these schools have ever received.

The donations announced this week include: 

  • $50 million to California State University-East Bay
  • $50 million to Lehman College (part of the City University of New York system)
  • $38 million to Texas A&M University-Kingsville
  • $17 million to Seminole State College

All four institutions are public, access-oriented colleges that enroll large shares of low‑income, first‑generation, and racially diverse students and function as minority‑serving institutions or similar engines of social mobility. They fit MacKenzie Scott’s broader pattern of directing large, unrestricted gifts to colleges that serve “chronically underserved” communities rather than already wealthy, highly selective universities.

Scott, who is worth about $40 billion and has donated over $20 billion in the past five years, has doubled down this year on causes that the Trump administration has cut deeply, such as education, DEI, and disaster recovery.

“As higher education, in general, works to find its way in an uncertain environment, this gift is a major source of encouragement that we are on the right path,” Lehman College President Fernando Delgado said in a statement. 

Scott also made one of the largest donations in HBCU Howard University’s 158-year history with an $80 million gift earlier this fall, and a $60 million donation to the Center for Disaster Philanthropy after Trump administration’s cuts to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)—an organization Americans rely on for help during and after hurricanes, wildfires, tornadoes, and floods.

“All sectors of society—public, private, and social—share responsibility for helping communities thrive after a disaster,” CDP president and CEO Patricia McIlreavy previously told Fortune. “Philanthropy plays a critical role in providing communities with resources to rebuild stronger, but it cannot—and should not—replace government and its essential responsibilities.”

Trust-based philanthropy

Scott accumulated the vast majority of her wealth from her 2019 divorce from Bezos, but is dedicated to giving away most of her fortune. She’s considered a unique philanthropist in today’s environment because her gifts are typically unrestricted, meaning the organizations can use the funding however they choose. 

“She practices trust-based philanthropy,” Anne Marie Dougherty, CEO of the Bob Woodruff Foundation previously told Fortune. Scott has donated $15 million to the veteran-focused nonprofit organization in 2022, and made a subsequent $20 million donation this fall.

Scott is also considered one of the most generous philanthropists, and credits acts of kindness for inspiring her to give back.

“It was the local dentist who offered me free dental work when he saw me securing a broken tooth with denture glue in college,” Scott wrote of her inspiration for philanthropy in an Oct. 15 essay published to her Yield Giving site. “It was the college roommate who found me crying, and acted on her urge to loan me a thousand dollars to keep me from having to drop out in my sophomore year.”



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Netflix’s bombshell deal to buy Warner Bros. brings Batman and Harry Potter to the streamer, infuriates theater owners and the Ellisons

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December 5, 2025

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Netflix’s agreement to buy Warner Bros. in a $72 billion deal marks a seismic shift in Hollywood, handing the streaming giant control of iconic franchises such as Batman and Harry Potter and triggering an immediate backlash from theater owners and the jilted Ellison family behind Paramount. The bombshell transaction, struck after a bidding war that ensued after David Ellison’sunsolicited bids several months ago, positions Netflix ever more at the center of the Southern California entertainment business that the Northern California company disrupted so famously decades ago.​

The deal will see Netflix acquire Warner Bros. Discovery’s film and TV studios and its streaming operations, including HBO Max, in a deal with an equity value of roughly $72 billion, or about $27.75 per share in cash and stock, valuing Warner Bros. at $82.7 billion. The agreement followed a heated auction in which Netflix’s bid edged out offers from Paramount Skydance and Comcast, both of which had pushed to keep the storied Warner assets in more traditional hands.

Two days before Netflix won the bidding, Paramount hinted at its fury with a strongly worded letter to WBD CEO David Zaslav, arguing the process was “tainted” and Warner Bros. was favoring a single bidder: Netflix. Paramount called it a “myopic process with a predetermined outcome that favors a single bidder,” Bloomberg reported, although Netflix’s bid is understood to be the highest of the three.

Another angry group is theater owners, who have famously warred with Netflix for years over the big red streamer’s reluctance, even refusal to follow traditional theatrical-release practices. Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos has adamantly defended Netflix’s streaming-forward distribution, saying it’s what consumers really want. At the Time 100 event in April of this year, Sarandos called theatrical release “an outmoded idea for most people” and said Netflix was “saving Hollywood” by giving people what they want: streaming at home.

Cinema United, the trade association which represents over 30,000 movie screens in the U.S. and 26,000 internationally, immediately announced its opposition to Netflix acquiring a legacy Hollywood studio. The organization’s chief, Michael O’Leary, said it “poses an unprecedented threat to the global exhibition business” as Netflix’s states business model simply does not support theatrical exhibition. He urged regulators to look closely at the acquisition.

Deadline reported that other producers are warning of “the death of Hollywood” as a result of this deal. Several days earlier, Bank of America Research’s analysts had surveyed the landscape and concluded that as a defensive move, Netflix would be “killing three birds with one stone,” as its ownership of Warner Bros’ would be a daunting blow to Paramount and Comcast, while taking the Warner legacy studio out of the running. The bank calculated that a combined Netflix and Warner Bros. would comprise roughly 21% of total streaming time—still shy of YouTube’s 28% hold on the market, but far greater than Paramount’s 5% and Comcast’s 4%.

What’s known and what’s still at play

As part of the deal, Netflix will retain the studio that controls the superheroes of DC, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and HBO’s prestige brands. Other details on what will happen to the standalone streaming service HBO Max were scant, with the companies saying only that Netflix will “maintain” Warner Bros. current operations. The companies expect the transaction to close after regulatory review, with Netflix projecting billions in annual cost savings by the third year after completion.

​The deal will not include all of Warner Bros. Discovery, according to the press release announcing the acquisition, which said the previously announced plans to separate WBD’s cable operations will be completed before the Netflix deal, in the third quarter of 2026. The newly separated publicly traded company holding the Global Networks division will be called Discovery Global, and will include CNN, TNT Sports in the U.S., as well as Discovery, free-to-air channels across Europe, plus digital products such as Discovery+ and Bleacher Report.  

On a conference call with reporters Friday morning, Sarandos said Netflix is “highly confident in the regulatory process,” calling the deal pro-consumer, pro-innovation, pro-worker, pro-creator and pro-growth. He said Netflix planned to work closely with regulators and was running “full speed” ahead toward getting all regulatory approvals. He added that Netflix executives were “tired” after “an incredibly rigorous and competitive process.” Alluding to Netflix’s traditional resistance to big M&A, Sarandos added that “we don’t do many of these, but we were deep in this one.”

Influential entertainment journalist Matt Belloni of Puck previewed the likely deal on Bill Simmons’ podcast on Spotify’s Ringer network (which recently struck a deal to bring some video podcasts to Netflix), and they speculated about potential problems inside Netflix that brought the deal to a head. In conversation about how defensive the move is, Belloni said Netflix is “doing this for a reason” and may have reached a “stress point” because it hasn’t been getting traction with its own moviemaking efforts after 10 years of trying. (Netflix has also been agonizingly close to an elusive Best Picture Oscar, with close calls on Roma and Emilia Perez, the latter of which was derailed in a bizarre social-media controversy.) Belloni also acknowledged the criticism that Netflix has struggled to create its own franchises, also after years of trying.

Sarandos highlighted Netflix’s homegrown franchises while announcing the deal, arguing that Netflix’s ” culture-defining titles like Stranger Things, KPop Demon Hunters and Squid Game” will now combine with Warner’s deep library including classics Casablanca and Citizen Kane, even Friends.

The biggest losers in the bidding war may be David Ellison and his father, Oracle co‑founder (and long-time Republican donor)Larry Ellison, whose Paramount‑Skydance empire had been widely seen as a front‑runner to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. David Ellison, has since reportedly been pleading his case around Washington, meeting Trump administration officials as allies float antitrust and national‑interest concerns about giving Netflix control of such a critical studio.

While Netflix has tried to calm regulators by arguing that a combined Netflix–HBO Max bundle would increase competition with Disney and others, the Ellisons and their supporters are signaling they will continue to press for tougher scrutiny or even intervention. Large M&A has made a big comeback in 2025 as the Trump administration has been notably friendlier to big deals than the deep freeze of the Biden administration, making this deal an acid test for just how true that is when a company with deep ties to the White House gets jilted.​

[Disclosure: The author worked internally at Netflix from June 2024 through July 2025.]



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