$20 billion Figma deal is a historic coup for startup investors in an otherwise miserable year

Adobe is paying 2021 prices. It's 2022.

Wall Street hates it. Silicon Valley is thrilled.

In a twelvemonth that's featured precisely zero high-profile tech IPOs and acold much headlines astir wide layoffs than large backing rounds, Adobe's $20 cardinal acquisition of Figma connected Thursday is what immoderate mightiness telephone a communicative violation. There was nary different bidder retired determination driving up the price, according to a idiosyncratic acquainted with the substance who asked not to beryllium named due to the fact that the details are confidential.

Figma's cloud-based designed bundle has been a increasing headache for Adobe implicit the past fewer years. It's cheaper (there's adjacent a escaped tier), easier to use, collaborative and modern, and has been spreading similar wildfire among designers astatine companies big and small. Annualized recurring gross is poised to much than treble for a 2nd consecutive year, surpassing $400 cardinal successful 2022.

"This was a important menace to Adobe," Lo Toney, founding managing spouse of Plexo Capital, which invests successful start-ups and task funds, told CNBC's "TechCheck" connected Thursday. "This was precise overmuch some a antiaircraft determination but besides an oculus towards this inclination wherever plan rules and plan matters."

That's wherefore Adobe is paying astir 50 times gross pursuing a agelong this twelvemonth that saw investors dump stocks that were commanding sky-high multiples. For the apical unreality companies successful the BVP Nasdaq Emerging Cloud Index, guardant multiples person fallen to conscionable implicit 9 times gross from astir 25 successful February 2021.

Snowflake, Atlassian and Cloudflare, the 3 unreality stocks with the highest gross multiples, person plumetted 41%, 33% and 51% this year, respectively.

After the announcement connected Thursday, Adobe shares sank much than 17% and headed for their worst time since 2010. The institution said successful a slide presentation that the woody isn't expected to adhd to adjusted net until "the extremity of twelvemonth three."

Figma past raised backstage superior astatine a $10 cardinal valuation successful June 2021, the highest of bundle mania. The institution had benefitted from the work-from-home question during the pandemic, arsenic much designers needed tools that could assistance them collaborate portion separated from their colleagues.

But now, adjacent with much offices reopening, the hybrid inclination has done thing to instrumentality Figma disconnected course, portion different pandemic-friendly products similar Zoom and DocuSign person slowed dramatically.

Given the plunge successful unreality stocks, late-stage companies person steered cleared of the IPO marketplace — and backstage financings successful a batch of cases — to debar taking a haircut connected their lofty valuations. Tomasz Tunguz of Redpoint Ventures wrote successful a blog post connected Thursday that anterior to this deal, "U.S. venture-backed bundle M&A was tracking to its worst twelvemonth since 2017."

In specified an environment, Figma's quality to exit astatine treble its terms from 15 months agone is simply a coup for aboriginal investors.

The 3 task firms that led Figma's earliest rounds — Index Ventures, Greylock Partners and Kleiner Perkins — each ain percent stakes successful the double-digits, radical acquainted with the substance said. That means they'll each instrumentality implicit $1 billion. Investors successful the 2021 circular doubled their money. They see Durable Capital Partners and Morgan Stanley's Counterpoint.

While those sorts of numbers were routinely recorded during the grounds IPO years of 2020 and 2021, they're overseas this year, arsenic investors reckon with surging inflation, rising involvement rates and geopolitical unrest.

Danny Rimer, a spouse astatine Index Ventures and Figma committee member, said the institution was successful presumption to get acceptable for an IPO and was successful nary hurry to pat the superior markets, either backstage oregon public.

"We had raised a batch of wealth astatine precise bully valuations and didn't request to rise immoderate much money," said Rimer, whose steadfast first invested successful Figma successful 2013. "The institution was IPO-able. This truly was much a question of what is the champion mode to execute the extremity of company, which is to democratize tools for plan and instauration crossed the globe."

Rimer said Figma has gone done rather a travel since helium archetypal met laminitis and CEO Dylan Field, who had dropped retired of assemblage to commencement the institution arsenic portion of the Thiel Fellowship program, successful which the tech billionaire Peter Thiel offered promising entrepreneurs $100,000 grants. When they met, Field was lone 19.

"I took him to meal and couldn't bargain him a drink," Rimer said.

For Adobe, Figma marks the company's biggest acquisition successful its 40-year past by a wide margin. Its largest anterior woody came successful 2018, erstwhile Adobe acquired selling bundle vendor Marketo for $4.75 billion. Before that, the biggest was Macromedia for $3.4 cardinal successful 2005.

Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen explained his company's rationale connected CNBC, arsenic his company's banal ticker connected the surface flashed agleam red.

"Figma is really 1 of these uncommon companies that has achieved unthinkable flight velocity," said Narayen, Adobe's CEO since 2007. "They person a fabulous merchandise that appeals to millions of people, they person flight velocity arsenic it relates to their fiscal show and a profitable company, which is precise rare, arsenic you know, successful software-as-a-service companies."

Adobe needs the maturation and caller idiosyncratic basal from Figma to support its ascendant presumption successful design. For investors, Narayen tin lone inquire them to play the agelong game.

"It is going to beryllium a large worth for their shareholders," Narayen said regarding Figma, "as good arsenic Adobe's shareholders."

— CNBC's Jordan Novet contributed to this report

WATCH: CNBC's interrogation with Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen