Figma’s S-1, Adobe Q2 Highlights, and SaaS Category Insights

Welcome to episode 21 of the SaaS Report. Today, we’re diving into Figma’s S-1 filing, Adobe’s latest Q2 results, and a closer look at how SaaS performance varies across different categories.

Adobe Q2: Growth and Efficiency at Scale

Adobe recently announced Q2 results, adding some exciting context to our SaaS benchmarks. Key highlights include:

• ARR: $22.5B, up 11% YoY ($2.3B net new ARR).

• Gross Margin: Just under 93% – well above the 78% median for other SaaS companies we track.

• Operating & Free Cash Flow Margins: 36% and 37%, respectively.

• CAC Payback: 31 months – impressive for a company at this scale.

• ARR per Employee: $708K.

Adobe’s growth at scale demonstrates that even mature SaaS businesses can maintain strong efficiency while expanding ARR.

Figma S-1: A Closer Look

Figma has filed its S-1, signaling its intent to go public. This is the first time we can publicly analyze the company’s financials. Here’s what we found:

Growth Metrics

• ARR: Nearly doubled over the last nine quarters, from $440M in Q1 2023 to $912M.

• Net New ARR: Steady addition of $35–50M per quarter, excluding a $1B one-time Adobe payment used for aggressive sales and marketing in early 2024.

• YoY ARR Growth: 46% as of Q1 2025, well above the 18% median of the 35 SaaS companies we track.

Profitability and Margins

• Gross Margins: Consistently above 90%, placing Figma alongside top performers like Asana and Monday.com.

• Operating Income: Highly variable due to aggressive spending, ranging from -500% in Q2 2024 to 24% in Q4 2024. Likely to stabilize as Figma becomes a public company.

• Sales & Marketing Spend: 28–156% of revenue across quarters, settling around 30% recently – lower than the 40% median, indicating strong efficiency.

• R&D Spend: Around low 30s% of revenue, slightly above the 26% median, reflecting consistent product investment.

Efficiency Metrics

• CAC Payback: 14–20 months – exceptional, putting Figma in the same tier as Palantir, Veeva, and Atlassian.

• Magic Number: Exceeds $1 net new ARR per $1 of sales and marketing spend in multiple quarters, ranking 7th among the SaaS companies we track.

• Rule of X: 73 in Q1 2024 and 133 in Q1 2025 – among the top quartile of SaaS companies, signaling strong potential valuation.

Public Market Comparables

Looking at public SaaS comps near ~$1B ARR: Monday, Confluent, Rubrik, and GitLab:

• ARR Growth: Figma at 46% outpaces GitLab (27%), Confluent (26%), and Monday (30%), second only to Rubrik (54%).

• ARR Multiples: Monday (14x), Confluent (8x), Rubrik (17x), GitLab (9x).

• Estimated Figma IPO Multiple: Likely around 12x ARR, implying a potential initial market cap near $12B.

SaaS Performance by Category

We also analyzed SaaS companies by category in our Q1 State of SaaS report, dividing 35 companies into Business Apps, Security, Data, and Developer Tools. Key takeaways:

• ARR Growth: Data-focused companies lead at 26% median growth; business apps trail at 14%.

• CAC Payback: Data companies at 36 months; business apps at 46 months.

• Sales & Marketing Spend: Business apps spend least (35%), while security, data, and dev tools cluster around 42%.

Data-driven SaaS companies are clearly outperforming peers in growth and efficiency, while business apps show more mature, disciplined scaling.

Key Takeaways

• Adobe demonstrates how large SaaS companies can maintain high efficiency and margin while scaling ARR.

• Figma is a high-growth, product-led SaaS company with exceptional efficiency and strong margins, making it a compelling public market candidate.

• Across SaaS categories, data-focused companies dominate growth and efficiency metrics, while business apps show more conservative scaling.

For a deeper dive into cohort performance, including PLG vs. sales-led SaaS and high-growth vs. low-growth companies, check out the full Q1 State of SaaS report.

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