How Figma Is Transforming India's Developer Market

Figma, the company that took design from siloed desktop software to the collaborative cloud, is making a significant strategic move. By opening a new office in Bengaluru, Figma is placing a firm bet on India, not just as a major user base, but as the critical ground to win its next frontier: the developer community. This isn't merely an expansion; it's an effort to reshape its own identity from a designer's canvas to an end-to-end product development platform. The central question is whether Figma can successfully pivot its perception within one of the world's largest and most dynamic tech ecosystems.

The Background: Figma's Rise as a Collaborative Design Platform

Founded in 2012 by Dylan Field and Evan Wallace, Figma entered a market dominated by desktop-native software. Its browser-based interface was initially met with skepticism by an industry accustomed to powerful, locally installed applications. However, its core proposition—real-time collaboration—proved irresistible. Product teams, user experience (UX) designers, and interface (UI) specialists could now work together in a single, shared space, eliminating the cumbersome process of version control and file sharing. This collaborative-first approach transformed workflows and established Figma as the go-to tool for modern product design.

But as the platform matured, its vision expanded. The natural bottleneck in product development often occurs at the handoff between design and engineering. Recognizing this, Figma began building features to bridge this gap, aiming to create a seamless pipeline from initial concept to final code. This evolution set the stage for its current push, with India serving as the primary accelerator for this ambitious transformation. Figma also shared its journey and challenges in building a professional design tool on the web, demonstrating their pioneering approach.

The Data: Why Figma is Betting Big on India

Figma’s decision to establish a physical presence in India is not a speculative venture; it is a strategic move reinforced by compelling data and clear market signals. The country represents both a massive existing user base and an even larger pool of untapped potential, particularly among developers.

Tapping into Figma's Second-Largest User Base

The scale of Figma's adoption in India is immense. The country stands as its second-largest market globally, trailing only the United States. This is a reflection of a broader trend for the company, where a staggering 85% of its overall usage is international. This deep penetration into the Indian market demonstrates a strong product-market fit that has grown organically.

As of the third quarter of 2025, Figma was already serving users in 85% of India's 28 official states. This widespread adoption is not limited to individual users or small startups. More than 40% of the top 100 companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange were Figma customers as of September 2025. This deep entrenchment in India's corporate and startup landscape provides a solid foundation for its next phase of growth.

The Untapped Potential of the Figma Developer Community in India

While its design community is well-established, the real prize for Figma lies with India’s developer population—one of the largest in the world. Tech giants have long recognized this, with Microsoft’s GitHub hosting nearly 22 million Indian developers. Globally, developers already make up a significant portion of Figma's user base, accounting for 33% of its 13 million weekly active users. This developer pool is projected to reach 57.5 million in India by 2030, potentially overtaking the US.

The company's strategic imperative is to grow this segment. The opportunity is to convert millions of Indian developers who currently view Figma as a tool they receive assets from into a platform they actively work within. By catering to their needs, Figma aims to become an indispensable part of their daily workflow, just as it has for designers.

The Challenge: Shifting Perceptions of Figma in India

Despite its success, Figma faces a significant perception challenge. For many in India's tech community, the brand is synonymous with design. This strong association, while a testament to its market dominance, is now a hurdle in its quest to win over engineers. The prevailing view is that Figma is where designs are finalized, not where development begins.

Abhishek Mathur, VP of Engineering at Figma, acknowledged this directly. “India has such a large population of developers who might not currently think of Figma as their tool, and that’s the thing that we want to do,” he stated. The company’s task is to re-educate the market and demonstrate its value beyond visual design.

To address this, Figma is rolling out developer-centric features and initiatives. Its Dev Mode, launched in 2023, is designed to help engineers inspect designs, grab code snippets, and understand project specifications without ever leaving the platform. Furthermore, feedback from the Indian community has already led to product improvements, such as enhanced code-export options that produce cleaner, higher-quality code—a direct response to the demands of Indian users.

The Strategy: Figma's Playbook for the Indian Market

Figma's strategy for India is a multi-pronged approach that combines a physical presence, community engagement, and product innovation tailored to the developer audience. It's a playbook designed for long-term integration into the Indian tech fabric.

The Figma Bengaluru Office: A Hub for Growth

The newly opened office in Bengaluru marks a pivotal change in Figma's approach to the Indian market. Until now, users in India were supported remotely by the Singapore team. A local office signals a deeper commitment, allowing Figma to build stronger relationships with its customers and the broader community.

Initially, the Bengaluru office will focus on sales and marketing operations. Its client roster in India is already impressive, featuring consumer-facing startups like CRED, Groww, Swiggy, and Zomato, alongside IT services giants such as Infosys and TCS, and major consumer companies like Airtel and Myntra. A local team can provide better support for these large enterprise clients while also nurturing the grassroots community, which includes the 25,000-member strong "Friends of Figma" group.

AI and Prototyping: Figma's New Frontier

Perhaps the most potent tool in Figma's arsenal for winning over developers is its suite of AI-powered features. In May, the company introduced tools that push the boundaries of what the platform can do, positioning it as a competitor to AI coding platforms like Replit. This includes the acquisition of AI-powered media generation company Weavy.

One standout feature, Figma Make, allows users to generate functional web applications from natural-language prompts. This radically collapses the distance between idea and execution, enabling users to collaborate on both design and code within the same workspace. Crucially, India has emerged as the largest market for Figma Make, with users in the country generating over 800,000 prototypes so far. This rapid adoption suggests a strong appetite for tools that blur the lines between design and development, validating Figma's strategic direction.

Outlook: What Figma's Expansion Means for India's Tech Ecosystem

Figma’s deepened investment in India is poised to have a ripple effect across the country's tech landscape. By promoting a more integrated workflow between designers and developers, the platform could help Indian startups and large IT firms accelerate their product development cycles and foster more innovative, user-centric products. The emphasis on a single, collaborative space can break down traditional silos, leading to greater efficiency and cohesion within product teams.

The influence is already a two-way street. As demonstrated by the improvements to code-export functionality, feedback from the Indian user base is directly influencing Figma’s global product roadmap. As the company continues to engage with its customers through local events and direct collaboration, the specific needs and challenges of the Indian market will likely shape future features. The enthusiastic user comments about applying for jobs also signal a strong desire within the local talent pool to be part of this journey, suggesting Figma will have no trouble attracting top engineers and strategists to its new office. Ultimately, the success of this expansion may depend on how well Figma listens—not just to its designers, but to the millions of developers it hopes to empower.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

1. Why did Figma choose to open an office in Bengaluru?

Figma opened its Bengaluru office to establish a local presence in India, its second-largest global market. This allows the company to better support its expanding user base, strengthen sales and marketing operations, and engage directly with the country's vast community of designers and developers, moving beyond the remote support previously offered from its Singapore office. This expansion in Bengaluru signals a deeper commitment to the region.

2. How is Figma's Dev Mode specifically aimed at helping developers in India?

Dev Mode is a feature within Figma designed to bridge the gap between design and engineering. For developers in India, it provides a dedicated workspace to inspect designs, extract production-ready code snippets for various languages, and access detailed specifications, streamlining the process of translating a designer's vision into functional software without needing to master the full design tool.

3. What is Figma Make, and why is it popular in India?

Figma Make is a new AI-powered feature that allows users to generate working web applications from simple text prompts. India has become its largest market, with over 800,000 prototypes created, because it directly addresses the desire for rapid prototyping and end-to-end product creation, appealing strongly to India's large and entrepreneurial developer community. Figma's acquisition of AI-powered media technology further supports such innovations.

4. What kind of job opportunities will the new Figma India office create?

Initially, the Figma office in Bengaluru will focus on strengthening the company's sales and marketing operations. However, as the company's presence grows, it is likely that roles in community management, customer success, and potentially engineering and product development will be added to support its strategic goals in the region.

5. How does Figma's strategy in India compare to its approach in other markets?

While Figma is expanding globally with offices in cities like Tokyo and London, its strategy in India places a unique emphasis on winning over the developer community. This is a direct response to India's specific market dynamics, namely having one of the world's largest pools of engineering talent, making it a crucial region for Figma's evolution into an all-in-one product development platform. This focus on expanding beyond design in India highlights a distinctive market approach.

6. Which major Indian companies are currently using Figma?

Figma is widely used across India's tech industry. Its customers include prominent consumer startups like CRED, Groww, Swiggy, and Zomato, IT services leaders such as Infosys and TCS, and major consumer brands including Airtel, CARS24, and Myntra.

7. How is user feedback from India influencing Figma's product?

Figma is actively incorporating feedback from its Indian user base to improve its product. A key example is the introduction of improved code-export options that generate higher-quality code, a feature that was developed as a direct response to requests from users in India who sought better and cleaner output for their development workflows.