San Francisco tech firm expands London footprint with new City office
US design software group Figma has expanded its London headquarters as it looks to double down on its growth in Britain, where firms created more than 15 million files on its platform over the past year.
The New York listed tech firm has moved into an office at Elder Yard in Norton Foldgate, near Liverpool Street, as London’s tech sector drives a wider rush for prime office space.
The UK is now Figma’s largest European market by weekly active users, with two thirds of the FTSE 100 using its software as of the second quarter of 2026. Around 85 per cent of its weekly users globally are based outside the US.
“The UK has one of the deepest concentrations of design and product talent anywhere”, Daniel Barrett, Figma’s senior vice president of international, said on Monday.
“We’re proud to expand our office in the heart of this incredible creative ecosystem”.
Figma has operated in London since 2019 and the new site is its third office in the capital. British customers include BT, Vodafone and ASOS.
The expansion comes as American tech companies pile into London despite years of uncertainty over the future of the office following the shift to hybrid working.
AI companies alone snapped up more than 700,000 sq ft of London office space in the first half of this year, more than double the amount taken across the whole of 2025, according to JLL research.
Anthropic has taken around 158,500 sq ft at One Triton Square, while OpenAI bagged a roughly 95,500 sq ft base near King’s Cross. AI coding firm Replit also recently chose London for its first international office.
Figma has expanded elsewhere this year too, including in Berlin, Tokyo, Tel Aviv, São Paulo and New York.
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan described Figma’s move as a “vote of confidence in London’s position as a global leader in technology, design, and the creative industries”.
AI changing the design job
Figma used its office opening to shed light on how AI is beginning to change the work being done inside those offices and for their customers.
Its latest survey found 34 per cent of 421 UK designers and developers said AI had already had a significant or transformational impact on collaboration, up from 14 per cent last year.
Noah Levin, Figma’s vice president of engineering, said AI was “lowering the gap between having an idea and bringing that idea to life”, allowing teams to prototype, test and change products more quickly.