Figma is pushing deeper into AI-powered app creation with the acquisition of the team behind Bud, the AI agent and “vibe-coding” platform previously known as Orchids. The move signals Figma’s growing ambition to become more than a design tool, positioning itself as a central workspace where ideas can move from concept to prototype and eventually into working software.
Bud CEO Kevin Lu described Figma as a natural home for the next era of product-building, saying the company is where ideas begin, evolve, and come to life. His comments reflect the broader direction Figma has been taking: blending design, coding, automation, and artificial intelligence into a more unified creative workflow.
Bud began as Orchids, a Y Combinator-backed startup focused on helping users quickly generate apps through natural language prompts. The platform allowed people to create apps for mobile, web, Slack, browsers, and other environments without needing to start from scratch with traditional coding. Over time, the company evolved into Bud, an AI agent platform designed to perform more advanced tasks, such as browsing the web, accessing connected services, writing code, and automating workflows.
As part of the acquisition, Bud and Orchids will both be shut down by July 18. Users are being asked to migrate their projects before that deadline, marking the end of the startup’s independent products as the team joins Figma.
Figma has not yet revealed exactly how it plans to use Bud’s technology or talent. However, the acquisition fits neatly into Figma’s recent product strategy. The company has been steadily moving beyond static interface design and into interactive prototyping, AI-assisted development, and app creation.
One major step in that direction was Figma Make, a tool designed to help users create web apps more directly from the Figma environment. The company has also been integrating with AI coding tools such as Codex and Claude Code, while introducing its own AI agents to help teams work faster across design and development tasks.
The acquisition of Bud could strengthen Figma’s ability to offer more powerful AI-driven workflows. Instead of stopping at mockups, Figma appears to be building toward a future where teams can generate functional prototypes, automate repetitive work, and move from design to code with fewer handoffs.
This shift is important because modern product teams increasingly want tools that reduce friction between designers, developers, product managers, and other stakeholders. Figma has already become a major collaboration hub for interface design. By bringing AI agents and coding capabilities closer to the canvas, the company could make it easier for teams to test ideas, build internal tools, and create early versions of apps without constantly switching platforms.
The acquisition also arrives at a time when AI app builders and coding assistants are becoming more competitive. Many startups are racing to make software development more accessible through prompt-based tools and automated coding agents. Figma’s advantage is its massive user base and its strong position at the beginning of the product creation process. If the company can successfully combine design, AI, and code, it could become an even more essential platform for digital product teams.
There is also a security angle to the story. Earlier this year, a report citing a security researcher said apps built with Orchids had been vulnerable to cyberattacks. While Figma has not publicly detailed how it will address or incorporate Bud’s technology, security will likely be a key consideration as AI-generated apps and automated agents become more common in professional workflows.
For now, the clearest takeaway is that Figma is continuing to expand its vision. The company no longer wants to be seen only as a place to design screens. It wants to become a place where teams can brainstorm, design, prototype, automate, and build. The Bud acquisition is another step toward that future, bringing AI agents and code-generation expertise into one of the most widely used design platforms in the world.
