Figma acquired the team behind Bud — a platform that started as a vibe-coding tool and later transformed into an agent platform. The deal is an acqui-hire: Bud and its predecessor Orchids are shutting down by July 18.
What Bud was
Bud (formerly Orchids) was a Y Combinator startup that let you create apps for mobile, web, Slack, and browsers using natural language. It later pivoted into an agent platform that could connect to various services, browse the web, and write code to automate tasks.
Not everything went smoothly: the BBC reported earlier this year that apps built on Orchids were susceptible to cyberattacks.
Why Figma wants the team
Figma has been pursuing a clear strategy for months: moving beyond pure design tooling toward a platform where teams don’t just create concepts but build working apps. The steps have been visible:
- Last year: Figma Make for web apps
- February 2026: Integration with Codex and Claude Code
- May 2026: Native AI agents on the canvas
The Bud acqui-hire fits this trajectory. CEO Kevin Lu wrote on X that Figma is “one of, if not the, defining product companies of our time” — and a natural home for the new era of work.
My take
What Figma is doing here is symptomatic of the entire tools landscape: the boundaries between design, prototyping, and coding are dissolving. If you can create a design in Figma and turn it directly into a working app — who needs the traditional handoff to development?
This isn’t coincidental. Claude Code, Codex, Cursor — they’re all showing that vibe coding isn’t hype anymore, it’s how a growing number of people build software. Figma wants to make sure that workflow starts with them, not the competition.
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