Source Code Capital portfolio company Js.Design announces two rounds of tens of millions of dollars in funding, with existing shareholder Source Code Capital continuing to increase its stake

源码资本·October 22, 2021·0·0

Simultaneously launching an all-new 2.0 version, with comprehensive upgrades across both product and ecosystem.

Chinese cloud-based UI design tool Js.Design has recently raised tens of millions of dollars in Series A++ and Series B funding. The A++ round was co-led by Hillhouse and SIG Asia Investments, with participation from Source Code Capital and Eminence Ventures. The Series B was led by Coatue Management, with Hillhouse, SIG Asia Investments, Source Code Capital, and BlueRun Ventures joining. Yuanyi Capital served as the exclusive financial advisor. Source Code Capital was a co-lead investor in the company's Series A+ round.

Js.Design achieved six-digit user growth in the last quarter alone, with all other key user metrics showing strong improvement. The platform has now accumulated nearly one million design projects. Judging by its pace of feature iteration, the company has demonstrated what it calls "China speed" — adding more than 100 features of various sizes in just the first year since launch. This week, Js.Design also released its new 2.0 version.

Beyond essential functional and performance improvements, the new 2.0 version spans seven major areas, delivering a comprehensive upgrade across product and ecosystem:

A More Professional and User-Friendly Visual Experience

Js.Design 2.0 features a complete visual overhaul of its main interface. A more refined design language, unified global standards, richer animation feedback, and numerous detailed optimizations make the new interface feel cleaner and more approachable, reinforcing the brand identity of a professional UI design tool and establishing clearer, more enjoyable brand resonance with users.

The company also introduced a "Your Tool, Your Rules" concept of customization. Beyond light and dark modes, it offers five theme colors for users to mix and match, accommodating diverse visual preferences.

More Complete Cross-Platform Coverage

Js.Design is committed to seamless design collaboration across all platforms. PC and tablet users can create designs directly through their browsers anytime, anywhere. The company has also released desktop clients for Windows, macOS, and Linux for a more immersive experience. iOS and Android apps, along with a WeChat mini-program launching this month, support real-time preview and remote review for team collaboration.

Improved Data Migration and Backup

Js.Design has maximized migration, collaboration, and backup convenience for users of different design tools. It now supports importing and editing Sketch, XD, and JSD files, and can export to Sketch and JSD formats to enable multi-tool collaboration, unified backups, and local data storage. Additionally, offline editing functionality ensures users can keep working in poor network conditions, with automatic cloud sync once connectivity is restored. (Note: JSD is Js.Design's proprietary file format.)

More Powerful Core and Signature Features

With its rapid iteration pace, Js.Design has brought its core features roughly on par with Figma in just one year. Advanced capabilities like auto layout, variants, and interactive animations are all fully developed. The company has also tailored the collaboration and handoff experience to Chinese designers' actual needs, launching signature features including cloud-shared fonts, design resource libraries, file status tracking, and project follow-ups — all better adapted to domestic users' workflows and habits, enabling Chinese design teams to achieve greater efficiency and output quality.

A More Open Community Ecosystem

Js.Design's community is in a phase of rapid growth. Its resource marketplace has published nearly 500 design resources, with cumulative subscriptions and usage in the six figures. More than ten plugins are already live to serve users' deeper needs across more scenarios, with additional plugins scheduled for release this quarter. Going forward, Js.Design will further open its community to co-create China's richest resource and plugin ecosystem with more designers and teams.

A More Comprehensive Partnership Ecosystem

As a domestic tool, Js.Design has inherent advantages in partnering with local platforms, delivering a more complete ecosystem experience for designers. The company has already integrated with Lark and is soon launching on the DingTalk app marketplace. It has established deep partnerships with leading design communities including ZCOOL, UI China, and UISDC, and has made the iconfont plugin available for direct access to iconfont's massive icon library within the tool. Soon, Js.Design will also integrate with HelloFont, giving more designers access to a rich selection of fonts free from copyright concerns. The company plans to expand partnerships across more channels and dimensions, embracing more collaborators and product ecosystems.

End-to-End Collaboration Tailored for Domestic Product and R&D Teams

Js.Design's design-plus-collaboration platform model has matured. Designers' creative work and interactive prototyping, product managers' page flow mapping, online review and annotation with product and R&D teams, and developer handoff with slice export and parameter/code annotation — all of these can now be completed in one place on Js.Design, in real-time collaboration. Features like team file status labels, project follow-ups, and nested folders, combined with the inherent advantages of cloud-based tools such as version history storage, give any product and R&D team dramatically improved digital asset management and collaboration efficiency.

In just six months, Js.Design has added dozens of young, energetic new team members, many from well-known internet companies including ByteDance, Alibaba, DiDi, and Cheetah Mobile. These driven newcomers have fused with the original core team, which has spent six years deep in graphics and visualization, producing a highly creative chemical reaction that has significantly accelerated product development and elevated quality. Product and R&D staff have consistently accounted for over 85% of the company. Driving user growth through product strength remains the team's core principle and greatest strength. Js.Design noted that the team is now approaching 100 members and looks forward to more like-minded partners joining to build excellent UI design tools and product collaboration platforms that can define future global standards.

Figma currently holds the top position in overseas UI design tool adoption and reached a new valuation of $10 billion this year. In China's market, Sketch, XD, and Photoshop remain the primary productivity tools for UI designers, but the migration from these desktop clients to cloud-based UI design tools is accelerating both domestically and internationally. The wave of cloudification in next-generation design tools will bring new working modes and usage habits to tens of millions of designers and product professionals — a historic opportunity that drives Js.Design's determination to serve the domestic market wholeheartedly while firmly expanding overseas in the future.

Js.Design stated that starting with version 2.0, its goal is no longer to be "China's Figma," but first to become "China's Js.Design" and then "the world's Js.Design." Toward this vision, the team is not only accelerating product and feature development but also actively expanding. They firmly believe that Chinese designers represent the world's most outstanding designer community — hardworking, professional, and naturally endowed with international perspective and a collaborative spirit. In the near future, Js.Design will join Chinese designers in going global, and the next generation of design tools and standards will ultimately be shaped with Chinese designers' participation.