Canva

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Australian multinational proprietary software company

title: "Canva" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["proprietary-graphics-software", "vector-graphics-editors", "australian-companies-established-in-2013", "500-startups-companies", "australian-brands", "companies-based-in-sydney", "design-companies-established-in-2013", "internet-properties-established-in-2013", "online-companies-of-australia", "software-companies-of-australia", "software-companies-established-in-2013", "collaborative-software", "graphics-software", "privately-held-companies-of-australia", "multinational-companies-headquartered-in-australia"] description: "Australian multinational proprietary software company" topic_path: "geography/australia" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canva" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Australian multinational proprietary software company ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox company"]

FieldValue
nameCanva Pty Ltd.
logoCanva Logo.svg
logo_altCanva Logo
logo_upright1.0
typePrivate
industry{{Flatlist
predecessor
successor
founded
founders
defunct
hq_location_citySydney
hq_location_countryAustralia
area_servedWorldwide
key_peopleMelanie Perkins (CEO)
productsCanva
Affinity
owner
num_employees5,500
num_employees_year2024
members220 million users
subsid{{plainlist
revenue(2023)
website
::

| name = Canva Pty Ltd. | logo = Canva Logo.svg | logo_alt = Canva Logo | logo_upright = 1.0 | type = Private | industry = {{Flatlist|

Canva Pty Ltd. is an Australian multinational proprietary software company launched in 2013 that provides a graphic design platform to create visual content for presentations, websites, and similar products. Its uses include templates for presentations, posters, and social media content, as well as photo and video editing functionality.

The platform uses a drag-and-drop interface designed for users without professional design training. Canva operates on a freemium model and has added features such as print services and video editing tools since its founding.

History

2013–2020

Canva was founded in Perth, Australia, by Melanie Perkins, Cliff Obrecht and Cameron Adams on 1 January 2013. One of the company's early investors was Susan Wu, an American entrepreneur. In its first year, Canva had more than 750,000 users. In 2017, the company reached profitability and had 294,000 paying customers.

In January 2018, Perkins announced that the company had raised from Sequoia Capital, Blackbird Ventures, and Felicis Ventures, and the company was valued at . It raised in May 2019, followed by in October 2019 and the launch of Canva for Enterprise.

In December 2019, Canva announced Canva for Education, a free product for schools and other educational institutions intended to facilitate collaboration between students and teachers.

2021–2025

In June 2020, Canva announced a partnership with FedEx Office and with Office Depot the following month. , Canva's valuation had risen to rising to A$40 billion by September 2021.

In September 2021, Canva raised US$200 million, with its value peaking that year at US$40 billion. By September 2022, the valuation of the company had leveled at US$26 billion.

While Canva's value declined from its 2021 peak by mid-2022, it remained one of Australia's most prominent technology companies, alongside Atlassian.

In March 2022, Canva had over 75 million monthly active users.

In 2023, the pair were named in the Australian Financial Review's AFR Rich List as among the 10 most wealthy people in Australia.

On 7 December 2022, Canva launched Magic Write, which is the platform's AI-powered copywriting assistant. On 22 March 2023, Canva announced its new Assistant tool, which makes recommendations on graphics and styles that match the user's existing design. On 11 January 2024, Canva launched its own GPT in OpenAI's GPT Store.

The company has announced it intends to compete with Google and Microsoft in the office software category with website and whiteboard products.

In May 2024, the company announced the launch of Canva Enterprise, a plan designed for large organisations, alongside new tools including Work Kits, Courses and AI capabilities. In 2024, they announced a co-funded solar energy project to enhance its sustainability efforts.

On 10 April 2025, Canva released Visual Suite 2. The new interface combines Canva's design and productivity tools. New features include a spreadsheets application (Canva Sheets), a generative AI coding assistant (Canva Code), a chatbot, and an updated photo editor that can modify or remove background objects.

In August 2025, Canva launched a stock sale to employees, valuing the company at US$42 billion.

Acquisitions

In 2018, the company acquired presentations startup Zeetings for an undisclosed amount, as part of its expansion into the presentations space.

In May 2019, the company announced the acquisitions of Pixabay and Pexels, two free stock photography sites based in Germany, which enabled Canva users to access their photos for designs.

In February 2021, Canva acquired Austrian startup Kaleido.ai and the Czech-based Smartmockups.

In 2022, Canva acquired Flourish, a London-based data visualization startup.

In March 2024, Canva acquired UK-based Serif, the developers of the Affinity suite of graphic design software, for approximately $380 million.

In August 2024, Canva acquired the AI image generation platform and startup, Leonardo AI, for an undisclosed amount.

In June 2025, it was announced that Canva had acquired Australian AI marketing startup MagicBrief for an undisclosed amount.

Philanthropy

Canva's co-founders, Perkins and Obrecht, have publicly stated their intention to donate a significant portion of their personal wealth to charity.

In 2021, Canva started a partnership with GiveDirectly, a nonprofit organization operating in low income areas that makes unconditional cash transfers to families living in extreme poverty. Since then, the company has donated $50 million to support GiveDirectly's work across Malawi.

In 2025, Canva announced an additional $100 million commitment to expand its GiveDirectly partnership.

Controversies

Data breach

In May 2019, Canva experienced a data breach in which the data of roughly 139 million users was exposed.

The exposed data included real names of users, usernames, email addresses, geographical information, and password hashes for some users.

In January 2020, approximately 4 million user passwords were decrypted and shared online. Canva responded by resetting the passwords of every user who had not changed their password since the initial breach.

Russian Operations

In May 2022 Canva was criticized for continuing to provide free access to its services in Russia, even after suspending payment processing in the country.

Activists from the Ukrainian diaspora in Australia and others said this could be viewed as indirectly supporting Russia’s war effort. They noted the company was the only one of several major Australian firms to receive the lowest “digging in” rating on a tracker run by the Yale School of Management for failing to pull out of Russia.

Canva responded that it had suspended financial transactions in Russia from March 2022 and maintained the free version to allow the continued creation and sharing of “pro-peace and anti-war” content for its 1.4 million Russian users.

References

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References

  1. Bonyhady, Nick. (10 April 2024). "Canva agrees to settle unfair dismissal case from senior engineer". [[Australian Financial Review]].
  2. (12 October 2024). "Canva Revolutionized Graphic Design. Will It Survive the Age of AI?".
  3. Smith, Paul. (22 January 2024). "Canva share sale booms as revenue races higher". Australian Financial Review.
  4. "Technical Requirements".
  5. "Canva".
  6. (2014-11-01). "ABN Lookup".
  7. Perez, Sarah. (26 August 2013). "Canva Launches A Graphic Design Platform Anyone Can Use". Tech Crunch'.
  8. (7 January 2014). "Canva review: Free tool brings much-needed simplicity to design process". [[PC World]].
  9. Swallow, Erica. (18 November 2013). "Canva Makes Great Design More Accessible". [[Forbes]].
  10. (11 March 2018). "Susan Wu, tech entrepreneur and start-up adviser".
  11. Campbell, Rebekah. (15 September 2014). "The Problem With Going Into Business With a Friend". [[The New York Times]].
  12. (8 January 2018). "New Sequoia China investment values Australian design company Canva at $1 billion – TechCrunch".
  13. (9 January 2018). "The 30-year-old woman who designed a $1bn business". [[BBC News]].
  14. (9 January 2018). "Canva: Online design startup joins generally overvalued 'unicorn' club". [[ABC News (Australia).
  15. (20 May 2019). "Graphic design platform Canva valued at $2.5B with new funds".
  16. (16 October 2019). "Canva, now valued at $3.2 billion, launches an enterprise product".
  17. (6 December 2019). "Canva has announced a slew of new products, including a video editing tool and an education offering". Business Insider Australia.
  18. Crook, Jordan. (17 June 2020). "Canva design platform partners with FedEx Office as it pushes further into the US". TechCrunch.
  19. (16 July 2020). "Office Depot Enhances Print Services Portfolio with New Graphic Design Solutions Powered by Canva". Bloomberg.
  20. (22 June 2020). "Australia's Canva Startup Almost Doubles Valuation to $6 Billion". Bloomberg.
  21. (16 September 2021). "Canva: Australian online design platform valued at $40bn". BBC.
  22. Konrad, Alex. "Canva Raises At $40 Billion Valuation — Its Founders Are Pledging Away Most Of Their Wealth".
  23. Bonyhady, Nick. (14 September 2022). "Canva to go up against Microsoft and Google".
  24. (26 July 2022). "Blackbird reveals Canvas' $14b plunge in value".
  25. Yun, Jessica. (17 January 2023). "'Orange is the new Palo Alto': Why the next Atlassian, Canva will be from the bush".
  26. Aziz, Afdhel. "How Canva Is Being A Force For Good By Empowering The Whole World To Design".
  27. (24 May 2023). "The 200 richest people in Australia revealed".
  28. "AI text generation is moving mainstream with Canva's Magic Write".
  29. Malik, Aisha. (23 March 2023). "Canva unveils a series of new features, including several AI-powered tools".
  30. Hollander, Roger. (13 January 2024). "The Most Popular GPTs in the OpenAI GPT Store".
  31. Wood, Chris. (23 May 2024). "Canva Introduces Canva Enterprise, Work Kits and adtech apps.".
  32. (1 May 2018). "Canva {{!}} Redesigning Design with Method Recycling".
  33. Weatherbed, Jess. (2025-04-10). "Canva is now in the coding and spreadsheet business".
  34. "Australia's Canva begins share sale at $42 billion valuation". [[Reuters]].
  35. "SmartCompany".
  36. (17 May 2019). "Australia's design unicorn, Canva, picks up two free image-sharing services, and launches new photo product".
  37. Lee, Yoolim. (22 February 2021). "Australia's Canva Buys European Design Startups to Fuel Growth". Bloomberg.com.
  38. (2 February 2022). "Canva acquires Flourish in mission to tell better stories with data". TechCrunch.
  39. Bonyhady, Nick. (26 March 2024). "Canva's billion-dollar bet on a 37-year-old Nottingham company".
  40. Miller, Ron. (26 March 2024). "With Affinity acquisition, Canva should be able to compete better with Adobe's creative tools".
  41. Jones, Tegan. (30 July 2024). "Canva snaps up Leonardo.AI in blockbuster acquisition".
  42. (17 June 2025). "Deal-making Canva reports spike in paying users as it nears IPO".
  43. (14 September 2021). "Canva founders to give $16.5b fortune away".
  44. (2025-10-09). "Why we chose to invest another $100 million in cash transfers".
  45. Oloo, Carlton. (2025-10-09). "Canva pledges $100M for unconditional cash to boost local economies through cash in Malawi".
  46. "Australian tech unicorn Canva suffers security breach".
  47. (24 May 2019). "139 Million Users Hit in Canva Data Breach".
  48. (17 January 2020). "Canva Security Incident – May 24 FAQs".
  49. (2022-05-24). "Canva - Australia for Ukraine!".
  50. Butler, Ben. (2022-05-17). "Australian tech company Canva continues operating in Russia in face of Ukrainian outrage". The Guardian.
  51. Bonyhady, Nick. (2022-06-01). "Canva blocks Russia after pressure, joining global exodus as war drags on".
  52. Tay, Liz. [https://web.archive.org/web/20130817215141/http://www.businessinsider.com.au/this-bizarre-recruitment-pitch-deck-convinced-a-senior-google-engineer-to-leave-for-an-australian-start-up-2013-8#savedave-16 This Bizarre Recruitment Pitch Deck Convinced A Senior Google Engineer To Leave For An Australian Start-Up] ''Business Insider''. 15 August 2013.
  53. Perkins, Melanie. [https://about.canva.com/our-story/ Our Story] ''Canva''. 19 August 2015.
  54. Lim, Jason. "Canva Carries Out 7 Year Vision To Disrupt Digital Design".
  55. "How Emotion Helped Grow Our Startup to 2.8M Users in 20 Months".
  56. Beeche, Mat. (2 July 2014). "Guy Kawasaki on why he wanted to work with Canva".
  57. Perez, Sarah. (19 March 2013). "Canva Raises $3 Million To Make Design Accessible To Everyone".
  58. Shu, Catherine. (21 July 2014). "Australian Graphic Design Startup Canva Raises Additional $3.6M".
  59. Perez, Sarah. (15 October 2014). "Canva Brings Its Easy-To-Use Design Platform To The iPad".
  60. Perez, Sarah. (4 May 2015). "Design Platform Canva Raises $6 Million, Expands To Businesses With "Canva For Work"".
  61. Russell, Jon. (26 November 2014). "Canva Courts Design Pros With New Social Features And A Marketplace For Their Work".
  62. Perez, Sarah. (10 August 2015). "Now With 4 Million Users, Design Platform Canva Launches To Businesses".
  63. Perez, Sarah. (6 October 2015). "Design Platform Canva Scores $15 Million Series A, Valued At $165 Million".

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

proprietary-graphics-softwarevector-graphics-editorsaustralian-companies-established-in-2013500-startups-companiesaustralian-brandscompanies-based-in-sydneydesign-companies-established-in-2013internet-properties-established-in-2013online-companies-of-australiasoftware-companies-of-australiasoftware-companies-established-in-2013collaborative-softwaregraphics-softwareprivately-held-companies-of-australiamultinational-companies-headquartered-in-australia