Canva
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Company type | Private |
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Industry | |
Founded | 2013 |
Founders |
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Headquarters | , |
Area served | Worldwide |
Products | Canva, Canva Pro, Canva for Enterprise, Canva for Education, Canva for Nonprofits |
Revenue | ![]() |
Members | 100 million users [2] |
Number of employees | 3,500[3] (2023) |
Parent | Canva Inc.[4] |
Subsidiaries | |
Website | www |
Canva is an online template editor app for creating social media graphics and presentations and merch and websites.[6][7][8]
History[edit]
Canva was founded in Perth, Australia, by Melanie Perkins, Cliff Obrecht and Cameron Adams on 1 January 2013. In its first year, Canva had more than 750,000 users.[9] In April 2014, social media and technology expert Guy Kawasaki joined the company as its chief evangelist (brand promoter).[10] In 2015, Canva for Work was launched, focusing on marketing materials.[11]
During the 2016-17 financial year, Canva's revenue increased from A$6.8 million to A$23.5 million, with a loss of A$3.3 million. In 2017, the company reached profitability and had 294,000 paying customers.[12]
In January 2018, Perkins announced that the company had raised A$40 million from Sequoia Capital, Blackbird Ventures, and Felicis Ventures, and the company was valued at A$1 billion.[13][14][12] Australian superannuation funds Hostplus and Aware Super are known to be investors.[15]
In May 2019, the company raised another round of funding of A$70 million from General Catalyst and Bond and its existing investors Blackbird Ventures and Felicis Ventures, valuing Canva at A$2.5 billion.[16] In October of that year, Canva announced that it had raised an additional A$85 million at a valuation of A$3.2 billion and launched an enterprise product.[17]
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.[18]
In June 2020, Canva announced a partnership with FedEx Office[19] and with Office Depot the following month.[20] As of June 2020[update], Canva's valuation had risen to A$6 billion, rising to A$40 billion by September 2021.[21][22] In September 2021, Canva raised US$200 million, with its value peaking that year at US$40 billion.[23][24] By September 2022, the valuation of the company had leveled at US$26 billion.[25] While its value had fallen significantly, perhaps as much as 35% from its 2021 high to mid 2022, it was still known as a "darling" of the Australian tech sector, along with Atlassian.[15][26] In March 2022, Canva had over 75 million monthly active users.[27]
Co-founders Perkins and Obrecht have already disclosed their plan to give away much of their fortune to numerous philanthropic causes.[28] In 2023, the pair were named in the Australian Financial Review's AFR Rich List as among the 10 most wealthy people in Australia.[29]
On December 7, 2022, Canva launched Magic Write, which is the platform’s AI-powered copywriting assistant.[30] On March 22, 2023, Canva announced its new Assistant tool, which makes recommendations on graphics and styles that match the user's existing design.[31] On January 11, 2024, Canva launched its own GPT in OpenAI's GPT Store.[32]
The company has announced it intends to compete with Google and Microsoft in the office software category with website and whiteboard products.[25]
Data breach[edit]
In May 2019, Canva experienced a data breach in which the data of roughly 139 million users was hacked.[33] The exposed data included real names of users, usernames, email addresses, geographical information, and password hashes for some users.[34] Canva faced criticism for an initial email to customers, which buried the details below self-congratulatory marketing content.[35][36] Later in January 2020, approximately 4 million user passwords were decrypted and shared online.[37] Canva responded by resetting the passwords of every user who had not changed their password since the initial breach.
Acquisitions[edit]
In 2018, the company acquired presentations startup Zeetings for an undisclosed amount, as part of its expansion into the presentations space.[38]
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.[39]
In February 2021, Canva acquired Austrian startup Kaleido.ai and the Czech-based Smartmockups.[40]
In March 2024, Canva acquired UK-based Serif, the developers of the Affinity suite of graphic design software, for approximately $380 million.[41][42]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ Smith, Paul (22 January 2024). "Canva share sale booms as revenue races higher". Australian Financial Review. Archived from the original on 22 January 2024.
- ^ "Canva Announces Crossing 100 Million Monthly Active Users Following Launch of Visual Worksuite". www.businesswire.com. 12 October 2022. Archived from the original on 13 December 2022. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
- ^ Burton, Amber; Confino, Palo (24 March 2023). "The $26 billion design startup Canva refuses to conduct layoffs. So it's shifting employees into new roles". Fortune. Archived from the original on 24 March 2023.
- ^ "CANVA PTY Ltd | OpenCorporation". Archived from the original on 12 December 2021. Retrieved 12 December 2021.
- ^ "Canva". www.canva.com. Archived from the original on 4 February 2020. Retrieved 16 May 2018.
- ^ Perez, Sarah (26 August 2013). "Canva Launches A Graphic Design Platform Anyone Can Use". Tech Crunch'. Archived from the original on 2 September 2019.
- ^ Lancet, Yaara; Zukerman, Erez (7 January 2014). "Canva review: Free tool brings much-needed simplicity to design process". PC World. Archived from the original on 21 December 2014.
- ^ Swallow, Erica (18 November 2013). "Canva Makes Great Design More Accessible". Forbes. Archived from the original on 16 August 2018.
- ^ Campbell, Rebekah (15 September 2014). "The Problem With Going Into Business With a Friend". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 21 December 2014. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
- ^ Mishra, Pankaj (16 April 2014). "Guy Kawasaki Joins Australian Design Startup Canva As Chief Evangelist". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 30 March 2019. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
- ^ "Graphic design startup Canva just turned into a unicorn". Fast Company. 8 January 2018. Archived from the original on 27 June 2018. Retrieved 27 June 2018.
- ^ a b "New Sequoia China investment values Australian design company Canva at $1 billion – TechCrunch". techcrunch.com. 8 January 2018. Archived from the original on 27 June 2018. Retrieved 27 June 2018.
- ^ Stanton, Kate; Griffith, Hywel (9 January 2018). "The 30-year-old woman who designed a $1bn business". BBC News. Archived from the original on 28 July 2018. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
- ^ Chau, David (9 January 2018). "Canva: Online design startup joins generally overvalued 'unicorn' club". ABC News. Australia. Archived from the original on 12 January 2018. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
- ^ a b "Blackbird reveals Canva's $14b plunge in value". Australian Financial Review. 26 July 2022. Archived from the original on 24 January 2023. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
- ^ Clark, Kate (20 May 2019). "Graphic design platform Canva valued at $2.5B with new funds". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 27 June 2019. Retrieved 2 July 2019.
- ^ Cook, Jordan (16 October 2019). "Canva, now valued at $3.2 billion, launches an enterprise product". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 19 October 2019. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
- ^ Hennessy, James (6 December 2019). "Canva has announced a slew of new products, including a video editing tool and an education offering". Business Insider Australia. Archived from the original on 1 March 2020.
- ^ Crook, Jordan (17 June 2020). "Canva design platform partners with FedEx Office as it pushes further into the US". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 26 January 2021. Retrieved 2 July 2020.
- ^ "Office Depot Enhances Print Services Portfolio with New Graphic Design Solutions Powered by Canva". Bloomberg. 16 July 2020. Archived from the original on 21 July 2020. Retrieved 20 July 2020.
- ^ Tse, Crystal; Roof, Katie; Tan, Gillian; Lee, Yoolim (22 June 2020). "Australia's Canva Startup Almost Doubles Valuation to $6 Billion". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on 26 June 2020. Retrieved 24 June 2020.
- ^ "Canva: Australian online design platform valued at $40bn". BBC. 16 September 2021. Archived from the original on 30 January 2022. Retrieved 20 September 2021.
- ^ Konrad, Alex. "Canva Raises At $40 Billion Valuation — Its Founders Are Pledging Away Most Of Their Wealth". Forbes. Archived from the original on 20 September 2021. Retrieved 19 September 2021.
- ^ "Canva: Australian online design platform valued at $40bn". BBC News. 15 September 2021. Archived from the original on 30 January 2022. Retrieved 13 January 2022.
- ^ a b Bonyhady, Nick (14 September 2022). "Canva to go up against Microsoft and Google". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 27 September 2022. Retrieved 27 September 2022.
- ^ Yun, Jessica (17 January 2023). "'Orange is the new Palo Alto': Why the next Atlassian, Canva will be from the bush". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 24 January 2023. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
- ^ Aziz, Afdhel. "How Canva Is Being A Force For Good By Empowering The Whole World To Design". Forbes. Archived from the original on 14 November 2023. Retrieved 14 November 2023.
- ^ "Canva founders to give $16.5b fortune away". Australian Financial Review. 14 September 2021. Archived from the original on 1 April 2022. Retrieved 19 September 2021.
- ^ "The 200 richest people in Australia revealed". Australian Financial Review. 24 May 2023. Archived from the original on 6 June 2023. Retrieved 25 September 2023.
- ^ "AI text generation is moving mainstream with Canva's Magic Write". PCWorld. Archived from the original on 13 April 2023. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
- ^ Malik, Aisha (23 March 2023). "Canva unveils a series of new features, including several AI-powered tools". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 13 April 2023. Retrieved 13 April 2023.
- ^ Hollander, Roger (13 January 2024). "The Most Popular GPTs in the OpenAI GPT Store". GPTReview.
- ^ "Australian tech unicorn Canva suffers security breach". ZDNet. Archived from the original on 1 April 2021. Retrieved 7 December 2019.
- ^ "139 Million Users Hit in Canva Data Breach". Tom's Guide. 24 May 2019. Archived from the original on 21 January 2021. Retrieved 7 December 2019.
- ^ Smith, Paul. "Canva criticised after data breach exposed 139m user details". Archived from the original on 26 September 2020. Retrieved 5 September 2020.
- ^ Palmer-Derrin, Stephanie. ""Marketing fluff": What startups can learn from Canva's data-breach response". Archived from the original on 23 April 2021. Retrieved 5 September 2020.
- ^ "Canva Security Incident – May 24 FAQs". Canva. 17 January 2020. Archived from the original on 14 August 2022. Retrieved 16 August 2022.
- ^ Powell, Dominic. "SmartCompany". Archived from the original on 12 January 2021. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
- ^ Jonathan, Shieber (17 May 2019). "Australia's design unicorn, Canva, picks up two free image-sharing services, and launches new photo product". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on 1 May 2023. Retrieved 10 December 2019.
- ^ Lee, Yoolim (22 February 2021). "Australia's Canva Buys European Design Startups to Fuel Growth". Bloomberg.com. Archived from the original on 22 February 2021. Retrieved 23 February 2021.
- ^ Bonyhady, Nick (26 March 2024). "Canva's billion-dollar bet on a 37-year-old Nottingham company". Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 26 March 2024.
- ^ Miller, Ron (26 March 2024). "With Affinity acquisition, Canva should be able to compete better with Adobe's creative tools". TechCrunch.
External links[edit]
- Australian companies established in 2013
- 500 Startups companies
- Australian brands
- Companies based in Sydney
- Design companies established in 2013
- Mass media companies established in 2013
- Online companies of Australia
- Software companies of Australia
- Technology companies established in 2013
- Collaborative software
- Graphics software