An investor-led secondary share transaction launched in 2025 valued Australian design platform Canva at approximately US$42 billion, its legal adviser Sidley said. The law firm said the transaction included new and existing institutional investors.
The US$42 billion figure represented Canva’s valuation, not the proceeds of the share sale.
Expansion into AI and workplace tools
Canva’s browser-based platform supports presentations, social media posts, invitations and other design work. At Canva Create 2025, the company introduced Canva AI and Canva Code. Canva said these tools allowed users to generate designs, images and text, and create interactive elements such as quizzes and calculators through plain-language prompts.
Those launches followed two acquisitions in 2024. In its year-end review, Canva said it acquired professional design software business Affinity in March and generative AI company Leonardo.Ai in July. In October, it launched Dream Lab, an image generator incorporating Leonardo’s technology.
Canva also introduced its Enterprise subscription for large organisations in May 2024. The company said more than 220 million people across more than 190 countries used Canva in December that year.
From school yearbooks to online design
Co-founder Melanie Perkins traced the idea for simpler online design software to her experience teaching design programs while studying at the University of Western Australia. She said the desktop tools were difficult to use and that she wanted to make design software simpler, online and collaborative.
Perkins and Cliff Obrecht first applied that concept to school yearbooks through Fusion Books, launched in 2007. Perkins said they worked from her mother’s living room in Perth, borrowed money to develop the software and combined the business with university studies and part-time jobs.
Canva announced a $3 million seed round on March 20, 2013, naming investors including Matrix Partners, InterWest Partners and 500 Startups. The announcement identified former Google lead designer Cameron Adams as a co-founder and head of product.
Canva launched its public beta on August 26, 2013, with a drag-and-drop interface combining layouts, photographs, graphics and fonts. At the time, Perkins said the service was not intended to replace Photoshop or InDesign for work requiring detailed pixel manipulation. Designers could instead upload assets and arrange them in Canva.
In 2021, Perkins and Obrecht announced plans to donate the majority of their equity—described by Canva as 30% of the company—to charitable work through the Canva Foundation. Canva includes that commitment in its broader “31% pledge.” The company said it joined Pledge 1% in 2019, committing 1% of its profit, equity, product and time.
