Canva’s 2020 went globally gangbusters as the design giant signed deals around the world

The continued rise of online design unicorn Canva was even more impressive in 2020 with the Sydney-based global venture revealing it developed 42 new partnerships in 18 countries in defiance of the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The growth of Canva’s global footprint ranged from key US integrations with the likes of Fedex Office and Office Depot to strategic collaborations with Staples Canada, Kmart Australia, TradePrint UK, Zoomin India, Print Buddy Mexico and many others.

Canva’s Head of Global Partnerships Aaron Day said that core to the expansion is a move from office products partners to photo products and promotional products partners.

The company also installed its first Design Lab at Snap printing services in Australia. The in-store retail kiosk lets people  create a design and print the finished creation while in-store. The Canva Design Lab will be available across the US and Australia first ahead of a worldwide roll-out.

Day said the number of people collaborating on Canva designs has doubled since June.

“In 2020 we’ve seen the world thrown into chaos; businesses shifted to a distributed workforce in a matter of days; students thrust into the unknown of remote learning and individuals across the globe had to change the way they performed everyday tasks,” he said.

“Our partners are looking for a simple solution to help bring design into the mainstream – and this is where Canva comes in. Our strategic approach to partnerships has continued to fuel our desire to support businesses and teams to do their best work – from students through to startups and Fortune 500 companies with remote workers across multiple locations.”

Day said Canva’s accessibility is driving “huge pent-up demand” from e-commerce platforms.

The company also signed a global preinstall agreement with Samsung, as well as a deal with African online print company kiakiaprint.com.

Canva also recently launched a new suite of products to support teams, including video editing, a built-in social media content calendar and scheduler, talking presentations and online whiteboards – all powered by real- time collaboration, advanced design and editing tools, as well as smart Canva Button integrations with third-party apps such as Hubspot, Pandadoc, Bukalapak, Helppier, Wattpad and LiveTiles.