Canva just doubled in value to $8.7bn on an $87 million raise

● Canva raises US$60m for a US$6bn valuation
● The design platform now has 30m+ monthly users in 190 countries;
● Increases workplace collaboration tools, including talking presentations

Privately-owned Australia design giant Canva has raised US$60 million (A$87m) in a round that nearly doubled the company’s previous valuation of  US$3.2 billion to US$6 billion (A$8.7bn).

Blackbird Ventures and Sequoia China led the round, with existing investors such as General Catalyst Partners, Felicis Ventures and Bond also buying in.

As Canva’s US expansion continues, the company is opening an office in Austin, Texas to  provide strategic support for enterprise clients and nonprofits. It will be launched with Canva’s inaugural online enterprise conference on July 29, Elevate 2020.

The conference will feature a keynote from Canva CEO and cofounder, Melanie Perkins, as well as customer panels with HubSpot, Berkshire Hathaway Home Services, and IDC Global, and more.

The company says the push to online amid the global coronavirus pandemic means it’s now used by more than 30 million people monthly, creating 80 designs per second, and that design creation and sharing on Canva has increased by more than 50% since the start of covid-19.

With around 3 billion designs created since its launch in 2013, it means each one is worth around $2 in value to the business. Canva has 1.5 million paying subscribers.

Canva co-founder and COO Cliff Obrecht said there had been a significant increase in user activity in the wake of covid-19.

“Canva’s accelerated growth is indicative of the ‘new normal’, as more teams realise the need for a more scalable, more collaborative, more affordable and more user-friendly design platform,” he said.

“Organisations of all sizes are doubling down on building a reliable remote workplace, and are turning to modern productivity platforms like Canva to ensure they remain flexible and scalable.”

Blackbird’s Rick Baker said Canva’s original vision – a collaborative platform to create great design – is even more powerful .

“Canva has seen phenomenal growth over the past months, cementing its place as one of the fastest-growing SaaS companies in the world,” he said.

The company says more than 500,000 organisations use its workplace collaboration platform including Hubspot, Ingram Micro, Warner Music, American Airlines and SkyScanner, as well as 90,000 schools and universities worldwide, from the NSW Department of Education to the University of Texas and 55,000 non-profits.

The company will also be rolling out new workplace collaboration features , including real-time collaboration to let users work on designs simultaneously, “Canva Brainstorms” for teams to collaborate simultaneously on notes, build moodboards and flesh out ideas, talking presentations for people to talk through their slides in an interactive format.

Obrecht said is also looking at acquisitions where the engineering and product teams are the right fit for Canva.

“We’re open to investment opportunities in the media and editing space as we continue on our mission to provide a comprehensive and valuable product,” he said.

“Ultimately, we want Canva to be the go-to platform for all your design needs, so we’ll continue to
monitor and evaluate acquisition opportunities.”

The new valuation makes Canva Australia’s most valuable privately owned tech business.