canva Archives

You can now watch the Australian founder docos on Canva’s Mel Perkins, SafetyCulture’s Luke Anear, Finder’s Fred Schebesta & Brighte’s Katherine McConnell for free

Simon Thomsen - April 15, 2025 2 MIN READ

Back in 2023, SafetyCulture founder Luke Anear had a vision – a four-part documentary series with profiling the founders of some of Australia’s most successful tech companies, including himself. It was an insight into the highs and lows and drama of local startup life, which was released as a pay-per-view on Apple TV, Prime… Read more »

Business

Making spreadsheets sexy again: Canva zeroes in on productivity tools for latest product roll out

Simon Thomsen - April 11, 2025 2 MIN READ

Canva is getting into the spreadsheet business as the software giant looks to move beyond pretty graphics to workplace productivity tools and take on enterprise software giants like Google. The 13-year-old design platform’s annual product song and dance show, the fourth Canva Create – this year themed as “Uncharted” – also revealed that annual revenue… Read more »

Canva cofounders Cameron Adams, Cliff Obrecht and Melanie Perkins.

AI/Machine Learning

Generating your AI grave? Canva sheds 10 technical writing staff after directing them to use artificial intelligence

Tom Williams - April 3, 2025 2 MIN READ

Most of Canva’s technical writing team has been laid off as the company continues to expand its use of artificial intelligence, but the graphic design giant does not see the redundancies as a result of its increasing AI use. Technical writers are typically responsible for writing and updating documents such as guides and manuals for… Read more »

Leadership

AI walks, meditation and rituals – the 5 things Canva cofounder Melanie Perkins does to prevent burnout

Simon Thomsen - January 8, 2025 3 MIN READ

Entrepreneur, mother and billionaire Melanie Perkins has been taking stock of her working life and goals for the year ahead, admitting that she got it wrong when she “used to work seven days a week, barely pausing to breathe, thinking it was the only way to succeed”. Perkins revealed the lessons she’d learned to maintain… Read more »

Andrew Green from Canva in discussion with Simon Thomsen from Startup Daily

Leadership

‘A big part of it is making things feel small’: Canva head of design Andrew Green on the secrets of creating global success

Startup Daily - November 21, 2024 7 MIN READ

Innovation means different things to different people, but the most important thing when it comes to product development is to have a clear vision, according to Canva’s Head of Design, Andrew Green. “‘We think pretty deeply about our roadmap, and for all the founders out there, I think that one interesting aspect of [Canva cofounder… Read more »

People

Canva finally gets a new CFO as IPO plans loom, hiring Zoom’s US-based finance boss

Simon Thomsen - November 19, 2024 3 MIN READ

More than nine months after the sudden departure of Canva’s chief financial officer, after nearly 8 years, the graphic design giant has found his replacement with Zoom’s Texas-based CFO, Kelly Steckelberg, signing on later this month. Steckelberg took Zoom to its public listing on the Nasdaq in 2019. She was previously CEO of online dating… Read more »

Funding

Canva valuation jumps 23% to $49 billion following share trade

Simon Thomsen - October 31, 2024 2 MIN READ

Design platform Canva has seen the company’s valuation soar by nearly a quarter to A$48.7 billion in the latest sale of its shares on the secondary market. The global business, which is heading to a public listing in the US next year, saw its valuation rise by US$6 billion (A$9.1bn) to hit US$32 billion with… Read more »

Business

‘Set crazy big goals and make them happen’: Canva cofounder Melanie Perkins on building a startup giant

Cec Busby - October 14, 2024 5 MIN READ

Canva is no ordinary success story. It’s a $39 billion unicorn with its heart in the right place. Founded by Melanie Perkins, her (now) husband, Cliff Obrecht, and Cameron Adams in January 2013, Canva has evolved from a side hustle in a family living room into one of the world’s leading design platforms. As a… Read more »

Business

Canva empowers its profitability, jacking up subscription fees by up to 300%

Denham Sadler, Information Age - September 4, 2024 3 MIN READ

Canva has announced a tripling of their prices for some of its users as the Australian tech company prepares for a public listing in the US. In the US, some users have had their subscription increase from $119.99 per year to $300 per year for the first 12 months – an increase of 316% –… Read more »

Events

10 takeouts from Stripe’s World Tour landing in Sydney

AJ Koch - September 3, 2024 3 MIN READ

This year marks a decade of Stripe in Australia. The US global payments behemoth founded 14 years ago by Irish-American siblings John and Patrick Collison now services over 500,000 Australian businesses and has processed more than A$200 billion since landing here The Stripe World Tour rolled into Sydney recently to showcase the fintech’s products and users, and including a… Read more »

Business

The price of AI: Canva’s Leonardo acquisition worth at least $320 million

Simon Thomsen - August 2, 2024 2 MIN READ

Neither Canva nor Leonardo.AI or its backers wanted to talk about the dowry paid for their marriage, but documents from key investor Blackbird Ventures suggest the acquisition deal cost is north of $320 million. Details are beginning to emerge about what when down following the surprise announcement this week that the Sydney-based generative AI startup… Read more »

Business

Canva prompts takeover of hot generative AI startup Leonardo.AI

Simon Thomsen - July 30, 2024 3 MIN READ

The generative AI company many believed would become a tech unicorn is instead being acquired by one, with design platform Canva snapping up content and research startup, Leonardo.AI. The deal price and terms have not been disclosed, so it’s not not how much is cash and/or Canva shares ahead of its IPO plans, but it’s… Read more »

Canva cofounders Cliff Obrecht, Melanie Perkins and Cameron Adams.

Business

Canva’s cofounders are Australia’s 2nd most generous philanthropists

Simon Thomsen - June 30, 2024 4 MIN READ

The three billionaire cofounders of Canva donated $39 million to the foundation in their company’s name over 18 months, with most of that money already given away. Husband and wife Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht, set up the Canva Foundation with cofounder Cameron Adams in May 2020. A month later, the privately-owned design giant Canva doubled… Read more »

Business strategy

Cloud 9 rap: Canva shows why employee share schemes matter for startup success

Anthony Bekker & Tom Smalley - June 5, 2024 4 MIN READ

The recent outburst of rapping at the Canva Create event in Los Angeles has proven to be another dazzling cultural flashpoint between Australian and US tech. Well, here at least. We believe it’s not a coincidence that an event like this occurred right after a billion dollar share sale rightfully turned many early Canva employees… Read more »

Business

C-rap: the most talked about part of Canva Create isn’t the product (but it totally is) because of a song

Simon Thomsen - May 27, 2024 4 MIN READ

There’s a famous maxim in advertising, courtesy of industry legend David Ogilvy that: “If you have nothing to say, sing it”. Combine that with Oscar Wilde’s observation that: “There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about”, and you have the defining moment of Canva… Read more »

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