Canva is throwing $74 million at app developers for the design platform

Canva is setting up a US$50 million (A$74) innovation fund to back app developers to create new experiences for the design platform.

The Canva Developers Innovation Fund was announced at the company’s first developer conference, Canva Extend, in San Francisco today.

The 10-years software giant also released the Canva Apps SDK (Software Development Kit) for public use, along with its first Canva Connect APIs (REST APIs) due to be released later this year.

Canva Apps SDK has been in beta for the last nine months, with more than 11,000 developers on the waitlist. The release will give anyone who wants to build or integrate their apps into Canva direct access.

The Starter Kit allows developers to get their first app up and running in minutes, and expand on it with Canva’s purpose-built APIs. It developers the ability to enable users to fetch, add content, edit their design, authenticate users, export and publish, and provide data via Canva Apps.

The APIs now available include:

Asset: Upload media to a user’s media library with the Asset API for a fast, efficient experience.
Data: Use the Data API to become a data source and make importing data seamless.
Design: The Design API can build new design tools that add content to a design, read and edit what’s already there, or let your users export and publish their designs to complete an end-to-end content management flow.
Fetch: Send HTTP requests to a third-party server with Fetch, a multi-purpose web API for tasks like integrating with external services and offloading tasks to a server.
User: Bridge the gap with the User API. Keep your app secure and allow users to authenticate via your platform.

The design software company also plans to add multiple apps such as Amazon, Bitly, Frontify, HeyGen, Later.com, SwayTribe and Neiro AI to the platform in the months ahead.

It’s also introduced a range of AI-powered tools and over the last nine months, more than 200 million unique images have generated via AI products such as Text to Image and Magic Edit.

Alongside that roll out, the company is looking to back developers with a $50 million Canva Developers Innovation Fund aimed at ccelerating growth and adoption of apps on the platform.

Head of Ecosystem Anwar Haneef said the fund will provide support in the form of monetary grants and expert guidance, and also focus on empowering developers who are underrepresented in the global market.

“We’re thrilled about the momentum gained from working with our beta partners to streamline app creation in Canva,” he said.

“By opening our design engine to a wider community of developers, we’re enabling instant distribution of their apps and services to millions of people on Canva. They can tap into the valuable feedback and creativity of our community, who will benefit from new ways to achieve their goals.”