Canva valuation lifted by US$9 billion in nine months

Sydney-based graphic design platform Canva has reasserted its status as one of the world's fastest-growing software companies, achieving a valuation of US$15 billion (AUD$19.66 billion) following a recent investment.

The new valuation is in line with a fresh investment of US$71 million (AUD$92.5 million) for the company, coming just over nine months after garnering a US$6 billion valuation in mid-2020.

With its suite of online design and publishing tools for presentations and social media posts, Canva's annualised revenue is up 130 per cent surpassing $500 million this year, backed by a monthly active user base of more than 55 million.

The group founded in 2013 by Melanie Perkins, Cliff Obrecht and Cameron Adams now has 85 per cent of Fortune 500 companies embracing its software.

The trio ranked second in last year's Australia's Top 100 Young Entrepreneurs list, and if it were on the Australian Stock Exchange the latest update would place Canva in the ranks of the ASX's top 20 companies based on market capitalisation.

"Now more than ever, teams and workplaces around the world need scalable, collaborative and easy-to-use visual communication products to empower them to achieve their goals," says Perkins, Canva's CEO.

"The launch of Presentations gives workplaces of all sizes a unique, flexible collaboration product that makes work feel like play. I'm incredibly proud of our rapidly growing global team as we work together to empower the world to design."

Today's announcement coincides with the launch a suite of new features for the flagship workplace product Canva Presentations, which have become the company's fastest-growing use case by empowering people to design with ease and collaborate at scale.

To date, more than 250 million presentations have been created on the platform while at the moment around 600 are created per minute.

The new features announced today include workplace templates, talking presentations, Canva Live, mobile-first presentations and 'magic' shortcuts, as well as charts and infographics.

Despite such a large contingent of the world's leading companies using its software, Canva still describes its addressable market as "enormous and underserved" and believes it is poised to replace expensive and complex legacy alternatives.

The group attributes its latest valuation and increased investor demand to this large market, together with Canva's "unwavering momentum as the workplace creativity tool of the future".

"We are pleased to support Canva in its mission to help teams around the world to democratize visual communication," said Alan Tu, portfolio manager of T. Rowe Price Global Technology Fund.

"The company's strong customer loyalty and consistent innovation has led to healthy growth, and we believe that they have the leadership team in place to continue on their path to becoming a much larger company in the future."

Christian Jensen, partner at Dragoneer, says there are only a "small handful of truly special companies" being built at any given moment, and Canva is one of them.

"We are thrilled to be working with Canva as they enter their next phase of growth," says Jensen.

"Canva's growth is a testament to the company's deep insight into the creative and communication needs of an ever-evolving workplace and its outstanding execution in delivering tools that help teams collaborate and present more effectively

"It's incredible to see what this nimble and passionate company from Sydney's emerging tech hub has been able to achieve in such a short period of time."

Canva's capabilities also received a boost in February with world-leading product mockup creator Smartmockups and groundbreaking visual AI platform Kaleido.ai brought into the group.

"Since their inception, Smartmockups and Kaleido have been driven by the shared mission of turning traditionally complex design tools into simple and accessible solutions for anyone, anywhere; regardless of knowledge, income or experience," Canva's founders said in a release at the time.

"Their early integrations with Canva's App Store API made it clear how aligned our visions were and we couldn't be more excited to join forces and further accelerate our mission as we double down on expanding Canva's rapidly growing suite of visual communication tools for millions of people around the globe.

"Together, both Smartmockups and Kaleido will contribute to Canva's growing ecosystem of apps and integrations, introducing a range of new and innovative visual design tools while bolstering those you already know and love."

Business News Australia