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Australian online design platform Canva is now worth US$6 billion (AUD$8.7 billion) after completing a US$60 million funding raise.
The valuation is up from US$3.2 billion, with the company attributing the lift to its growing prominence as a workplace collaboration platform and strong user growth during the COVID-19 pandemic.
More than 30 million people worldwide now use Canva for design purposes - 80 designs are now completed per second, with a total of 3 billion designs created since the platform launched in 2012.
Canva co-founder and COO Cliff Obrecht says despite the economic downturn the company continues to see a significant increase in user activity.
"Canva's accelerated growth is indicative of the "new normal", as more teams realize the need for a more scalable, more collaborative, more affordable and more user-friendly design platform," says Obrecht.
"Now more than ever, organizations 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."
The launch of Canva's workplace collaboration suite could not have come at a better time.
After releasing in late 2019 the platform has managed to tap into the needs of those working remotely due to COVID-19 restrictions. More than 5000,000 organisations are now using the collaboration suite from SMEs to larger enterprises such as Warner Music, American Airlines, Ingram Micro and Eaton.
More than 90,000 schools and universities are also using the platform worldwide including the NSW Department of Education and Georgetown University in Washington D.C..
Travel search engine Skyscanner has also utilised Canva to roll out a full rebrand across 36 markets.
Canva says design creation and sharing on the platform has increased by over 50 per cent since the beginning of the pandemic.
Because of this uptick the company intends on rolling out a number of new workplace collaboration features like real-time collaboration and a desktop experience for offline editing.
Success in the United States has also led Canva to open a new office in Austin, Texas.
Obrecht also says the company is open to considering acquisitions whereby it invests in companies for their engineering and product teams.
"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.
"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."
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