Canva

Canva is an Australian graphic design platform that is used to create social media graphics and presentations. The app includes readymade templates for users to use, and the platform is free and offers paid subscriptions such as Canva Pro and Canva for Enterprise for additional functionality. In 2021, Canva launched a video editing tool. Users can also pay for physical products to be printed and shipped. The company has announced it intends to compete with Google and Microsoft in the office software category, with website and whiteboard products.

In June 2020, Canva raised 60 million at a valuation of 6 billion; almost doubling its 2019 valuation. In September 2021, Canva raised US$200 million, with its value peaking that year at US$40 billion. By September 2022 the valuation of the company had leveled at US$26 billion.

History

Canva was founded in Perth, Australia, by Melanie Perkins, Cliff Obrecht, and Cameron Adams on 1 January 2013. In its first year, Canva had more than 750,000 users. In April 2014, social media and technology expert Guy Kawasaki joined the company as its chief evangelist (brand promoter).Pankaj, Mishra
Canva Raises $3 Million To Make Design Accessible To Everyone
''Tech Crunch''. 16 April 2014. In 2015, ''Canva for Work'' was launched, focusing marketing materials.

During the 2016–17 financial year, Canva's revenue increased from to , with a loss of . In 2017, the company reached profitability and had 294,000 paying customers.

In January 2018, Perkins announced that the company had raised from Sequoia Capital, Blackbird Ventures, and Felicis Ventures, and the company was valued at .

During May 2019, the company raised another round of funding of 70 million from General Catalyst and Bond and its existing investors Blackbird Ventures and Felicis Ventures, valuing Canva at 2.5 billion. In October that year, Canva announced that it had raised an additional 85  million at a valuation of 3.2 billion, and launched an enterprise product.

In December 2019, Canva announced ''Canva for Education'', a free product for schools and other educational institutions intended to facilitate collaboration between students and teachers.

In June 2020, Canva announced a partnership with FedEx Office and with Office Depot the following month. , Canva's valuation had risen to 6 billion. This valuation grew to A$40 billion in September 2021, with co-founders Perkins and Obrecht announcing their plan to give away much of their fortune to numerous philanthropic causes.

Data breach

In May 2019, Canva experienced a data breach in which data of roughly 139 million users were hacked. The exposed data included real names of users, usernames, email addresses, geographical information, and password hashes for some users. Canva faced criticism for an initial email to customers, which buried the details below self-congratulatory marketing content. Later in January 2020 approximately 4 million user passwords were decrypted and shared online. Canva responded by resetting the passwords of every user who had not changed their password since the initial breach.

Acquisitions

In 2018, the company acquired presentations startup Zeetings for an undisclosed amount, as part of its expansion into the presentations space.

In May 2019, the company announced the acquisitions of Pixabay and Pexels, two free stock photography sites based in Germany, which enabled Canva users to access their photos for designs.

In February 2021, Canva acquired Austrian startup Kaleido.ai and the Czech-based Smartmockups.

See also

* Animaker
* Picsart

References

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External links

Official website

500 Startups companies
Australian brands
Companies based in Sydney
Design companies established in 2012
Graphics software
Mass media companies established in 2012
Online companies of Australia
Software companies of Australia
Technology companies established in 2012