Australian design software company Canva is now valued at $42 billion with the launch of their employee stock sale, the company announced this week. The program comes as the company gears up for a widely anticipated Initial Public Offering (IPO), expected later this year. According to the sale, the employees can sell their stock to both new and existing investors. This will provide liquidity to long-term staff while reaffirming confidence in the company’s growth trajectory.
Fidelity Management, the company’s long time shareholder is leading the round while JP Morgan’s asset management division is joining as a new investor. It is said that this funding round was significantly oversubscribed. While the exact number of shares to be sold has not been disclosed, earlier reports suggested that Canva had explored selling up to $500 million worth of shares.
A Vision Takes Shape
Canva is a graphic design platform launched in 2013 by Melanie Perkins, Cliff Obrecht, and Cameron Adams. The idea was born out of Melanie’s observation of the complexities involved in using traditional design software. While teaching design in a college, she recognized the steep learning curve and the inaccessibility of design tools for the average person. This led to the vision of creating a platform that simplified design, making it accessible to everyone, regardless of their design skills.
“Our goal was to take the entire design ecosystem, integrate it into one page, and then make it accessible to the whole world,” said Perkins.
Products
The purpose of Canva is to empower everyone to design. The platform is built on the belief that design should not be exclusive or complicated. Rather, it should be accessible and easy for anyone to create beautiful designs. Canva aims to make design simple and enjoyable, even for those with no design experience.
It offers a wide range of design templates, collaboration tools, customization capabilities animation and video editing for the users to choose from. Its tools are now used in 190 countries, with more than 240 million monthly active users.
Empowerment through AI
It has recently incorporated artificial intelligence to build features that allow users to generate designs and interactive elements using plain English commands. These AI-powered tools represent its strategy to stay ahead of competitors and strengthen its product offering ahead of a public listing.
Canva’s prominent investors include T. Rowe Price, Sequoia Capital, and Bessemer Venture Partners. With the latest share sale, the company has reclaimed a higher valuation compared to its most recent figure of $32 billion in 2024, which is still slightly below the $40 billion peak valuation it reached in 2021.
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