WA-founded Canva reaches new highs after latest raising

WA-founded design technology darling Canva is now worth more than Rio Tinto, Woodside Energy, Telstra and Woolworths after it raised almost $10 billion through new investors.

The extra capital injection — which has pushed its valuation to $US32 billion ($48.7b), up from $US26b after a raising in April — has reignited speculation a long-awaited public listing could be inching closer to reality.

Canva was launched from a Dianella loungeroom by Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht, who met while she was studying at the University of Western Australia.

Their initial startup offered easy-to-design tools for making school yearbooks but it has since grown into a global behemoth that is now taking on $US230b giant Adobe with a shift into artificial technology for its software.

“It’s been an extraordinary year for all of us at Canva as we celebrate remarkable growth and increasing demand for our business,” Mr Obrecht said.

“We’re really excited to be empowering more than 200 million people in 190 countries with the simplicity, access, and power of our product.

“While we’re incredibly proud of the progress we’ve made, we’re just getting started and we’re looking forward to a whole lot more to come.”

Mr Obrecht said the new valuation reflected Canva’s “focus on empowering organisations worldwide to design with ease and creativity”, noting its success was driving surging demand for the company’s shares.

Canva’s latest filings show annualised revenue leapt almost 14 per cent to $2.5 billion — its seventh consecutive year of profitability — and it has hired another 1000 staff this year. It’s software tools are now used by more than 95 per cent of Fortune 500 companies and its Magic Studio software package was this week named among Time magazine’s best inventions of 2024.

Canva is closing in on 12 years as a private company, a long stretch for a startup whose investors will want their payday.

Its valuation fell to $US26b in 2022 from a peak of $US40b in 2021 after some investors cut the value of their stakes amid a global tech downturn.

The company engineered a $US1.6b secondary sale earlier this year, allowing existing shareholders to sell part of their holdings.

An IPO would likely bring in fresh capital that could be used for product development and acquisitions.

Ms Perkins and Mr Obrecht — who were listed No.10 with a combined fortune of $13.62b on this year’s Australian Financial Review rich list — have remained tight-lipped on a time frame for an IPO but say they are in no hurry.

Canva in July announced the acquisition of generative Sydney-based AI startup Leonardo.Ai, and last week used its technology to launch Dream Lab, which can “transform any idea from a simple text description into dynamic and highly dynamic photos and graphics”.

That came only a few months after it bought Affinity, a rival to Adobe’s Photoshop and Illustrator.

“If Canva really wants to get into the fullness of the market where there are fewer seats but higher dollars available to them, they have to figure out how to go after Adobe,” said Jonathan Curtis, the chief investment officer of Franklin Equity Group which first invested in Canva in 2021, said at the time.