Canva was founded in 2013 by Melanie Perkins, Cliff Obrecht, and Cameron Adams in Sydney, Australia. Perkins started working on the idea as a university student, initially creating a school yearbook design tool called Fusion Books. Canva launched in 2013 and has since grown into one of Australia’s most valuable tech companies, with a valuation of $26 billion.
The platform democratized graphic design by making it accessible to people without design skills. Canva’s drag-and-drop editor, combined with thousands of templates, stock photos, illustrations, and fonts, lets anyone create social media graphics, presentations, posters, videos, and more in minutes. It’s used by over 170 million monthly active users in 190 countries.
Canva has raised over $570 million in funding from investors including Sequoia China, Blackbird Ventures, and T. Rowe Price. The company has been profitable and generates significant revenue through Canva Pro subscriptions, Canva for Teams, and Canva for Enterprise.
The platform has expanded well beyond simple image creation. Canva now includes video editing, website building, print-on-demand services (business cards, t-shirts, mugs), document creation (Canva Docs), whiteboards, and presentation tools with AI-powered features. Their acquisition of Affinity in 2024 added professional-grade design tools to their portfolio. Canva has made several major acquisitions, including Flourish (data visualization), Kaleido (background removal), and various stock content libraries. For individuals and teams who need to create visual content regularly, Canva has become an essential tool.
