Canva becomes one of the largest privately-owned companies in the world and makes CEO and Co-Founder the richest self-made female billionaire.
In a recent valuation, the Australian graphic designing website, Canva, was valued at a whopping US$40 billion. This cements its place as one of the largest privately-owned companies in the world. The company is now the fifth most valuable startup worldwide, closely following SpaceX, Stripe, ByteDance and Klarna.
The rise in the company’s fortunes has made its CEO and co-founder Melanie Perkins the richest self-made female billionaire in the world. Perkins is one of the youngest female CEOs of a tech Unicorn (i.e-startup valued at more than USD1 billion) and, as of 2021, is the second richest woman in Australia.
According to official claims, the platform now boasts 60 million users in over 190 countries. Of these, nearly 500,000 are paying customers, including big names such Zoom, PayPal, Marriott International as well as American Airlines. Paying customers of the company have access to over 8,000 templates and other design elements not included in the free version. The company attributes the rise in its popularity to their customers working from home during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Canva is a platform where users can digitally create graphic content, such as presentations, invitations, resumes, posters, calendars, and memes. It offers an array of pre-loaded templates, which allows users to produce engaging content at the snap of a finger. The platform helps users with no technical graphic design skills to create professional-looking graphics.
The company was co-founded by Melanie Perkins and her now-husband, Cliff Obrecht, in 2013.
Between them, the couple owns 36% of the company. In May 2021, The Australian Financial Review assessed Perkins’ and Obrecht’s joint net worth to be around AUD$7.98 billion.
The couple has often stated that they want to donate the majority of their fortune towards various charitable causes.
“As Canva’s value grows, so too does our ability to have a positive impact on the world. And as we have a positive impact on the world, we believe that Canva will grow too by being able to attract and motivate the best team and our community who care about having a positive impact on the world too,” Perkins says.
Images courtesy of Flickr
