Canva is a graphic design platform, used to create social media graphics, presentations, posters, documents and other visual content.[3][4][5] The app includes templates for users to use. The platform is free to use and offers paid subscriptions like Canva Pro and Canva for Enterprise for additional functionality.[6] Users can also pay for physical products to be printed and shipped.[7]
In June 2020, Canva raised A$60 million at a valuation of A$6 billion; almost doubling its 2019 valuation.[8][9]
Canva was founded in Perth, Australia, by Melanie Perkins, Cliff Obrecht and Cameron Adams on January 1st, 2013. In its first year, Canva had more than 750,000 users.[10] In April 2014, social-media and technology expert Guy Kawasaki joined the company as chief evangelist (brand promoter).[11] In 2015, Canva for Work was launched, focusing marketing materials.[12]
During the 2016-17 financial year, Canva’s revenue increased from A$6.8 million to A$23.5 million, with a loss of A$3.3 million. In 2017, the company reached profitability and had 294,000 paying customers.[13]
In January 2018, Perkins announced that the company had raised A$40 million from Sequoia Capital, Blackbird Ventures, and Felicis Ventures, and the company was valued at A$1 billion.[14][15][13]
During May 2019, the company raised another round of funding of A$70 million from General Catalyst and Bond and its existing investors Blackbird Ventures and Felicis Ventures, valuing Canva at A$2.5 billion.[16]
In October 2019, Canva announced that it had raised an additional A$85 million at a valuation of A$3.2 billion, and launched an enterprise product.[8]
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.[17]
In June 2020, Canva announced a partnership with FedEx Office[18] and the following month with Office Depot.[19] As of June 2020, Canva’s valuation had risen to A$6 billion.[20]
Data Breach
In May 2019, Canva experienced a data breach in which data of roughly 139 million users were hacked.[21] The exposed data included real names of users, usernames, addresses and geographical information, and password hashes for some users.[22] Canva’s handling of the breach from a technical perspective was largely commended, but it faced criticism for an initial email to customers, which buried the details below self-congratulatory marketing content.[23][24]
Acquisitions
In 2018, the company acquired presentations startup Zeetings for an undisclosed amount, as part of its expansion into the presentations space.[25]
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.[26]
In February 2021, Canva acquired Austrian startup Kaleido.ai and the Czech-based Smartmockups.[1]