What is Canva?
Canva is an online graphic design platform founded in Sydney in 2013 by Melanie Perkins, Cliff Obrecht and Cameron Adams. It lets people create presentations, posters, social media graphics and more using templates.
Perkins came up with the idea while teaching design programs to university students in Perth, noticing how hard traditional software was to learn. She and Obrecht first built Fusion Books, a tool for designing school yearbooks.
After many rejections from investors, they launched Canva in 2013 with technical co-founder Cameron Adams, a former Google engineer. Its drag-and-drop tools made design easy for people without training.
Global success
Canva grew rapidly, gaining tens of millions of users in many countries. It became one of the world's most valuable privately owned start-ups, and Perkins became one of Australia's richest women.
Canva offers a free version and paid plans for individuals, schools and businesses. It also bought other design companies and added video editing, websites and artificial intelligence tools.
Perkins and Obrecht have pledged to give most of their wealth to charity through the Canva Foundation. The company's headquarters remain in Sydney.
Did You Know?
Melanie Perkins was in her early twenties when she first had the idea for Canva.