CNBC Disruptor 50

3. Canva

Founders: Melanie Perkins (CEO), Cliff Obrecht, Cameron Adams
Launched: 2012
Headquarters: Sydney, Australia
Funding:
$581 million
Valuation: $40 billion
Key technologies:
AI
Industry:
Enterprise technology
Previous appearances on Disruptor 50 List: 1 (No. 4 in 2022)

Persephone Kavallines

From Disney CEO Bob Iger taking an investment stake and becoming an adviser to reaching $1 billion in annual revenue, Australian graphic design company Canva has continued to hit high marks.

This past year saw Canva take a major step in broadening out its product features to a platform of visual communications in text, visuals, and productivity tools across websites, whiteboards, documents and developer marketplaces. This worksuite has put Canva more directly in competition with offerings by Microsoft and Google in addition to design heavyweight rival Adobe. Microsoft launched its rival Designer tool last October. Additionally, Canva is competing with startup Berlin-based Kittl that is angling for a piece of this growing market for creating graphics, posters and banners.  

In November 2022, Canva took a leap by entering the AI race and introducing AI-powered tools. Its Text-to-Image feature applies images to designs. Its Magic Write feature generates copywriting suggestions and helps fight writer's block.

These efforts has helped the Sydney-based company climb to more than 110 million monthly users, a jump from 75 million in 2021. Canva is also innovating in the enterprise market. Its Canva for Teams paid app has reached 5.8 million subscribers. Canva continues to serve major enterprise customers including Zoom, FedEx and Salesforce.  

CEO Melanie Perkins founded the startup with her husband, Cliff Obrecht, along with chief product officer Cameron Adams. From its Sydney base, the team has grown to 3,400 people in Asia and Europe as well as San Francisco and Austin. In this uncertain economic climate, Canva is focusing on upskilling current employees numbering more than 1,000, and creating new opportunities internally.

The graphic design market globally is growing steadily and currently stands at about $45 billion. Founded in 2012, Canva has reached profitability for the sixth year in a row and achieved high growth for several successive years. Now at a more mature phase, Canva is keen on prioritizing key businesses and doing fewer things well.

One area of focus is the education market. Canva counts 30 million students and teachers using its offerings.

CNBC's 2023 Disruptor 50 List Unveiled
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The Canva leaders have lured venture capital from prominent Silicon Valley firms including Sequoia Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners and Founders Fund as well as T. Rowe Price and Franklin Templeton Investments. Canva first became a unicorn-valued company in 2018, with a $40 million investment valued at $1 billion. By 2021, it had reached a valuation of $40 billion, though that valuation may have taken a hit given more recent investor reassessment of startup financing. Design startup Figma was acquired by Adobe in late 2022 for $20 billion. An IPO or an acquisition of Canva could be a next step.  

Striving to become one of the world's most valuable companies, Canva also intends to be "a force for good," with a majority of the education market segment using its visual collaboration and communications service for free. Canva also is offering its design features to nonprofit organizations at no cost.  

On another front, Canva is tackling climate change by participating in an initiative to accelerate carbon removal in a group of other forward-thinking companies. In keeping with this social mission, the founders are donating a majority of their 30% equity in Canva to do good for the world.

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