Australian graphic design software “unicorn” Canva has revealed its products are now used by more than 100 million people each month, just weeks after its longstanding rival Adobe moved to secure its dominance by buying a smaller competitor.
In a blog post on Thursday, Canva will announce it has added 15 million users since the launch of new productivity tools last month, pushing its monthly active user base beyond 100 million.
“It took nearly three years for us to reach the milestone of one million people using Canva, and another two years after that for us to hit ten million,” Canva’s billionaire co-founder and chief executive Melanie Perkins said in a draft blog post distributed to media. “Today, reaching the milestone of more than one hundred million people using Canva every month still feels incredibly surreal.”
Two of the three Canva co-founders Cliff Obrecht and Melanie Perkins celebrate on stage at an event in Sydney last month.Credit:Louie Douvis
Adobe, the $US132 billion ($211 billion) firm that has dominated the graphic design software market for decades with its Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign products, last month agreed to acquire software design start-up Figma for about $US20 billion.
The deal, which has not been completed, has been widely interpreted as a move by Adobe to protect its business from the rapid growth of online-first rivals led by Canva.
A spokeswoman said Canva was taking in more than $US1 billion in annual recurring revenue and now has 11 million paying users. Its tools are commonly used to create things like images for social media, mindmaps for projects and presentations.
Canva’s fortunes are crucial to Australia’s broader start-up sector. The company employs more than 3200 people and enjoyed rapid growth in its valuation to a peak last year of $US40 billion ($57 billion). That generated extraordinary paper returns to the venture capital funds that held it, boosting their reputations and encouraging more investment in the sector.
But the three major Australian venture capital funds that hold Canva stock – Blackbird, Airtree and Square Peg – cut its value to $US26 billion ($37 billion) in late July, reflecting a downturn in tech stocks triggered by rising inflation and economic turmoil.