Tech Talent Tuesday- Canva

Melanie Perkins, an Australian- Filipino, is the Co-founder & CEO of multi-billion dollar graphic design company Canva. She is one of the worlds youngest female tech CEO’s and made history recently as Australia’s richest woman under 40, at the age of just 34.

Melanie and her husband founded the company ten years ago from their living room in Perth- their mission was to “ empower everyone in the world to design anything and publish anywhere”. Melanie was inspired when facing difficulty and frustration teaching clunky graphic design software to students at a University in Perth. It now has 40 million active users who are able to use the platform to easily design beautiful graphics, posters, social media posts and videos.

The platform is free to use but also offers paid subscriptions with enhanced features and functionality. The company is valued at over $40 billion and the couple is worth $12 billion. Despite their vast success and wealth the couple has remained humble and place a huge emphasis on fundraising efforts.

Melanie has expressed how being referred to as a billionaire makes her uncomfortable and the couple has pledged to donate 30% of their Canva equity. The 'vast majority of their interests in the firm are going to their Canva Foundation charity which announced a program with non-profit GiveDirectly that will distribute $10 million to those in poverty in Southern Africa.

The company is moving in the ‘right direction’ with more plans to grow with Perkins expressing her desire for Canva to become one of the worlds most valuable companies. With their current success this desire is within reach, as well as being used by students, bloggers and marketers, the platform is becoming increasingly popular with multi-billion-dollar companies including Skyscanner and PayPal.

Perkins said “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.”

There is no stopping this power couple and the continued growth and success of one of this decade's most popular platforms.

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