From desiging school to make a $50 billion dollar company.

If you are a digital person like me, then you need some basic design, right? Or if you are a college/university student, then you have also experienced designing something. For the last 3 years, whenever I needed a basic design, I never contacted my designer friend who designs with Adobe or other high-quality software. But I think, in the current situation, anyone who knows how to use software is a basic designer.

I think you already recognize that software—yes, I was talking about Canva. An excellent software that made a huge impact in the design industry. Now, anyone can design something basic with Canva. Anytime I need a poster, logo design, or presentation for my business or anything, I use Canva, and it’s absolutely free. Yes, they have a paid plan, but most of the features are free.

How it started:

I believe that big innovations or businesses start with a simple, unique thought, and the main concern of every startup is to solve a problem. There was a quote I read, and I just remembered it now: “The bigger the problem you solve, the more money you will earn.”

Canva’s co-founder and CEO Melanie Perkins was teaching at a design school in Perth, Australia. She was 19 years old when she started her first business called Fusion Books. It’s a website where you can read any type of books you need. It is still a big business running in Australia. Apart from this, when Perkins was teaching at her design school, she found out that not every student or every person in this world is capable of designing something. But they have to design out of necessity. So, their initial USP was to create the best software where anyone could design anything they wanted in a simple way. They just wanted to make software where even a beginner could design to the best of their ability. From students to employees or even employers, anyone who needs to design something can easily do it.

Then Perkins moved to the USA to make her dream come true. There, she introduced her current finance partner and co-founder, Cliff Obrecht. They started everything they had. They had no money to rent an office for their company, so they started their business in Perkins’ mom’s living room.

They always tried to make Canva accessible for everyone who can easily use it. The user experience of Canva is fantastic and excellent at retaining users, making them use it every time they need it.

Raising Funds:

Every startup needs a big amount of funding, from seed level to different rounds, whenever they need to expand their business. They raised their first funding from Bill Tai to close a deal worth almost $2.5 million. Bill Tai is a Chinese entrepreneur who has a water skiing business. Perkins met him through a conference in Perth, Australia. When Perkins had the chance to meet Bill Tai in person with her idea, she succeeded. She won Bill Tai’s support and raised their company’s first funding of almost $1.5 million.

Till now, Canva has raised almost $777 million across 14 rounds of funding. As of December 2024, Canva’s total valuation is almost $49 billion globally. Just imagine the number!

Business Strategy and Growth:

Canva started its journey back in 2012. In the last almost 12 years, they have grown their business from $0 to almost $50 million with a total of $777 million in funding. They raised funds from individual investors and big companies like Stack Capital and Goldman Sachs. They always try to give 100% to make their customers happy and improve retention.

Initially, Canva ran different types of marketing ads on Meta, including paid ads and influencer promotions. Then, as they grew, they realized that the best marketing tool was word of mouth. When you give your customers 100% of your capability and make them happy and satisfied, they will start marketing your product. This is the best way they use as a marketing campaign. Once someone uses Canva, they always recommend it to others because of its user experience, accessibility, best features, and the fact that most of them are free. You can also use it on mobile, and it has the best features.

In 2012, Canva raised almost $3 million in seed funding, including a matching grant from the Australian government, where $1.5 million was Bill Tai’s contribution.

In 2020, Canva’s valuation was $6 billion dollar. 

In 2021, Canva’s valuation jumped to $40 billion after a $200 million funding round.

In 2022, Canva’s valuation leveled off at $26 billion dollar. 

In 2024, Canva’s valuation reached at $49 billion dollar. 

Since 2024, Canva has had over 130 million active users on PC and mobile. Canva reached 100 million users in October 2022, with almost 75 million active monthly users.

This is the growth chart of Canva, showing how fast they grew.

Also, Woody Harrelson and Owen Wilson are attached to Canva, having invested almost $15 million. This is one way they find the best influencers to help with branding. Canva also partnered with TikTok for marketing. There was a myth that Canva was acquired by TikTok, but it is not true. Canva is now growing rapidly, not only with money and investments but also by building the best team for global expansion. They have 3 headquarters in different areas: Manila, Perth, and Texas. So, a business is growing because of its best team. As a CEO, you have to put someone in a position who can lead the role better than you.

Competition:

Every single business or startup has its competitors in the market. You just have to beat the competition, like Canva did. Canva’s biggest competitors are no joke—Microsoft and Adobe. Just imagine when two big giants are leading the design sector, Canva saw the opportunity, stepped in, and conquered. It’s just like that now—Microsoft and Adobe also use Canva for basic designs.

So, whenever you see competition in the market, either you beat the competition or win, or you will die.

A Final Thought:

Just imagine a single 24-year-old woman thought that design is very tough for some people, including schoolchildren. So, she just wanted to create software for people to use, absolutely free. Now, she is one of the youngest billionaires, with a net worth of $6.5 billion.

So, every business idea, whether big or small, sometimes we should just think about it and start with what we have. Thank you for being with us. See you in the next case study.