Start-up billionaires to spread wealth
AUSTRALIAN online graphic design company Canva has just been valued at an eye-watering $55bn – and two of the young owners are planning to give away almost all of their $16.4bn share.
The mind-boggling figures for the high-flying Sydney-based start-up were the result of a fresh valuation of the company’s worth, as it raised $273m in new capital on Wednesday.
Canva is a rags-to-riches success story of three Australians – Cameron Adams and married couple Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht – who created an online rival to Photoshop in 2013 after seeing a gap in the market.
They now have 1200 staff in Sydney, 80 more around the globe and are the world’s fifth most valuable tech startup, after companies such as TikTok.
In fact, with a valuation of $55bn, Canva, which is free to use, has become the most valuable private consumer software company in history.
Yet Ms Perkins, 34, who is also the chief executive, is still not comfortable thinking of herself as a billionaire, let alone the fact she has become Australia’s second richest woman.
“It has felt strange when people refer to us as ‘billionaires’ as it has never felt like our money, we’ve always felt that we’re purely custodians of it,” she said. “As we’ve previously shared, it’s long been our intention to give the wealth away, and we’ve been thinking long and hard about the best way to start that journey.”
She described the new capital raising as a “milestone” and a “vote of confidence”.
“While Canva’s equity has grown, our intention has always been to use the vast majority of that wealth to do
good in the world,” Ms Perkins said.
Along with partner Cliff Obrecht, Ms Perkins said they would commit the vast majority of their equity, which is about 30 per cent of Canva, to charitable causes through the Canva Foundation.
Canva raised $US200m ($A273m) from selling new shares to investors and will use the money to hire more staff.
Every day more than 60 million people use its online technologies, which enable people to make their own presentations, videos, logos and social media posts every month across 190 countries.
The company said it believes “visual communication” has emerged as a universal need across almost all industries.
The revenues are on track to hit more than $1.36bn on an annual basis by the end of this year.
Mr Obrecht, who married Ms Perkins in January, said he was committed to giving away his money “to make the world a better place”.
“With running such a large company with such a significant valuation now, it’s an obligation on us to use that to be a force for good and make the world a better place, rather than just hoard s---,” he said.
“There’s only so many beds you can sleep in on any one night, and only so many steak dinners you can have.”
Alister Coleman, managing partner at Australian venture capital outfit Folklore, said the world was recognising that Australians can produce very valuable start-ups, disproving sceptics.
He said that over the past 20 years, Australians had created more than $330bn of shareholder value from software start-ups like Canva.
Our intention has always been to use the vast majority of that wealth to do good in the world Melanie Perkins