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Melanie Perkins

Yesterday

Leonardo.AI co-founder and CEO JJ Fiasson is pictured with Canva co-founders Cliff Obrecht and Melanie Perkins after the deal was sealed.

It was called the ‘next Canva’, so Canva bought it

Canva has acquired AI design start-up Leonardo.AI in a surprise deal worth over $120 million. The ACCC is taking notice.

  • Staff reporter

May

Financial Review Rich List: Australia’s wealthiest people in 2024.

Australia’s wealthiest 200 now control $625b

Technology is back, resources rode a roller coaster and property growth returned, giving Australia’s Rich Listers an 11pc boost to their total fortune.

  • Updated
  • Yolanda Redrup and Michael Bailey
Canva co-founders Cliff Obrecht, Melanie Perkins and Cameron Adams.

‘If you don’t like it, get a job at a bank’: Canva boss

The design software giant’s all-singing, all-dancing debut event in Los Angeles came with a host of new features – and rumblings of a cost to its tired staff.

  • Nick Bonyhady
Canva’s revenue means it is valued at 11 times its revenue. Pictured, chief operating officer and co-founder Cliff Obrecht.

Canva, in the US, lifts the lid on its plan to win over Wall Street

It has hit $US2.3 billion revenue, but growth among individual users is slowing, so Canva is relying on big customers to keep its financials in IPO-shape.

  • Nick Bonyhady

April

Narendra Modi on stage with Prime Minister  Anthony Albanese in Sydney in May last year.

Macquarie, ANZ and Canva CEOs help power Australia’s India push

Governments hope to prevent another false dawn in bilateral trade and investment by getting business to work on policy.

  • James Eyers
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February

Keating’s list of business greats spans miners and property moguls

Keith Campbell, Rod Carnegie and Marius Kloppers were all praised by the prime minister who oversaw a period of great change in the Australian economy.

  • Michael Stutchbury

January

Canva co-founders Cliff Obrecht, Melanie Perkins and Cameron Adams seem to have their pick of investors as a lucrative share sale is close to closing.

Canva share sale booms as revenue races higher

Canva will raise over $1.5 billion in an upcoming sale of shares, with the company revealing that AI enthusiasm helped its revenue crack the $US2 billion mark.

  • Paul Smith

October 2023

Australia’s 100 richest people under 40 revealed

The Young Rich List, now in its 20th year, shows shop owners are thriving in another patchy year for tech founders, and there’s a new young billionaire in town.

  • Updated
  • Michael Bailey
Canva, led by co-founder and chief executive Melanie Perkins, has been one of the biggest successes for Australia’s venture capital sector.

Canva won’t list before 2025, but investors will still get rich soon

The graphic design software company is such a success that guessing when its IPO will be held has become a parlour game for the Australian technology sector.

  • Nick Bonyhady

September 2023

Australia’s five most powerful tech leaders for 2023

From a funding winter to cyberattacks and the rise of artificial intelligence, it has been a big year for Australian techies.

  • Paul Smith
Canva co-founders (from left) Cliff Obrecht, Cameron Adams and Melanie Perkins have signed an open letter supporting the Voice.

Why Canva’s Melanie Perkins is finally backing the Voice

Even some of Australia’s most progressive companies have been wary of endorsing the Voice as No campaigners seek to portray them as “elites”.

  • Nick Bonyhady

August 2023

The secondary sale of Canva stock by Blackbird Ventures has given some initial returns to super funds like Hostplus. Its co-founders are Cliff Obrecht, Melanie Perkins and Cameron Adams.

Super funds cash in as Blackbird sells down Canva stake

The company has been under scrutiny after local venture capital firms followed US investors in marking down their valuations by almost $US15 billion.

  • Paul Smith

July 2023

A screengrab from Founder: The Canva Story.

What Canva and SafetyCulture see when they look in the mirror

The promising start-ups star in a new self-made documentary, which gives an insight into how they seem themselves.

  • Mark Di Stefano
Liven co-founder Grace Wong says she hopes to be being described as the new Melanie Perkins in a year.

‘I’m the new Melanie Perkins’: Liven aims high with four acquisitions

Hospitality tech firm Liven has kept a relatively low profile for a tech start-up, but it has now completed a $152m acquisition spree and has big expectations.

  • Paul Smith

Tech party is over as Canva and Atlassian get tough, and perks dry up

After years of their firms topping best places to work lists with enviable perks, Canva, Atlassian and their tech peers are using tough rankings and jettisoning the niceties.

  • Mark Di Stefano, Jessica Sier and Nick Bonyhady
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June 2023


Andrew Forrest and wife Nicola have eclipsed Paul Ramsay to make the largest single charitable donation in Australian history.

Forrest mega-gift to cajole other billionaires to give more

The $5 billion donation from Andrew and Nicola Forrest to their Minderoo Foundation will likely serve as a powerful exemplar for Australia’s peer-conscious billionaires.

  • Michael Bailey

February 2023

Bill Gates watches the women’s semifinal of the Australian Open.

Inside Bill Gates’ $200 billion private dinner

The Microsoft founder secretly met with Australia’s richest tech billionaires to discuss how to give away their money.

  • Mark Di Stefano
Canva’s co-founder Cliff Obrecht finds the noise about the company’s valuation annoying. Sometimes.

‘We want to be accountable’: Canva on its struggle to give money away

The path to setting up one of the country’s largest philanthropic funds is complex, says Canva co-founder Cliff Obrecht.

  • Updated
  • Jemima Whyte
While Bill Gates has succeeded in many things, he finds it impossible to keep up with all the podcasts and TV shows he should be consuming.

What Bill Gates regrets and the best piece of advice he’s received

White Lotus and Drive to Survive are among the billionaire’s favourite streaming shows.

  • Paul Smith

January 2023

Bill Gates.

Australia’s ban on nuclear is ‘political’: Gates

The billionaire and climate advocate says the country might have to sit out the next 15 years of nuclear energy development because of political wrangling.

  • Paul Smith

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/person/melanie-perkins-1nbr