Street Talk

Canva prepares secondary share sale after last year’s $US1.6b bonanza

Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport

Jun 17, 2025 – 7.39pm

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One of Australia’s most successful start-ups, graphic design software business Canva, is preparing to test its $US32 billion ($49 billion) valuation in a deal that is widely expected to be its last share sale as a privately held company.

Street Talk can reveal Canva’s founders, Melanie Perkins, Cliff Obrecht and Cameron Adams, are discussing a secondary sell-down with a handful of key shareholders. Sources said Canva will facilitate the share sale on behalf of early employees before Christmas, but it is early days, and it is yet to finalise the deal size or brief the wider shareholder register.

Sarah Thompson has co-edited Street Talk since 2009, specialising in private equity, investment banking, M&A and equity capital markets stories. Prior to that, she spent 10 years in London as a markets and M&A reporter at Bloomberg and Dow Jones.

Kanika Sood is a journalist based in Sydney who writes for the Street Talk column.

Emma Rapaport is a co-editor of the Street Talk column. Prior to that, she was a markets reporter at The Australian Financial Review.