Canva launches new Creative OS as IPO plans remain under wraps

The tech unicorn has thrown down the gauntlet to Adobe, making a rival platform free while launching a souped-up, AI-powered creative system ahead of a potential IPO.

Canva co-founders Cameron Adams, Cliff Obrecht and Melanie Perkins. Picture: Supplied

Aussie tech unicorn Canva wants to capture more of the enterprise market before going public, launching a bevy of new products and making one key platform free for users in perpetuity.

Canva has today launched its Creative Operating System, building on its core suite of digital design tools with new products absorbed through acquisition, all powered by an upgraded artificial intelligence.

The digital design behemoth, valued at $US42bn ($64.8bn) as of August, continues to build on its user base as it seeks to undercut expensive design platforms like Adobe, with Canva now boasting 260 million-plus monthly active users, more than 29 million paying ‘seats’ (individual and enterprise customers combined) and $US3.5bn in revenue.

Key to its goal of democratising digital design, Photoshop rival Affinity, which Canva acquired for a reported $US380m in 2024, will now be free forever, says Canva.

Canva co-founder and chief operating officer Cliff Obrecht said the “huge disruption” of the professional design program industry was key to Canva’s mission statement.

“This is a huge kind of change in the industry,” he told The Australian before the launch. “We’re launching that entirely for free, and really bringing that creativity to the masses, where they’ve historically had to pay a lot of money for it, so it’s a huge disruption to the business model.

Canva has unveiled the Creative Operating System.

“(It) is a huge disruption in a market that is typically charged $500 a year for their software, right? And so giving that super powerful, I think, better, product away for free to the world is (because) we have that real belief that these tools should be accessible, and have historically been inaccessible.”

Among the products which make up the Creative Operating System are a revamped video content creation system, an email design product with the aim of simplifying the creation of mass email templates, and Canva Grow, an end-to-end advertising and marketing tool.

Canva Grow is born from the reported $22.5m acquisition of Sydney start-up Market Brief Canva completed in June. It allows both design and analytics of marketing materials, allowing users to switch up designs and campaigns based on how they’re performing far quicker than with traditional digital marketing platforms.

Mr Obrecht, who – combined with co-founder and wife, Canva chief executive Melanie Perkins – is worth $14.02bn according to The List – Australia’s Richest 250, stressed the need for inorganic growth targets to have the right culture to be part of Canva’s growing family.

“Culture is everything. If you’ve got a culture that is incompatible, you’re not going to get what you want done,” he said. “When we’re looking at acquisitions, you do kiss a lot of frogs and founder fit is important.

“Often what we like to acquire, and what works for Canva, is when a founder has a core mission like, ‘we want to democratise AI’, and they’ve done that to some degree. And what they’re struggling with is scale and distribution. So they see Canva as ‘one plus one equals 10’.”

Canva was founded in Perth in 2013.

Leonardo.ai, a Sydney start-up acquired by Canva this year for $250m, has helped Canva layer its AI over every aspect of its visual suite. Leonardo.ai founder JJ Fiasson is now heading up Canva’s AI efforts.

Where once Canva’s AI generators could make simple designs, with a high variance in actual quality, with just a few simple prompts design creators are now able to process more information at a higher clip – creating better designs.

AI is now across every aspect of Canva, running in the background and in the fore, with the new Ask Canva function able to respond to specific questions users may have about their designs.

Canva won’t be hiking prices. It is, however, adding a new Canva Business option which will “be at a higher price” than the base packages, according to Mr Obrecht.

The enterprise business makes up more than $US500m of Canva’s total $US3.5bn revenue, Mr Obrecht said.

“It is rapidly growing. It’s grown over two times last year, and it’s becoming increasingly important. So when it comes to enterprise and business, we are well and truly off to the races.”

Canva remains tight-lipped on the timing of a potential IPO.

“I mean, I think there’s enough proof points there where (those are) not what’s holding us back. We will list in the next couple of years most likely, just when we do that is still yet to be figured out.”

Originally published as Canva launches new Creative OS as IPO plans remain under wraps