How Canva founder Melanie Perkins became Australia’s 3rd richest woman

Melanie Perkins is now Australia’s third richest woman but you wouldn’t know it – her fiance proposed with a $30 ring.

She’s now Australia’s third richest woman but few would know Melanie Perkins started her multi-billion dollar empire in her mother’s Perth loungeroom.

Canva – a hugely successful digital graphics business Ms Perkins founded with now fiance Cliff Obrecht – had humble beginnings and was initially started as a way for schools to create high school yearbooks more seamlessly.

Ms Perkins, then 19, had been teaching basic computer design as part of her communications and commerce studies at the University of Western Australia when she realised how tricky designing and printing something could be.

She wanted to make design really simple.

In 2007, with a final semester of university left, she put her studies on hold to focus on Fusion Yearbooks which would later expand to 400 schools, some as far away as France.

When the company got their first $100 cheque they realised people were prepared to pay for what they had created.

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Cliff Obrecht when he was just 22 and Melanie Perkins at 21 when they ran Fusion Yearbooks.

But they weren’t going to get far without venture funding, which was a whole new world to them.

It was Silicon Valley venture capitalist Bill Tai who opened up her eyes to that world.

Mr Tai would become one of her first backers, alongside Hollywood actors Woody Harrelson and Owen Wilson.

Mr Tai, who founded MaiTai, which started as a gathering of tech executives who liked water sports, was in Perth in 2010 for Innovator of the Year awards where Ms Perkins and her boyfriend were presenting Fusion Yearbooks.

The couple are now billionaires.

Mr Tai had backed TweetDeck and Zoom and Ms Perkins and Mr Obrecht found out he was hosting a dinner where they ambushed attendees with a pitch for Canvas Chef.

Not “the most stylish analogy”, Canvas Chef was a metaphorical pizza with design being the toppings, and document types, be it a flyer, business card or restaurant menu, the dough.

While the pitch didn’t result in any funding success, the couple saw a new opportunity – kitesurfing.

The MaiTai community is made up of extreme athletes, innovators and entrepreneurs and investors that live life hard – and Mr Tai is one of them.

The couple started attending Mr Tai’s MaiTai gatherings which proved a good way to get time with the players they needed in Silicon Valley.

In May 2013, Ms Perkins was stuck waiting to be rescued in a channel between billionaire Richard Branson’s private Necker and Moskito islands, but knew her knew dangerous hobby was worth it.

“It was like, risk: serious damage; reward: start company,” she told Forbes.

“If you get your foot in the door just a tiny bit, you have to kind of wedge it all the way in.”

Ms Perkins has remained humble during her company’s rise.

Canva closed its first funding round of $3 million in early 2013 and launched in August that year to just a few users and a couple of reviews on tech blogs.

The team was dejected but the rise of Instagram and Twitter would change that.

People wanted to look good on social media and they needed an easy and affordable way to do so.

By October 30, 2014, Canva had reached one million users.

Now more than 20 million people from 190 countries use it – largely for free – with the company’s revenue coming from upselling to a $10-a-month premium version with snazzier features and sales of corporate accounts.

It’s success has led to Canva adding another $US60 million to its valuation in its latest investor round, which reportedly rocketed to a total of $US6 billion ($A8.77 billion).

It is now believed that Ms Perkins and Mr Obrecht’s stake in the business is worth about $2.5 billion, doubling Ms Perkins’ wealth and making her the third richest woman in the country.

Canva surged in value during the coronavirus crisis with huge portion professionals forced to work from home.

Remaining down-to-earth the entire time their company has grown, you wouldn’t know Ms Perkins and Mr Obrecht are billionaires.

Mr Obrecht proposed with a $30 ring and Ms Perkins still makes her own coffee and lunches with her staff each day.

Prominent Australian businessman Daniel Petre has said if there is something more unique than a unicorn, it is Ms Perkins.

Originally published as How Canva founder Melanie Perkins became Australia’s 3rd richest woman