Aussie mates create Canva which is now worth $54.5 billion

Two Aussies never could have imagined that an idea touted around in their living room while at university would secure their status as multibillionaires.

Two Aussie mates never could have imagined that an idea touted around in their living room as 19-year-old university students would secure their status as multibillionaires just 15 years later.

But that’s exactly what happened on Wednesday for university sweethearts Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht, now aged 34 and 35 respectively.

Ms Perkins was studying at a Perth university and teaching other students design programs to earn extra cash.

She noticed her students struggling to learn complex graphic design systems like Photoshop and thought there had to be a better way.

Ms Perkins went on to create Canva, an easy-to-use graphics design program that had 60 million customers at the time of writing.

Her then-partner who she married earlier this year, Cliff Obrecht, became a co-founder. Tasmanian software designer Cameron Adams was also brought on board and is the third co-founder of Canva.

On Wednesday, Canva was valued at a staggering $US40 billion ($A54.5 billion).

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

The $A54.5 billion valuation is impressive especially when considering that Canva has more than doubled its worth since April, when it was valued at an estimated $A19 billion.

Canva’s figures jumped dramatically after a $US200 million funding round.

Investment firms T. Rowe Price, Franklin Templeton, Sequoia, Bessemer Venture Partners, Greenoaks Capital, Dragoneer, Felicis Ventures and Australian venture firms Blackbird Ventures and AirTree Ventures were behind the capital raising.

Ms Perkins said the fundraising was a testament to the “vote of confidence” from their investors.

The cash injection comes as Canva garnered 60 million monthly active users across 190 countries, with over 2000 employees.

Mr Adams has a stake in Canva worth an estimated $A6 billion while husband and wife duo Ms Perkins and Mr Obrecht hold a 30 per cent stake, so they now have over $A16 billion between them.

Ms Perkins announced the news in a blog post, but in a surprising twist, she plans to give away a substantial chunk of her fortune to charity.

Melanie Perkins, the CEO of Canva.

Ms Perkins and her husband announced they were going to give away “the vast majority” of their A$16 billion, to charity.

“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,” Ms Perkins wrote.

“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.

“We are very pleased to share the news that Cliff and I will be committing the vast majority of our equity (30 per cent of Canva) to do good in the world, and plan to do this through the Canva Foundation.”

The money is earmarked for GiveDirectly, a charity pilot program that will give away $US10 million to struggling nations in the south of Africa.

The tech company already gave money to charity prior to the announcement.

They were part of the “1 per cent pledged” where they gave 1 per cent of their equity, profit, time and product to those in need.