Canva awarded ‘app of the year’

Sydney start-up darling Canva has been recognised on the world stage, with its Canva Stories app named one of the best apps of the year by tech giant Apple.

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

Sydney start-up darling Canva has been recognised on the world stage, with its Canva Stories app named one of the best apps of the year by tech giant Apple.

The award, announced in New York on Tuesday, puts design software maker Canva in illustrious company and comes fresh off a recent $US85m funding round for the start-up which is now valued at almost $5bn.

“Instagram stories are huge, and a lot of people are using them,” Canva’s mobile marketing lead Renee Psomadelis told The Australian. “Our app enables them to easily create content, we have hundreds of free templates and people are able to add videos to their stories really easily and you can animate them within the app itself.

“We had around 30,000 installs immediately, and overall our apps have been installed 40 million times.”

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Ms Psomadelis said Canva was quickly gaining recognition worldwide, and that the company’s success was proof Australia could produce world-class mobile apps.

“The App Store is on the rise in more traditional Android-heavy markets like India and Asia, and we’re starting to be recognised in those markets,” she said.

“Going forward we’ll be making it even easier to create stories and easier for our users to incorporate video content into what they’re doing.”

An Apple spokeswoman said Australia has 136,000 ‘app economy’ jobs as of January 2019 and that there are now more than 2.2 million apps in the app store.

“Developers around the world inspire us all with innovative apps that have the power to influence culture and change our lives, and this year that is as true as ever. The 2019 App Store Best Apps and Games winners reflect our global desire for connection, creativity and fun,” Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller said in a statement.

“We are excited to announce such a diverse group of 2019 App Store winners, showing that great design and creativity comes from developers large and small, and from every corner of the world.

“We congratulate all the winners and thank them for making 2019 the best year yet for the App Store.”

Apple also announced its first ever Apple Music awards, with Billie Eilish winning global artist of the year and Lizzo awarded breakthrough artist of the year.