Canva co-founders’ Cliff Obrecht and Mel Perkins’ wealth nears $20bn as valuation soars 30pc

The tech success story’s meteoric rise has continued after securing JP Morgan as a new investor, rocketing its valuation to more $65.2bn.

The wealth of Canva founders Cliff Obrecht, Mel Perkins and Cameron Adams has soared by billions of dollars.

The combined wealth of two of Canva’s co-founders, Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht, is approaching $20bn after the valuation of the visual art darling soared more than 30 per cent.

Canva has added a further $US10bn ($15.5bn) to its valuation after it launched an employee share tender offer and added JP Morgan Asset Management as a new investor.

It launched the offer – which involves employees selling their shares – at a valuation of $US42bn, which is up from $US32bn last year, “following strong demand from new and existing investors”.

Mr Obrecht, who is also Canva’s chief operating officer, said the company was now “one of the most widely used platforms on the internet, with more than 240 million designing with Canva each month”.

This round is being led by Fidelity, an existing shareholder, while JP Morgan Asset Management and Wellington Management round out the register as its newest backers.

It has pushed Ms Perkins and Mr Obrecht’s combined wealth from $13.42bn to close to $20bn.

Their Tasmania-based co-founder Cameron Adams’ wealth has surged to almost $6.5bn.

Canva co-founder and COO Cliff Obrecht has seen his wealth rocket.

It has been a big past few years for Ms Perkins and Mr Obrecht, who married on Rottnest Island in 2021 and welcomed their first child in 2022.

Mr Adams and his wife Lisa Miller, meanwhile, are giving away more than half their fortune to help fund “urgent environmental issues”, and are encouraging other businesses to do the same.

“This round has been significantly oversubscribed, which is a huge testament to the incredible work of our team and the impact Canva is having around the world,” Mr Obrecht said.

“The overwhelming demand from both new and existing investors is a huge vote of confidence in our momentum and the scale of what still lies ahead. We really do believe we’re just 1 per cent of the way there, and that the best is yet to come.”

Canva had an oversubscribed share sale in April last year, which made some staff instant millionaires.

Mr Obrecht said Canva was generating $US3.3bn in annualised revenue, 27 million paid seats, “strong cash reserves, and has been profitable for the last eight years”.

In the past year, Canva has launched Canva Code, Canva Sheets and a wave of new AI tools, with capabilities like cinematic video and powerful design generation.

It redesigned its entire platform to take on the lucrative enterprise market and turbocharge its revenue as investors anticipate a much-hyped public float.

“Our enterprise business has more than doubled, with multiple $1m-plus enterprise deals signed, and we’ve completed key acquisitions like Leonardo.AI and MagicBrief to accelerate our product innovation,” Mr Obrecht said.

“Our products are used by more than 95 per cent of the Fortune 500, and our AI tools have been used more than 20 billion times, making Canva one of the fastest-growing AI products.”

But the founders are not in a rush to follow Atlassian in a US-style listing, despite saying that it would be a “natural evolution”.

Felise Agranoff, portfolio manager for the US equity group at JP Morgan Asset Management, said Canva stood out in the design sector and would help create long-term value for investors.

“Identifying companies that can provide investors with pivotal exposure to breakthrough work in AI is an important pillar of our research in active management,” Ms Agranoff said.

Consumer sector lead for Wellington Management, Cindy Cheng, said: “Canva is a recognised leader in design and productivity”.

“The team has introduced rapid innovations in AI and design, and we are supportive of their ongoing efforts to unlock potential through the continued development of new solutions.”

Rick Backer, partner at early Canva backer Blackbird - which revalued its stake by 14.5 per cent this week before the share sale - said there was still plenty to be excited about the company.

“It has a huge product pipeline as it grows into a true AI first platform and continues to expand its product reach. Expect more innovative releases that will transform the way we approach design,” he said.“It’s great to see the Canva team getting credit for all their work through this tender offer and it’s another great indication of the maturing Aussie tech ecosystem.”