Canva expands into Europe with acquisition of UK start-up Flourish
Start-up success story Canva is setting its sights on Europe, acquiring UK-based data visualisation start-up Flourish for an undisclosed sum.
Start-up success story Canva is setting its sights on Europe, acquiring UK-based data visualisation start-up Flourish for an undisclosed sum.
Canva, which last year broke records as the fastest-growing company in Australian history when it was most recently valued at $US40bn, more than Telstra and Woolworths, has just passed more than 75 million active users, and is now looking to increase its presence across Europe.
The company has increased its monthly active user base by more than 30 million in the past 12 months, with bumper demand coming from a widespread shift towards remote work and collaboration. Workers have been using Canva’s tools to create online designs, videos, presentations and Instagram posts.
“Data storytelling has emerged as an increasingly critical part of visual communication for teams across almost every industry,” Canva co-founder and CEO Melanie Perkins said.
“Our acquisition of Flourish marks the latest step in our mission to empower the world to design. We’re incredibly excited to welcome their talented team to the Canva family as we work together to combine their world-leading data visualisation technology with the Canva magic our community know and love.”
The UK-based Flourish was founded in 2016 and has more than 9.5 million visualisations on its platform, attracting more than 20 billion views to date. Canva’s acquisition gives it instant teams across Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany and the UK, with Flourish’s team of 44 staff joining the Australian company.
“Canva has had quite a transformation over the past 18 months,” Canva head of product Rob Kawalsky said.
“We have become a core tool for enterprises. We’ve had a huge Christmas and now around 800,000 teams are using our software. Visual communication is now a core skill for knowledge workers.
“I think this is going to be another standout year. Revenue continues to more than double every year and we’re coming of age as a collaboration tool.
“I couldn’t be more excited about this year.”
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