Canva expands product range in 2020 push for new markets

New features will bring new markets, with 2020 expected to be ‘critical’ for design start-up, Canva.

Canva’s CEO and co-founder Melanie Perkins.

The new year is shaping up to be critical for Sydney design start-up Canva, which was recently valued at $US3.2bn and on Friday lifted the lid a number of new features including Canva Video.

At a flashy launch event at Luna Park in Sydney, Canva executives detailed the company’s plans for 2020, including a new app store – dubbed Canva Apps – a dedicated program for schools known as Canva for Education, and a new tool for video creation.

The software company is also making a play in the physical retail space, unveiling a physical kiosk it’s calling the Canva Design Lab, which will launch early next year in the US and Australia.

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Users can create a design, upload their own content and print the finished product at a physical Design Lab kiosk at a retail store.

Cameron Adams, co-founder of Australian tech company Canva. Picture: Britta Campion

“2020 is a big year, it’s a real moment of change for us,” company co-founder and chief product officer Cameron Adams told The Australian.

“I think particularly with what’s happening with video, it really does feel like the evolution of design, and where design is heading in the next few years.”

Canva, which is rumoured to be mulling an IPO and recently passed 2 billion designs created on the platform, also on Friday announced it’s joining the “Pledge 1%” program co-founded by Atlassian’s Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar.

Companies in the program donate 1 per cent of their equity, time, product and profit to charity.

“It feels like a big moment for us not just with our products, but the positive impact we can have on the world, given we’re joining the program,” Mr Adam said.

“We’re starting to think about how we can use our products, our time and our money to do good things in the world, particularly when it comes to education, and helping non-profits to scale up their impact as well.”

Just how much profit Canva donates is unknown, give it has not posted its results to the regulator since 2017. The design company’s last published results indicated a $1.8m after-tax profit for the six months to December 31, 2017, and the company says it is profitable.

As The Australian exclusively revealed Mr Adams recently joined the board of an ASX-listed e-sports company, but he told The Australian he remains 100 per cent focused on the company he co-founded.

“I won’t be splintering my focus too much,” he said. “It’s an interesting thing seeing how other teams work, and we can definitely help each other. We know how to do certain things, and getting involved with them has been pretty rewarding.”

He added that Australia’s start-up scene is almost unrecognisable today from when Canva was founded about eight years ago.

“It’s gotten so much better,” he said. “In 2012 we were scraping around trying to find funding and going to the US, and now the whole scene here is flourishing. Not only the number of start-ups, too, but the number of people who have great ideas, and the number of great teams who are building things.

“It’s great to see companies like us and Atlassian have really helped create this ecosystem.”

David Swan travelled to Sydney as a guest of Canva.