Even among the $10 billion-plus companies, Canva, an Australian graphic design business, is an anomaly. The company said on Tuesday that it had raised $200 million in investment, valuing the company at a staggering $40 billion. Not only does this make the company the most valuable software startup in the world, but it also makes it the most valuable female-founded and female-led venture in the world.
Boosted by the need for online collaboration tools during the pandemic, the company has won over customers by effectively being a more user-friendly Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Powerpoint, and Adobe Acrobat—allowing users to more easily create a pitch deck, for example, that is as attractive on an iPhone as it is on the big screen, and allowing creators to doodle on the fly.
Melanie Perkins, the company’s CEO, and co-founder describes the company’s next area of focus in such a way that it explains why it has been so successful. The Adobe and Microsoft suites have been around for decades, and they haven’t evolved much in that time.
