Over the summer break, Startup daily is republishing some of its most read and favourite stories from 2025. Today it’s about Canva’s profitabilty, published in September. It’s just shy of 20 years since US political satirist Stephen Colbert coined the term ‘truthiness’. He described it as “something that seems like truth – the truth we… Read more »
Blackbird’s come-to-Jesus moment six months ago, when it tipped $60 million from its 2022 follow-on fund into Airwallex, is now being pitched to the VC’s investors as its rising star. Details from the annual Blackbird Ventures investor day were leaked to Capital Brief’s Bronwen Clune, and included details of Canva’s performance, with the VC flagging… Read more »
Australian design unicorn Canva has unveiled its biggest product overhaul in its 12 years, as part of what it is calling its ‘Creative Operating System’. The blockbuster new system features Canva’s own large language model trained specifically for design, and permanently free access to the Affinity professional design tool, and new features to help you… Read more »
It’s just shy of 20 years since US political satirist Stephen Colbert coined the term ‘truthiness’. He described it as “something that seems like truth – the truth we want to exist”. In corporate circles, there’s a fiscal truthiness where everyone’s wealthy and successful right up until the moment they lodge tax filings with the… Read more »
Design platform Canva has revalued itself at $65 billion, up 14.5% on just six weeks ago, as employees look to sell their stakes in a secondary share sale. The confirmation from cofounder Cliff Obrecht came after news leaked earlier this week that VC investors Blackbird and Square Peg had increased the valuations to $US42 billion… Read more »
News emerged this week that Canva was looking at another secondary share sale, worth up to US$500 million (A$762m) with its valuation increasing by more than 15% to US$37 billion (A$56.2bn). It seem surprising with a US listing on the Nasdaq expected as soon as 2026. But in breaking the news The Information reported that… Read more »
VCs might be used to cold calls from startups seeking cash, but as takeover offers go, the WhatsApp MagicBrief cofounder George Howes received from Canva’s billionaire cofounder Cliff Obrecht was unexpected. Howes was at Sydney airport last month ready to move to the UK and launch his advertising tech platform there when the request to meet… Read more »
Graphic design software giant Canva says it faced “internal concerns” after deciding applicants for many software development roles must use AI-assisted coding tools during technical interviews as part of the company’s recruitment process. The change was publicly announced on Wednesday by the Australian firm’s head of platforms, Simon Newton, in a blog post titled, “Yes,… Read more »
Back in 2023, SafetyCulture founder Luke Anear had a vision – a four-part documentary series with profiling the founders of some of Australia’s most successful tech companies, including himself. It was an insight into the highs and lows and drama of local startup life, which was released as a pay-per-view on Apple TV, Prime… Read more »
Canva is getting into the spreadsheet business as the software giant looks to move beyond pretty graphics to workplace productivity tools and take on enterprise software giants like Google. The 13-year-old design platform’s annual product song and dance show, the fourth Canva Create – this year themed as “Uncharted” – also revealed that annual revenue… Read more »
Most of Canva’s technical writing team has been laid off as the company continues to expand its use of artificial intelligence, but the graphic design giant does not see the redundancies as a result of its increasing AI use. Technical writers are typically responsible for writing and updating documents such as guides and manuals for… Read more »
Entrepreneur, mother and billionaire Melanie Perkins has been taking stock of her working life and goals for the year ahead, admitting that she got it wrong when she “used to work seven days a week, barely pausing to breathe, thinking it was the only way to succeed”. Perkins revealed the lessons she’d learned to maintain… Read more »
Innovation means different things to different people, but the most important thing when it comes to product development is to have a clear vision, according to Canva’s Head of Design, Andrew Green. “‘We think pretty deeply about our roadmap, and for all the founders out there, I think that one interesting aspect of [Canva cofounder… Read more »
More than nine months after the sudden departure of Canva’s chief financial officer, after nearly 8 years, the graphic design giant has found his replacement with Zoom’s Texas-based CFO, Kelly Steckelberg, signing on later this month. Steckelberg took Zoom to its public listing on the Nasdaq in 2019. She was previously CEO of online dating… Read more »
Design platform Canva has seen the company’s valuation soar by nearly a quarter to A$48.7 billion in the latest sale of its shares on the secondary market. The global business, which is heading to a public listing in the US next year, saw its valuation rise by US$6 billion (A$9.1bn) to hit US$32 billion with… Read more »
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