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Canva, the Australian design software developer that competes with Adobe and Figma, has launched a share sale programme for its staff that it said valued the company at $42bn.
The Sydney-based company said on Wednesday that demand came from existing shareholders and new investors including JPMorgan Asset Management.
Founded in 2013, Canva develops web-based design software that is widely used in schools and large companies to prepare presentations. It is one of Australia’s most valuable technology companies, alongside enterprise software developer Atlassian, and is backed by the country’s main venture capital funds including Blackbird, Square Peg and Airtree.
Its latest share sale boosts its valuation from $32bn last October and comes after its rival Figma listed in the US last month, spurring rumours that Canva may be plotting an initial public offering soon.
The company said in June it had 240mn active users a month and annualised revenue — a metric used by start-ups to project full-year revenue based on a recent month’s sales — of $3.3bn.
Figma made $749mn in revenue last year and had 13mn active users a month in the first quarter of this year, according to its IPO filing. The company priced its shares at $33, and the stock now trades at $69.41, valuing it at $34bn.
The Australian company has not commented on its listing plans but has long been expected to float on the Nasdaq, following in the footsteps of Atlassian.
It has increased its US presence in recent years and appointed Kelly Steckelberg as its chief financial officer late last year. She held the same role at video conferencing company Zoom when it floated in 2019.
Cliff Obrecht, chief operating officer and one of the founders of Canva, said on Wednesday: “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.”
The company has been expanding into artificial intelligence tools. Last year it acquired Australia’s Leonardo AI, which has built a platform that generates images from written prompts.
Canva was valued at $40bn in 2021 when T Rowe Price led an investment round that included Sequoia Capital Global Equities and Franklin Templeton. However, some shareholders marked down its value to $25bn a year later as the pandemic hit tech valuations.
