Melanie Perkins, Founder of Canva: Success story

Melanie Perkins, the woman who founded Canva, has an interesting and motivating backstory. Here's a look.

Melanie Perkins, founder of Canva, foresaw the future of design eleven years ago, and it was cost-free. As a co-founder of Canva, an online platform that enables users to generate complex visual layouts, Perkins has made design accessible to people who aren’t familiar with tools like Photoshop.

While Perkins was a 19-year-old university student, she established her first startup, Fusion Books. That undertaking assisted schools in producing their yearbooks. She and co-founder Cliff Obrecht recognised the greater potential of a website that allowed users to modify designs for diverse requirements.

Canva is one of the most valued female-led startups in the world. The company raised $200 million in cash and declared a $40 billion valuation in September 2021.

Former figure skater Perkins attributes her desire to start her own business to her first venture, which sold handcrafted scarves. She became aware of the challenges students encountered when learning design software like Adobe Photoshop, which inspired her to develop Canva as a user-friendly design platform available to everyone, regardless of technical proficiency.

Forbes recognised Melanie Perkins as one of the “Top Under 30 of the Decade” in 2020. With a net worth of A$3.43 billion, Perkins debuted on The Australian Financial Review Rich List in 2020. She and Obrecht were ranked as the tenth wealthiest Australians by The Australian Financial Review as of May 2021, with a combined net worth of A$7.98 billion. According to a Forbes Report, the Canva founders’ projected net worth as of January 31, 2022, is A$9.21 billion (US$6.5 billion).