Canva Valuation Soars to $65B After Employee Share Sale

Canva, the Australian design software startup, has raised its valuation to $42 billion following an oversubscribed employee stock sale involving both new and existing investors, including Fidelity and JP Morgan Asset Management. This marks a more than 30% increase from its previous $32 billion valuation and reflects strong investor confidence in Canva's growth, particularly its AI-driven enhancements to its design tools. The company boasts over 240 million monthly active users, 27 million paying subscribers, $3.3 billion in annualized revenue, and has been profitable for eight consecutive years. Canva is positioning itself to compete with industry leaders like Adobe and Figma by leveraging AI products such as a conversational AI photo editor aimed at attracting corporate customers. The employee stock sale serves to reward and retain staff while preparing the company for a potential initial public offering (IPO). Co-founder and COO Cliff Obrecht emphasized that Canva is only at the beginning of its growth journey, expressing optimism about the future scale and impact of the platform.