Melanie Perkins

Melanie Perkins launched Canva in 2013 with a vision to make design accessible to anyone—and has since achieved one of the most extraordinary growth stories in software. The company that started with more than 100 investor rejections ended 2025 with monthly active users up 20% to 265 million and eight consecutive years of profitability—rare for a still-private consumer tech business at this scale. Canva remains the world’s highest-valued female-founded and -led startup—although many remain eager for Canva to graduate to public-company status. The most consequential signal of Canva’s evolution under Perkins is its enterprise pivot: Its B2B segment grew 100% in 2025 to $500 million. Perkins and her cofounders have simultaneously repositioned Canva from a design platform with AI features to an AI platform with design tools layered on top, launching Canva Code, Canva Sheets, and a mini-apps builder. Perkins and cofounder (and husband) Cliff Obrecht have committed to donating the vast majority of their shares—about 30% of Canva’s total value—to the nonprofit Canva Foundation.