By Noreen Jazul
Filipino-Australian tech entrepreneur Melanie Perkins became the third richest woman in Australia in 2020, based on The Australian’s Richest 250 list. She is only 32.
Melanie Perkins (Photo from Canva)
Perkins, the CEO and co-founder of online design platform Canva, has a net worth of $2.5 billion, according to The Australian.
Many publications have also dubbed Perkins as the youngest billionaire in Australia.
Canva — which Perkins co-founded with fiance Cliff Obrecht — has doubled its valuation from $3.2 billion in October, 2019, to $6 billion in 2020 after the company raised $60 million in new funding from Blackbird and Sequoia China and other previous investors, Forbes reported.
The Australian said Canva’s popularity has also spiked during the pandemic since many people have been under a work-from-home setup.
Forbes likewise reported that design creation and sharing in the Canva increased by 50percent since the pandemic started.
“Canva’s overall business held up in a work-from-home environment, particularly as usage of its collaboration and video tools soared, and small businesses turned to making designs to reach customers over social media,” Forbes said.
‘One of the most successful startups’
Canva has become one of Australia’s “most successful start-up unicorns ever,” according to CEO Magazine.
What started out as a high school yearbook design business has now grown into one of the biggest online design platforms in Australia and in the world.
Perkins said her goal in starting Canva was to be able to “provide a free platform that anyone across the world could use.”
“We wanted to make design accessible across the globe,” Perkins told The Australian.
Canva has headquarters in Sydney, Manila, and Beijing.
As of June 2020, Canva has over 30 million users per month worldwide.