With 185 million active users, a valuation of $26 billion (€23.9 billion) and consistent annual revenue of approximately $2.3 billion (€2.1 billion), Australian company Canva, created eleven years ago, has seen remarkable progress . She has unveiled software updates designed specifically for businesses to its 185 million monthly users.
Article by Alex Konrad for US Forbes – translated by Lisa Deleforterie
Canva wants to conquer the business market. Already used by most major US companies, it has expanded its influence beyond design to focus on workplace tools, allowing it to nearly double its user base over the past 18 years. At its annual customer and press event, held for the first time in Los Angeles, Canva announced an overhaul of its software suite to accelerate enterprise adoption, drawing the company’s 2 million online users.
If last year was marked by advances in generative artificial intelligence at Canva, this year’s focus is clear, according to Melanie Perkins, co-founder and CEO: “It’s year of work According to the company, FedEx reduced brand review requests for its marketing materials by 75% using Canva; Expedia saves 160 hours per week using its tools. Workday, for its part, estimates it saved 33,000 man hours by not having to create documents from scratch.
This last figure got Ms. Perkins thinking. ” I wondered if it was real. This is a really important number “, she said Forbes. ” We double-clicked a few times and yes, it was real. »
Initially envisioned as a simple tool for creating online design assets, Canva already had about 20 million users when it launched its first business suite in 2019, according to cover story Forbes. Since then, it has gradually integrated features specifically designed to appeal to large enterprises, such as user permissions, asset brand management and improved security standards, one by one.
Canva’s new features continue in this vein, giving businesses the ability to customize the tool to fit their structure by allowing specific design templates and other documents to be pinned to each employee’s workspace. Canva is also strengthening its commenting system and making team-produced content easier to search. In addition, Canva offers template packs suitable for different functions such as HR, marketing and sales.
According to Ms. Perkins, Canva’s development reflects the desire of large customers to consolidate the number of tools they use. While Canva remains compatible with all major business software, companies are increasingly aware of the amount of data and intellectual property stored in different tools, she explained.
This need has increased recently with the introduction of generative AI tools used for a variety of business tasks, from images for social media to sales pitches and online training courses. Canva says its own AI tools, Magic Studio, have been used 6.5 billion times since launching in October. However, a company spokesperson declined to comment on the number of different users this figure reflects.
” Visual communication has indeed become the status quo in all areas of business said Mrs. Perkins. ” Organizational complexity has also increased significantly. »
Canva is counting on expanding its features for businesses
Canva’s evolution is part of the same dynamic as other popular productivity tools. For example, just like Zoom, originally an online video conferencing tool, which now offers messaging, whiteboarding and more, Canva can also produce smart documents. Likewise, a few years ago, Slack, a collaborative communication platform, followed a similar path by expanding its functionality.
In March, Canva acquired Affinity, a popular tool among professional graphic designers, putting it in more direct competition with its creative software rival, Adobe. Canva will now offer this software for free to non-profit organizations, students and educators, as it does with its other products. The company says it works with more than 600,000 nonprofits and 60 million students and teachers. ” Design always remains at the heart of our mission said Mrs. Perkins.
Canva is increasingly diversifying and expanding its range of services, looking more like a mature business software company (one that may eventually go public) than a nascent startup. ” We see a lot of demand for a consolidated platform “, said the President of the Management Board. ” However, Canva cannot and does not want to do everything. »
However, Canva will continue to expand its functionality to cover more functions within the enterprise, with an update to its Enterprise offering likely to represent another key step in its growth path. In this way, and thanks to the ability to adapt to the needs of users, Canva will achieve the main ambitions of its CEO. As Melanie Perkins said: “The goal is to have 1 billion people use Canva every month “.
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