Melanie Perkins

Melanie Perkins was born in 1987 in Perth, Western Australia. During her high school years, she pursued figure skating and started a small business selling handmade scarves. While attending the University of Western Australia, majoring in communications, psychology, and commerce, Perkins also tutored students in graphic design. It was during this time that she identified the complexity of traditional design tools, which led her to envision a simpler, web-based solution. She left university at the age of 19 to pursue her entrepreneurial ambitions alongside Cliff Obrecht.

In 2007, Perkins and Obrecht co-founded Fusion Books. This early venture provided an online platform that allowed schools to create yearbooks using a drag-and-drop editor and a library of templates, simplifying the design process. Fusion Books successfully expanded its operations within Australia and subsequently into New Zealand and France. This initial success laid the groundwork for their larger vision of making design accessible to everyone.

Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht began developing and pitching a broader online design platform in the early 2010s. Their efforts led them to meet investor Bill Tai and, through Lars Rasmussen (co-creator of Google Maps), they connected with Cameron Adams, a former Google designer. Adams joined as the third co-founder and chief product officer, and together they launched Canva publicly in 2013. Canva has since achieved considerable growth and profitability, attracting 220 million monthly users, including 6 million teams from companies like Zoom. The platform facilitates the creation of various visuals, from menus to social media graphics, and was valued by private investors at $40 billion in September 2021. Perkins and Obrecht have also committed to transferring over 80% of their stake to the Canva Foundation for charitable causes, aligning their success with philanthropic endeavors.