Canva is a very popular company that disrupted the graphic design technology market ten years ago with the launching of its user-friendly, web-based image editor with the mission of democratizing graphic design.
Dubbed the “design tool for non-designers”, Canva now offers both an image and a video editor with simple but powerful, “drag and drop” functionality, a huge library of stock images, stock videos, graphics, icons, and more, plus lots of professionally designed templates and an array of useful features to make the design process as easy and fast as possible. For more info, check our Canva review.
This fast-growing and hugely successful company –which reached “unicorn” status (surpassing the $1 Billion valuation mark) in 2018– is privately owned, but we have access to some important numbers that help us better understand what they do and why they are so popular.
Our Canva Statistics report is based on data shared by the company on the Canva news website as well as in other news media outlets –which you’ll find linked and mentioned– and our own analysis after working closely with Canva for a few years now. However, we cannot offer any guarantees over the numbers and stats we share here. They’re for informational purposes only.
Without further ado, here are the main Canva statistics to know what Canva is about:
Canva Statistics Table
| Concept | Info |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2012 |
| Founders | Melanie Perkins, Cliff Obrecht, Cameron Adams |
| HQ | Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
| Company Status | Private |
| Net Worth | $40 Billion (2021) |
| Fundings | $572.6 Million (2022) |
| Revenue | $1 Billion+ (estimated for 2022) |
| Active Users | 75 Million (2021) |
| Subscribers | 5 Million (2022) |
| Library Size | 100 Million+ images, videos, and graphic elements (2022) |
| Employees | 2,500+ (2021) |
| Subsidiaries | 5 |
Now, we can dive nose-first into all the company stats we have available to really get to know Canva:
Canva Financials: What We Know
As we said before, Canva Inc. is a private company, therefore the Canva statistics regarding finances that we have access to aren’t as rich as those from other sites that belong to publicly traded companies. However, the few numbers we know are rather impressive. Have a look:
Canva Net Worth
Per Smartcompany.com, Canva’s latest valuation was at $40 Billion in the last trimester of 2021. This massive cipher is even more impressive when you keep in mind that just a few months prior, in April 2021, Forbes was reporting their valuation at less than half of that, at $15 Billion. Furthermore, per the same source in mid-2020, the company was worth $6 Billion.
Being a company that grew 666% in less than two years, one could say that more than a unicorn, Canva is a design titan.
This exponential growth is better visualized in the chart below:
As a little note, earlier this year SmartCompany reported that two of Canva's co-founders, Melanie Perkins (CEO) and Cliff Obrecht (COO) made it into the top ten of The Australian’s Richest 250 list, with a net worth of $15.89 billion each. Perkins and Obrecht are also married to one another.
Canva Funding
According to Crunchbase, this entity has raised an enormous $572.6 Million of funding over the years since its conception, and it’s part of the reason for its valuation to balloon the way it has. Some funding rounds' total amounts have not been publicly reported, but most have. See the details:
| Funding Round Date and Concept | Number of Investors | Amount Raised |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 (Seed) | Not disclosed | $6.6 Million |
| 2015 (Series A) | 6 | $15 Million |
| 2015 (Series A) | 1 | Not disclosed |
| 2016 (Series B) | 2 | $15 Million |
| 2016 (Series B) | 1 | Not disclosed |
| 2018 (Series C) | 3 | $40 Million |
| May 2019 (Series D) | 4 | $70 Million |
| October 2019 (Series E) | 6 | $85 Million |
| 2020 (Venture) | 6 | $60 Million |
| April 2021 (Venture) | 4 | $71 Million |
| September 2021 (Venture) | 9 | $200 Million |
Canva Revenue
How much money Canva makes is one of the things that aren’t publicly disclosed often or in too much detail.
Per an article by FastCompany, the firm expects to exceed $1 Billion in revenue in 2022.
We do not have specific data regarding their cost of revenue nor net profits, though.
Canva User Infos: Free and Pro
An aspect the company does go into detail more often is about the Canva user base, and how much they use the platform.
They reported a record 75 million active users per month in 2021, across 190 countries. But this number gets split between those using the free plan, and the Pro (paid) subscribers. See the breakdown:
| Type of User | Amount |
|---|---|
| Monthly Active Users | 75 Million |
| Paid Subscribers (to Canva Pro) | 5 Million |
Another valuable piece of info is the entity reports that about 85% of Fortune 500 companies around the world are Canva users in some shape or form.
We also know that there are students and teachers using the platform, including young students and kids doing fun projects on Canva.
If you're not sure what type of Canva user you should be, check our Canva Free vs Paid comparison, it'll surely help you. If you want premium access to Canva perpetually, this guide to Canva Pro lifetime deals has what you need.
To test the waters, don't miss the Canva Pro free trial to use the premium service for free for 30 days!
And if you are ready to go Pro, grab our special Canva Pro coupon code and save on your subscription! (This coupon is temporarily unavailable – come back later!)
Canva Designs and Canva Website
All of these 75 million users are online on Canva to design something, right? That’s very correct according to their metrics on design creation:
- In 2021 alone, there were 3,5 Billion designs created with Canva
- In total, 8 Billion designs have been made created on the platform since its launch
- Currently, there is an average of 150 designs per second being made on Canva, with 23 being on their mobile apps
Canva Library Size: Growing Catalog of Images
This Canva website combines easy-to-use design tools and stock media resources, for users to create visual communication content all in one place. Since its origins, Canva’s stock media library has grown exponentially.
Thanks to a mix of wholly-owned and natively sourced content, plus acquisitions (of which you can see details further below), right now in 2022 the Canva site has:
- Over 100 million stock images, videos, and graphic elements
- 75 million+ of those are premium files, available with a Canva Pro subscription, or via on-demand purchase
- 610,000+ professional templates, of which 350,000+ are premium
It’s a robust catalog, for sure! And it covers a wide array of categories and topics, too, so it definitely aids in getting your designs created.
If you want to learn more about Canva's stock media resources and how to use them, check our detailed Canva Pro license analysis!
Canva Staff: Fast-Growing Global Team
Regarding staff, the Canva statistics show they have a large network of employees in different locations around the world.
Currently, their team totals 2,500+ Canva employees working from all over the world but mainly in four physical locations: the headquarters in Sydney Australia (Canva's home country), the Manila offices in the Philippines, the Beijing quarters in China, and the two offices in Texas and California in the USA.
What is very interesting is that they doubled their team size in 2021, adding more than 1,250 employees that year alone.
Canva Acquisitions and Investments: Strategic Products and Services
In the last five years, Canva has acquired a total of 6 companies (source: Crunchbase). They do not disclose the amount paid, though. See the full list below:
| Company | Year of Acquisition |
|---|---|
| Zeetings | 2018 |
| Pexels | 2019 |
| Pixabay | 2019 |
| Kaleido | 2021 |
| Smartmockups | 2021 |
| Flourish | 2022 |
At the time of writing, 5 of these 6 acquired companies continue to operate on their stand-alone websites, as Canva subsidiaries. The only one that is no longer available as its own product is Zeetings, which has become “Canva Presentations”, a feature of Canva's suite.
Also, this year the firm made its first venture capital investment, joining a seed funding round for software startup Calven. As reported by Financial Review, the round totaled $6.8 million from multiple high-profile investors, however, it is not disclosed how much of that was contributed by Canva.
Canva Milestones: Impressive Timeline
To conclude this overview of Canva in numbers, we think it’s worthy to have a look at just how many relevant milestones the company has reached in its almost one decade of life:
- 2013: Launches online editor
- 2014: Reaches 750,000+ users
- 2014: Opens office in Manila, the Philippines
- 2015: Launches Canva for Work (later rebranded Canva Pro), the premium, subscription-based service
- 2015: Reaches 5 Million users + launches free access to Canva for Work (Canva Pro) for selected non-profits
- 2017: Becomes profitable
- 2018: Earns unicorn status at $1 Billion valuation
- 2020: Opens offices in Beijing, China.
- 2020: Opens offices in Austin, Texas, and San Francisco, California, in the US.
- 2021: Launches Canva Video suite with online editor
And that's just scratching the surface.
Canva Stats FAQ
Why is Canva so successful?
Canva achieved such huge success because they disrupted the industry with a new concept in graphic design software that solved an until then unmet need in users, elegantly, efficiently… and for free.
Their continuous expansion of services and the company's characteristic young and perky energy aid to their success as well.
How many people use Canva in the world?
Per their latest report, over 75 million people in 190 countries around the world use Canva, and over 3.5 billion designs were created on Canva in the last year alone – averaging 150 designs per second.
What are the strengths of Canva?
The core value in Canva is that it's user-friendly, doesn't require previous design skills, and it has a very gentle learning curve.
Equally valuable, they include lots of tutorials and guidelines, so that if you wish, you can actually learn a lot about design and improve your results over time.
Finally, they provide everything you need to create a stunning visual (an image editor, design templates, stock photos, graphics, color palettes, fonts, etc.) all in one place.
It's safe to say the Canva statistics we know about are a faithful reflection of its huge popularity amongst users. From small businesses to large corporations, from individuals making sweet video tributes for a loved one's birthday to freelancers designing social media posts for their new business, everyone can visit Canva to bring their ideas to life.
What do you think about these numbers? Are you impressed by Canva's meteoric success?
