Today
- Exclusive
- Executive shake-up
Canva recruit from big tech ahead of IPO, but five execs have left
Five senior Canva executives with years of experience at technology giants including Meta, Adobe and Google have departed over the past 18 months.
- Nick Bonyhady
This Month
- Exclusive
- Start-ups
‘Harder and harder’: Why Canva’s $370m AI bet said yes
AI dollars can be “fleeting” and competing with big players can cost hundreds of millions, setting the scene for Leonardo’s sale to Canva.
- Nick Bonyhady
July
- Exclusive
- Start-ups
Canva’s AI prize Leonardo traded for $320m, dividing VC industry
The valuation has been so closely guarded some investors have refused to tell their own backers how much Canva paid for the start-up.
- Nick Bonyhady
It was called the ‘next Canva’, so Canva bought it
Canva has acquired AI design start-up Leonardo.AI in a surprise deal worth over $120 million. The ACCC is taking notice.
- Staff reporter
Revealed: Square Peg’s jealously guarded returns are here
Canva’s $US2.4 billion secondary share sale couldn’t have come at a better time for one of its backers – and just as it’s about to raise a new fund.
- Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
- Exclusive
- Start-ups
Aussie who sold cloud start-up for $2b jumps on AI for ads
Three years after selling A Cloud Guru in a bumper payday, Sam Kroonenburg is teaming up with advertising entrepreneurs with big plans and investors in tow.
- Paul Smith
Microsoft may have just become Canva’s most dangerous rival
The world’s biggest software company has debuted an AI-powered design app, presenting Canva with a deep-pocketed rival.
- Tess Bennett
We’re not coming for your job, AI companies say
A report funded by the AI industry says artificial intelligence will create 200,000 jobs in Australia by 2030.
- John Davidson
June
The ‘grindset’ is back in vogue for start-ups – with a health twist
Start-up bosses no longer just enthuse about working innumerable hours – now they recommend an ice bath after the innumerable hours.
- Nick Bonyhady
- Exclusive
- Start-ups
Say something bad about Canva? It can claw back staff shares
Documents seen by the Australian Financial Review show how Canva shares give the start-up leverage over former staff in a widely used industry practice.
- Nick Bonyhady
- Updated
- Workplace culture
Canva co-founder calls for ‘wartime’ approach to staff performance
Cliff Obrecht says companies that let poor performance slide are forced to do big lay-offs, something the graphic design group headed for an IPO has avoided.
- Updated
- Nick Bonyhady
- Opinion
- Chanticleer
Canva’s IPO pitch lands just as markets are warming up
You can tell from the way Canva has upped its engagement that its IPO is coming, and it was on Wednesday, when co-founder Cliff Obrecht wheeled out a pitch with just about the lot.
- Anthony Macdonald
What Canva, Rokt and Aussie VCs have learned about US IPOs
After Life360’s oversubscribed Nasdaq debut fund managers predict 2025 will see a rush of private tech companies testing the public markets. Canva and Rokt are watching closely.
- Tess Bennett
May
- Exclusive
- Executive shake-up
Canva enterprise boss out after six months
Former Google and Microsoft executive Javier Soltero was hired to lead the company’s enterprise efforts, which are key to its IPO plans.
- Nick Bonyhady
Lendlease takes $1.48b hit | Optus loses appeal | Canva’s rap message
Read everything that’s happened in the news so far today.
- Updated
- Opinion
- Chanticleer
What Canva’s cringeworthy rap song really tells us
The rap song announcing Canva’s pitch to enterprise customers is all a part of the firm telling its growth story as it heads towards public markets.
- James Thomson
Rally hits a wall | Canva’s Wall St plan | Four market worries
Read everything that’s happened in the news so far today.
- Updated
- Exclusive
- Start-ups
‘If you don’t like it, get a job at a bank’: Canva boss
The design software giant’s all-singing, all-dancing debut event in Los Angeles came with a host of new features – and rumblings of a cost to its tired staff.
- Nick Bonyhady
- Exclusive
- Start-ups
Canva, in the US, lifts the lid on its plan to win over Wall Street
It has hit $US2.3 billion revenue, but growth among individual users is slowing, so Canva is relying on big customers to keep its financials in IPO-shape.
- Nick Bonyhady
- Exclusive
- Venture capital
Big win for Square Peg as Nvidia buys AI start-up Deci
The Melbourne VC firm will soon be toasting a rich profit on its investment in an Israeli AI start-up, when it is acquired by chip titan Nvidia for $447 million.
- Nick Bonyhady
