Melanie Perkins

Melanie Perkins
Perkins in 2019
Melanie Perkins
Born	Template:Birth year and age
Birthplace	Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Nationality	Australian
Occupation	Technology entrepreneur
Known for	Co-founder and CEO of Canva
Education	University of Western Australia

Melanie Perkins (born 1987) is an Australian technology entrepreneur who co-founded and serves as chief executive officer of Canva, an online graphic design platform valued at approximately US$42 billion. Born and raised in Perth, Western Australia, Perkins launched her first business — an online yearbook company called Fusion Books — while still a university student, before going on to co-found Canva in 2013 with Cliff Obrecht and Cameron Adams. The platform grew into one of the world's most valuable private technology companies, offering design tools to hundreds of millions of users globally. In 2023, Perkins was listed on the Forbes list of the World's 100 Most Powerful Women and ranked 92nd on FortuneTemplate:'s list of Most Powerful Women. In 2025, she appeared on FortuneTemplate:'s Most Powerful Women Asia list. Perkins and Obrecht, who are partners in both business and life, have pledged to give away the majority of their wealth through the Giving Pledge.

Early Life

Melanie Perkins was born in 1987 in Perth, Western Australia. She grew up in the city and attended Sacred Heart College in Perth.

From an early age, Perkins demonstrated entrepreneurial inclinations. As a teenager, she sold handmade scarves, an experience she later reflected on as formative in her understanding of commerce and self-directed work. This early experience foreshadowed her later career path in technology and business.

Perkins's interest in design tools and their accessibility emerged during her university years. While studying at the University of Western Australia, she began tutoring other students in graphic design programs and observed firsthand the steep learning curve associated with professional design software. This experience planted the seed for what would become her central business insight: that design tools were unnecessarily complex and could be made accessible to a far broader audience.

It was during this period that Perkins met Cliff Obrecht, who would become her long-term partner in both business and personal life. Together, they identified the school yearbook market as a practical entry point for their broader ambition of democratising design. The experience of watching students struggle with professional-grade software convinced Perkins that there was a significant market opportunity in creating simpler, web-based design tools.

Education

Perkins enrolled at the University of Western Australia in Perth, where she studied communications, arts, and commerce. It was while at university that she began teaching design software to fellow students, an experience that directly influenced her later career trajectory. Perkins did not complete her degree, opting instead to focus on building her first startup, Fusion Books, which she had co-founded with Obrecht during her time at university.

Career

Fusion Books

In 2007, at the age of 19, Perkins co-founded Fusion Books with Cliff Obrecht while both were still students at the University of Western Australia. Fusion Books was an online platform that allowed students and schools to design and create their own yearbooks using a simplified, web-based tool. The company addressed a specific pain point that Perkins had identified: the process of designing school yearbooks using traditional desktop publishing software was cumbersome and required technical expertise that most students and teachers did not possess.

Fusion Books grew to become one of the largest yearbook publishers in Australia. The company served as a proving ground for the broader concept that Perkins and Obrecht would later pursue with Canva — the idea that complex design tasks could be simplified and moved online, making them accessible to people without professional design training. The success of Fusion Books gave Perkins confidence that the model could be applied to the much larger market for general graphic design.

Founding Canva

While Fusion Books focused on the niche yearbook market, Perkins conceived of a far more ambitious project: a platform that could bring simple, drag-and-drop design tools to everyone, encompassing everything from social media graphics and presentations to marketing materials and documents. Realising the scale of investment and technical expertise required, Perkins began pitching her vision to investors in Silicon Valley.

The fundraising process was neither quick nor straightforward. Perkins has recounted being rejected by over 100 investors during her early attempts to raise capital. As a young woman from Perth, a city far from the major technology hubs of Silicon Valley and Sydney, she faced significant scepticism. However, Perkins persisted, eventually securing the support of key investors and advisors. A pivotal moment came when she recruited Cameron Adams, an experienced technology executive and former Google employee, as a co-founder. Adams brought significant technical expertise and credibility to the venture.

Canva launched publicly in 2013 with its headquarters in Sydney, Australia. The platform offered a freemium model, providing basic design tools free of charge while charging for premium features, templates, and assets. Its core value proposition was simplicity: users without any design training could create professional-quality graphics through an intuitive, browser-based interface featuring drag-and-drop functionality and a vast library of templates.

Growth and Valuation

Under Perkins's leadership as CEO, Canva experienced rapid growth in both its user base and its valuation. By 2019, the company had reached profitability — a distinction that set it apart from many high-profile technology startups — and was valued at approximately US$3.2 billion. The platform continued to grow in subsequent years, adding new features and expanding into enterprise markets.

By 2025, Canva had reached hundreds of millions of users worldwide and was valued at approximately US$42 billion, making it one of the most valuable private technology companies in the world. The company's valuation was reached through a series of fundraising rounds that attracted investment from major venture capital firms and institutional investors.

Perkins has spoken publicly about her customer-centric approach to building the company, emphasising the importance of understanding user needs and iterating on the product accordingly. In a 2025 interview, she described her philosophy, stating that "everything good was once imagined," underscoring the importance of vision and ambition in building a technology company.

A notable aspect of Canva's growth strategy under Perkins has been the company's decision to remain privately held. As of 2025, despite widespread expectations that the company would pursue an initial public offering (IPO), Perkins continued to focus on building the product and the company from its Sydney base rather than listing on public markets.

Product Expansion and AI Integration

Under Perkins's leadership, Canva has progressively expanded beyond its original graphic design focus into a broader suite of productivity and communication tools. In 2025, the company launched Canva Sheets, a spreadsheet product, and Canva Code, a generative artificial intelligence coding tool. Perkins stated that the coding tool would have made a significant difference when she was first building her businesses, reflecting on how AI-powered tools could lower barriers to entry for entrepreneurs.

The integration of AI features into the Canva platform has been a significant strategic priority. The platform became known for its AI image generator and other AI-powered design tools, positioning the company as a competitor not only to traditional design software but also to other AI-driven creative platforms.

Employee Equity and Company Culture

Perkins and her co-founders have overseen a company culture that emphasises employee ownership. In August 2025, Canva announced an employee share sale program that allowed current and former employees — referred to internally as "Canvanauts" — to sell up to US$3 million of their vested equity. The program had the effect of creating overnight millionaires among the company's workforce. This approach to equity distribution reflected Perkins's broader philosophy regarding wealth and its distribution.

Personal Life

Melanie Perkins is in a long-term relationship with Cliff Obrecht, her Canva co-founder, whom she met while both were students at the University of Western Australia. The pair became two of Australia's youngest billionaires, a status they achieved at the age of 36.

Despite their considerable wealth, Perkins and Obrecht have been noted for maintaining a relatively modest lifestyle. In December 2021, the couple joined the Giving Pledge, a philanthropic initiative founded by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, committing to donate the majority of their wealth to charitable causes during their lifetimes or in their wills.

Perkins has spoken publicly about her personal habits and approach to maintaining focus while leading a large technology company. In 2025, she discussed her emphasis on healthy habits and structured routines as strategies for sustaining productivity.

Recognition

Melanie Perkins has received significant recognition for her role in building Canva. Her awards and honours include appearances on several prominent international rankings and lists:

• In 2023, Perkins was included on the Forbes list of the World's 100 Most Powerful Women.
• In 2023, she was ranked 92nd on FortuneTemplate:'s list of Most Powerful Women.
• In 2025, Perkins was featured on FortuneTemplate:'s Most Powerful Women Asia list.

The Forbes billionaires profile for Perkins tracks her net worth, reflecting the growth in Canva's valuation over time. Her profile in the broader business and technology press has grown significantly as Canva has expanded, with major outlets including the BBC, Forbes, Fortune, and The Sydney Morning Herald publishing extensive coverage of both her personal story and Canva's trajectory.

Media coverage has frequently highlighted the fact that Perkins built a globally significant technology company from Perth and Sydney, outside the traditional technology startup ecosystems of Silicon Valley. Her success has been cited as evidence that major technology ventures can be built from Australia and other locations outside the United States.

Legacy

Melanie Perkins's career and the growth of Canva have had a measurable impact on the technology industry and the broader creative economy. The company she co-founded has made graphic design tools accessible to hundreds of millions of people who previously lacked the technical skills or resources to create professional-quality visual content.

As one of Australia's most prominent technology entrepreneurs, Perkins has contributed to the growth of the Australian technology sector and to the visibility of Australian startups on the global stage. Canva's success as a Sydney-headquartered company valued at US$42 billion has served as a reference point for other Australian founders seeking to build globally competitive technology companies.

Perkins's decision, together with Obrecht, to join the Giving Pledge at a relatively young age has been noted in philanthropic circles. The commitment to donate the majority of their fortune represents one of the largest philanthropic pledges by Australian business figures.

Her approach to company building — emphasising profitability alongside growth, maintaining private ownership rather than rushing to a public listing, and distributing equity broadly among employees — has been noted as a distinctive model in the technology industry, where many high-growth startups prioritise rapid public listings or aggressive expansion over sustainable business practices.

References

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