Blackbird, Felicis invest $15m in Australia’s Canva
Canva, an Australian online design platform, has raised a $15 million round of funding led by existing investors Felicis Ventures and Blackbird Ventures.
The round values the start-up at $345 million, according to Forbes, whose report was re-posted on Canva's official Twitter account. It brings the total raised by the company to more than $42 million.
Headquartered in Sydney, Canva was launched in 2013 by Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht. Through a cloud-based web platform and mobile app, users can pick a standard layout, drop in fonts and images, and then save and download the final design to file. It is a popular tool for marketers, non-profit organizations, bloggers and the education sector.
Rick Baker, managing director of Blackbird, and Bin Tai, a prominent US and Asia angel investor, introduced the founders to potential investors in 2013. It led to a $3 million seed round from a group of high-profile angel investors including Seek co-founder Paul Bassat and Yahoo CFO Ken Goldman. Matrix Partners, InterWest Partners, 500 Startups and Blackbird committed institutional capital.
In 2014, Founders and Shasta Ventures led a $3.6 million round. This was followed by a $6 million round led by Matrix and Shasta Ventures in May of last year and then a $15 million Series A from Felicis and Blackbird.
Canva now has more than 120 staff across three offices in Sydney, San Francisco and Manila. Over the past year, its user base has doubled to 10 million and services have been launched in 10 languages.
Perkins told Forbes that the company has yet to dip into the Series A capital because of strong revenue growth. It plans to use the two latest rounds to scale up the business in terms of marketing, engineering and product development, with a view to becoming a mainstream workplace tool for corporate users.
Blackbird closed its second fund at A$200 million ($143 million) in September last year. It comprises two tranches: an early-stage fund and a follow-on vehicle to continue supporting successful start-ups well beyond the Series A round.
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