Melanie Perkins

About Melanie Perkins

Melanie Perkins is cofounder and CEO of design software maker Canva, which was valued by private investors at $40 billion in September 2021 but has since seen its value marked down nearly 40%.

Canva was launched in 2013 by Perkins, now-husband Cliff Obrecht and Cameron Adams in Sydney, Australia, but was met by investor skepticism due to its location.

Like Obrecht, she owns an estimated 18% stake. The couple has pledged to transfer more than 80% of their stake to the Canva Foundation for charitable causes.

Defying the doubts, Canva has attracted 130 million monthly users to its freemium software, with 6 million teams from companies like Zoom paying for it.

Canva's software enables the creation of attractive visuals for menus, resumes and Instagram graphics.