Canva to donate $20m to charity, opens new London office, amid tech wreck


Although the tech wreck continues to wreak havoc across the globe, one Australian firm is performing so well that they are forking out millions to charity and opening up new offices.

On Wednesday morning, Australian graphic design unicorn Canva announced it will donate $20 million to battle poverty in the south eastern African nation of Malawi.

Canva’s co-founder Melanie Perkins revealed that in an unprecedented step, they are giving cash directly to thousands of Malawians.

Each recipient will receive $550 in cash.

The grant covers 23,600 impoverished citizens in Malawi, with charity GiveDirectly acting as the middle man to disseminate the money.

Ms Perkins, who has a combined net worth with her husband Cliff Obrecht of $13 billion at last count, said: “It’s without a doubt the best money we’ve ever spent.”

It’s far from the first time the tech company has put money towards a charitable cause, with its founders announcing in 2021 that they had given away $10 million, also to the nation of Malawi.

The announcement comes as other tech giants, including Google, Meta and Amazon, are laying off staff, but Ms Perkins said Canva is performing well despite the soft market conditions.

Canva was founded by Perth sweethearts Ms Perkins and Mr Obrecht, alongside Tasmanian developer Cameron Adams, and has gone on to garner 125 million monthly active users across 190 countries, with over 3000 employees.

Ms Perkins and Mr Obrecht hold a 30 per cent stake in Canva.

The most recent valuation from the AFR Rich List announced last week slated their net worth at $13.18 billion.

It represented a 4.6 per cent drop from the previous year.

At its peak, Canva was valued at $55 billion in September 2021.

“Profitability went out of fashion in the tech industry but we’re profitable,” Ms Perkins said at a press conference in March.

She acknowledged the meltdown occurring in the tech space, adding that there were “a lot of choppy seas out there”.

However, they have no plans to lay off staff and are continuing to hire for select positions.

Canva made $1.4 billion in annualised revenue last year.

Earlier this year, Ms Perkins confirmed that they had no plans to lay off staff.

Now the company has gone a step further and given away a large sums of money, and even opening an office in Europe, in London.

Ms Perkins and her husband announced last year they were going to give away “the vast majority” of their fortune to charity.

“It has felt strange when people refer to us as ‘billionaires’ as it has never felt like our money, we’ve always felt that we’re purely custodians of it,” Ms Perkins wrote at the time.

“As we’ve previously shared, it’s long been our intention to give the wealth away, and we’ve been thinking long and hard about the best way to start that journey.”

The tech company is also part of the “1 per cent pledge” where they gave one per cent of their equity, profit, time and product to those in need.



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