Here's Why Billionaire Canva CEO Melanie Perkins Is Giving Away Most Of Her Fortune

Design software maker Canva, co-founded by CEO Melanie Perkins and her now-husband Cliff Obrecht, was valued by private investors at $40 billion last year, making it one of the most valuable startups in the world today.

It is a significant accomplishment for the 9-year-old Australia-based firm, but what its founders have committed to do next is even more inspiring: donate the majority of their stake in Canva to humanitarian organizations through the Canva Foundation.

Perkins, 35, and Obrecht, 36, wrote in their Giving Pledge letter, signed in 2021, that they had a “two-step plan” for Canva. The first involved building “one of the world’s most valuable companies,” and the second step was to “do the most good we can do.”

“We have this wildly optimistic belief that there is enough money, goodwill and good intentions in the world to solve most of the world’s problems. We feel like it’s not just a massive opportunity, but an important responsibility and we want to spend our lifetime working towards that,” the couple added.

The Giving Pledge was created by Warren Buffett, Melinda Gates and Bill Gates in 2010 to encourage the world’s wealthiest people to publicly commit to giving the majority of their wealth to philanthropy either during their lifetimes or in their wills, according to its website. Some of its other signees are Michael Bloomberg, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk and Mackenzie Bezos, among many others.

As of March 2022, Perkins’ net worth stands at $6.5 billion, according to a Forbes estimate.

Her fortune is derived from her stake in Canva. Like Obrecht, Perkins currently owns an estimated 18% stake in the company, Forbes reported.

Perkins was a communications undergraduate student at the University of Western Australia before she dropped out to focus on her business, Fusion Books, a website that allows students to customize their yearbooks online.

She got her big break a few years later when she met Silicon Valley investor Bill Tai.

It was in 2012 when Canva began in earnest, with the help of their tech advisor and the co-founder of Google Maps, Lars Rasmussen. Perkins and Obrecht also found a tech co-founder in Cameron Adams and a tech developer in Dave Hearnden.

Canva began operating in 2013, and by 2016, it had more than 10 million users.

With everyone working from home during the COVID-19 lockdown, Canva’s usage reportedly increased during the pandemic.

At the onset of the pandemic, Canva reported a 50% increase in shared designs and a 25% increase in new designs created, Tech Crunch reported.

Today, Canva has about 60 million users each month, according to Bloomberg.