Canva announces $3.6 million of funding, launch of new features

Graphic design startup Canva has raised an additional $3.6 million from new and existing investors which will help support the company’s rapid growth.

Canva is an online design platform that allows users to create simple graphics for use in presentations, posters, web content and much more.

Founders Fund and Shasta Ventures have joined existing investors Matrix Partners, Blackbird Ventures and Square Peg Capital in the funding round.

Canva CEO Melanie Perkins says investors are excited by the company’s growth, user traction and also believe in the company’s mission to “democratise design”.

Since its launch just under a year ago Canva has grown to have 600,000 users who have created more than 3.5 million designs.

“Every month is our best month,” Perkins told StartupSmart.

“We’ve been absolutely impressed by the number of people using Canva time and time again.”

Square Peg Capital co-founder Paul Bassat says the team has made remarkable progress since launch.

“Canva provides users with a unique combination of wonderful simplicity and powerful design capability and huge numbers of individuals and businesses have already had the opportunity to make a further investment in their current round.”

The company now employs 26 people and will be looking for an additional five more to work on marketing and engineering.

In addition to the funding, Canva also announced a new ‘Canva Button’ that will allow its service to be integrated into third-party websites.

Canva has negotiated a series of partnerships with GoDaddy, Tailwind, Agora Pulse, Post Planner and TabSite which will see the Canva Button rolled out on their respective websites over the coming weeks.

“Every site that allows users to upload content, whether it’s a web app, e-commerce provider or ad network, wants their users to have beautiful graphics,” Perkins says.

“However it’s almost impossible to create something that looks good without knowing how to use professional design tools.

“Instead of just offering an ‘Upload’ button and expecting users to figure out the rest, the Canva Button enables a website’s users to easily create graphics without leaving their page.

“We want this to be accessible to everyone so the button is free and can be implemented with just a few lines of code.”