Forbes put Melanie Perkins's net worth at $7.6 billion in August 2026. The AFR Rich List of May 2025 valued her and her husband and co-founder Cliff Obrecht together at A$14.14 billion.
The two started Fusion Books in 2007, a web-based yearbook publisher. In 2013 they founded Canva in Perth and launched it in August. More than 100 investors in San Francisco turned them down that year. After an investor advised them to name one leader, Obrecht nominated Perkins as CEO.
Canva reached 750,000 users in its first year. It was profitable by 2017, with 294,000 paying customers. In January 2018 it raised A$40 million from Sequoia Capital, Blackbird Ventures and Felicis Ventures at a valuation of A$1 billion.
A $200 million round in September 2021 valued Canva at $40 billion. An employee share sale in August 2025 valued it at $42 billion. Canva bought Serif, maker of Affinity, and Leonardo.ai in 2024, and reached about $4 billion in annual recurring revenue by the end of 2025.