Melanie Perkins: How the Canva Founder Built Her Billion-Dollar Fortune
Melanie Perkins is 38 and is one of the most successful technology entrepreneurs to emerge from Australia. She co-founded Canva in 2012 with Cliff Obrecht after earlier attempts at smaller design tools.
The Australian company grew into a global design platform used by more than 100 million people. By 2026, the pair’s combined stake is valued around $13 billion according to recent Hurun rankings, placing them among the wealthiest under-40 self-made entrepreneurs.
Perkins has kept a relatively quiet public profile while the company expanded into video, AI tools and enterprise products.
Early investors included Sequoia and Blackbird. She and Obrecht continue to hold significant equity and have used part of their wealth for education and climate-related initiatives in Australia.
Canva’s latest funding rounds and secondary sales have locked in their status as two of the most successful bootstrap-to-unicorn stories of the past decade.
What makes Perkins’ rise particularly striking is how far Canva has grown from its early design-tool beginnings. The company’s expansion into AI, video and enterprise services has continued to increase its reach, while Perkins remains one of the central figures behind the platform’s global rise.
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