Melanie Perkins

Melanie Perkins
Perkins in 2019
Born1987 (age 37–38)[1]
Perth, Western Australia[2]
EducationUniversity of Western Australia
OccupationTechnology entrepreneur
Years active2007–present
Known forCo-founder and CEO of Canva
Spouse
​
(m. 2021)​

Melanie Perkins (born 1987) is an Australian technology entrepreneur and the co-founder and chief executive officer of Canva, an online graphic design platform. She previously co-founded Fusion Books, a web-based yearbook publisher.

In 2023, she ranked 89th in Forbes list of "World's 100 most powerful women"[3] and 92nd in Fortune's list of Most Powerful Women.[4]

Early life

Perkins was born in 1987 in Perth, Western Australia, to an Australian-born teacher and a Malaysian engineer of Filipino and Sri Lankan heritage.[5] She attended Sacred Heart College,[6] a secondary school located in the northern Perth suburb of Sorrento. While high school, Perkins trained seriously in figure skating and started a small business selling handmade scarves.[7][8]

After high school, Perkins enrolled at the University of Western Australia, majoring in communications, psychology and commerce.[9] At this time, Perkins was also a private tutor for students learning graphic design. Perkins has said the slow learning curve of traditional design tools prompted her to explore simpler, web-based alternatives. She left university at age 19 to pursue a startup with Cliff Obrecht.[5]

Career

Fusion Books

In 2007, Perkins and Obrecht founded Fusion Books, which let schools create yearbooks using an online drag-and-drop editor and template library. The business grew in Australia and later operated in New Zealand and France.[10]

Canva

Perkins and Obrecht began pitching a broader design platform in the early 2010s and met investor Bill Tai during a visit to Perth. Through Google Maps co-creator Lars Rasmussen, who advised the project, they were introduced to former Google designer Cameron Adams, who joined in 2012 and became Canva’s third co-founder and chief product officer. Canva launched publicly in 2013 and has reported periods of profitability as it scaled.[11]

Personal life

Perkins and Obrecht married in January 2021 on Rottnest Island.[12] Later that year, they joined the Giving Pledge, committing at least half of their fortune to philanthropic purposes.[13]

As of May 2025, the Australian Financial Review assessed Perkins' and Obrecht's joint net worth as A$14.14 billion.[14] As of August 2025, Forbes estimated Perkins' net worth at $5.8 billion (USD).[15]

References

  1. ^ "Melanie Perkins and Ginia Rinehart revealed as Australia's youngest billionaires at age 36". news.com.au. 1 September 2023. Retrieved 4 May 2024.
  2. ^ Stanton, Kate; Griffith, Hywel (10 January 2018). "The 30-year-old woman who designed a $1bn business". BBC. Archived from the original on 28 July 2018. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
  3. ^ "The World's Most Powerful Women 2023". Forbes.
  4. ^ "Most Powerful Women". Fortune.
  5. ^ a b Konrad, Alex. "Canva Uncovered: How A Young Australian Kitesurfer Built A $3.2 Billion (Profitable!) Startup Phenom". Forbes. Archived from the original on 17 May 2024. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  6. ^ "How a Sacred Heart girl built a $1b tech empire". The West Australian. 7 May 2018. Archived from the original on 2 March 2023. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  7. ^ Connelly, Claire (6 October 2015). "From making scarves to building a $165 million tech start-up: Canva's Melanie Perkins". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 21 July 2023. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  8. ^ Zipkin, Nina (12 June 2019). "She Was Told 'No' 100 Times. Now This 31-Year-Old Female Founder Runs a $1 Billion Business". Entrepreneur. Archived from the original on 4 September 2022. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  9. ^ "Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht". Uniview. The University of Western Australia. 3 November 2017. Archived from the original on 9 November 2020. Retrieved 2 November 2020.
  10. ^ Devine, Ruth (29 April 2020). "Canva founder Melanie Perkins turned idea into billion-dollar business". The CEO Magazine. Retrieved 10 August 2025.
  11. ^ Whittaker, Mark (21 February 2024). "Creating Canva: How Cameron Adams helped build a $39 billion juggernaut". Forbes Australia. Retrieved 10 August 2025.
  12. ^ Waters, Cara (22 February 2021). "Canva co-founder backs Facebook's move to ban news, slams 'stupid' tech regulation". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 23 February 2021. Retrieved 23 February 2021.
  13. ^ Gamboa, Glenn (15 December 2021). "Canva founders join Bill Gates' Giving Pledge to give away most of their fortune". Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 17 May 2024. Retrieved 5 May 2024.
  14. ^ Redrup, Yolanda (30 May 2025). "Australia's wealthiest 200 revealed, fortunes blow past $667b". Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 31 May 2025.
  15. ^ "Melanie Perkins". Forbes. Archived from the original on 17 May 2024. Retrieved 31 January 2022.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.