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Sydney Morning Herald
8 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
Canva now bigger than Telstra, Woolies
Sydney-based software powerhouse Canva has kicked off an employee share sale valuing the company at an all-time high of $65 billion, making it more valuable than corporate heavyweights Telstra, Woodside and Woolworths. Canva has made billionaires out of its co-founders, and the share sale is set to make some of its 5000-plus employees – referred to as 'Canvanauts' – instant millionaires. Canva co-founder Cliff Obrecht – now one of Australia's richest people, worth an estimated $9 billion – said more than 240 million people now used Canva's products every month globally. Canva was founded in Perth 11 years ago as a small, more fun rival to design software products such as Adobe Photoshop, and has since grown into one of the most widely used platforms on the internet, with schools, businesses and individuals using it to create everything from marketing designs to birthday invitations. Executives have spent the past two years positioning Canva as a key player in the generative AI arms race, making acquisitions including Australia's most-hyped AI start-up for a reported $320 million, and marketing tech start-up MagicBrief for a reported $10 million. Canva's AI tools have been used more than 20 billion times to date, making it one of the fastest-growing AI firms globally. By some metrics, it's the fastest-growing enterprise in Australian history. Obrecht co-founded Canva with now-wife Melanie Perkins and former Google employee Cameron Adams, and the company is now one of Australia's most valuable. Unlike many of its peers in the software sector, Canva is profitable and has been for the past eight years, raking in $US3.3 billion ($4.6 billion) in revenue annually. Loading Canva's valuation has see-sawed moderately over the past few years amid a global 'tech wreck' that tore through company valuations and forced many into lay-offs, but the company has maintained its position as one of the darlings of the local sector. Canva continued to hire and avoided any redundancy program, though its valuation bottomed out at $39 billion in 2022 when key investors Blackbird, Square Peg and Airtree cut its valuation. It was most recently valued at $56 billion earlier this year.
The Age
8 hours ago
- The Age
Canva now bigger than Telstra, Woolies
Sydney-based software powerhouse Canva has kicked off an employee share sale valuing the company at an all-time high of $65 billion, making it more valuable than corporate heavyweights Telstra, Woodside and Woolworths. Canva has made billionaires out of its co-founders, and the share sale is set to make some of its 5000-plus employees – referred to as 'Canvanauts' – instant millionaires. Canva co-founder Cliff Obrecht – now one of Australia's richest people, worth an estimated $9 billion – said more than 240 million people now used Canva's products every month globally. Canva was founded in Perth 11 years ago as a small, more fun rival to design software products such as Adobe Photoshop, and has since grown into one of the most widely used platforms on the internet, with schools, businesses and individuals using it to create everything from marketing designs to birthday invitations. Executives have spent the past two years positioning Canva as a key player in the generative AI arms race, making acquisitions including Australia's most-hyped AI start-up for a reported $320 million, and marketing tech start-up MagicBrief for a reported $10 million. Canva's AI tools have been used more than 20 billion times to date, making it one of the fastest-growing AI firms globally. By some metrics, it's the fastest-growing enterprise in Australian history. Obrecht co-founded Canva with now-wife Melanie Perkins and former Google employee Cameron Adams, and the company is now one of Australia's most valuable. Unlike many of its peers in the software sector, Canva is profitable and has been for the past eight years, raking in $US3.3 billion ($4.6 billion) in revenue annually. Loading Canva's valuation has see-sawed moderately over the past few years amid a global 'tech wreck' that tore through company valuations and forced many into lay-offs, but the company has maintained its position as one of the darlings of the local sector. Canva continued to hire and avoided any redundancy program, though its valuation bottomed out at $39 billion in 2022 when key investors Blackbird, Square Peg and Airtree cut its valuation. It was most recently valued at $56 billion earlier this year.
Courier-Mail
10 hours ago
- Courier-Mail
Safety online is about digital literacy
Don't miss out on the headlines from Bush Summit. Followed categories will be added to My News. For Gen Z, the barriers between online and real life are a blur. They learn, socialise and play online just as much as they do in the physical world so it's important they navigate those spaces with confidence. Cyber-bullying, online safety and digital identity are some of the issues parents are worried about. And with good reason. According to a report by the eSafety commissioner, Digital use and risk: Online platform engagement among children aged 10 to 15, 71 per cent had encountered content associated with harm, 57 per cent had seen online hate, 52 per cent reported cyber-bullying and 24 per cent experienced sexual harassment online. Optus' Digital Thumbprint program provides students with the digital literacy skills they need to stay safe. Annabel McCabe and Van Ritchie took the Optus digital thumbprint course at Kooringal High School Wagga Wagga with Mark Stanley. Picture: Simon Dallinger. Since 2013, almost three quarters of a million Australian students have taken the free, curriculum-aligned workshops at 1,140 schools, about 120,000 of those regionally. Topics are delivered in age-appropriate sessions, spanning years five to 11, and cover everything from cyber security to protecting personal information and Generative AI to cyber-bullying. The current roadshow session kicked off in Wagga Wagga in July, with eight schools and 2,500 students. Canberra was next and a national rollout through regional Australia is in the works. Facilitator Mark Stanley sees these sessions as conversations rather than workshops. He believes the strength of the interactive program is putting students in situations they will encounter, but with a safety net. For the cyber-bullying component, Stanley runs students through a group chat that descends into cyber-bullying. As the situation grows and develops, what do the students do? Nothing, say something publicly, send a private DM, approach the person offline? Digital Thumbprint workshops include: Cyberbullying (Year 7) Protecting your personal info (Year 8) GenAI and Online Safety (Year 9) and Cybersecurity (Year 10) Picture: Simon Dallinger. 'We'll get them to own their answer, debrief on why they've chosen that and then we'll move through the situation again,' he said. 'Where is it in these situations that you become the upstander from the bystander? How could you create that upstander moment and make it a little easier with small, positive shifts to that situation?' 'It's to get them to think about their own actions, but put them in that safe zone to be able to come up with those choices, feel out what they would do and realise that it would have resulted in this consequence. 'The workshops give them a chance to practice, then they take that knowledge, hopefully, and add it into the real world.' The program has been running since 2013 and it is constantly refreshed in response to new technology and legislative changes, as well as feedback from teachers, students and parents. Stanley said the workshops are designed to address the digital literacy students will need in the future. 'It's setting them up with those skills for a world that is constantly changing,' he said. 'Where are we going to be next year? We don't know, so we're trying to equip the students with these digital literacy skills that they can take in and hopefully adapt to these new situations and technologies that are coming along as we all navigate this new digital world.' As part of the Wagga Wagga workshops, there was also a digital literacy workshop for parents. Mark Stanley teaching students Van Ritchie and Annabel McCabe at the Wagga Wagga workshop. Picture: Simon Dallinger. 'The parents involved were really thankful and they got a lot out of it, particularly bridging the gap between what their kids know and what they're involved with,' Stanley said. 'The kids are using this technology every day, all the time and it just gives the parents an opportunity to understand what we're doing and to give them an awareness of some of the risks.' The current roadshow is focusing on regional Australia, but Stanley doesn't see a big difference in online habits between regional and local kids. 'I don't think they have different issues. There's digital spaces whether you're metro or whether you're regional, but students in larger metro areas have access to a lot more programs like this,' he said. 'Parents and teacher are having these conversations with students, but if we can come in as well it's a different way to deliver the message. Hopefully, between one of us, we'll deliver it in a way that they'll be able to take that away and shift their behaviour in regards to their use in that space.' Optus local general manager across southern NSW and ACT, Matt Connell, has seen the impact it has had on the local community. 'A parent stopped me at a local cafe when she saw the Optus branding on my shirt. She said, 'My kids came home after the workshop and they were telling us all about passwords and talking about keeping themselves safe online',' he said. 'It gave them an opportunity to open up a conversation with their children.' Originally published as 120,000 regional kids have taken the Digital Thumbprint course at school with more to follow
