America had the PayPal Mafia. Will Australia get a Canva Cartel?
Canva's secondary sale and eventual IPO will enrich its early backers, and likely usher in a new generation of Australian founders. The liquidity event may well have a cascading effect on the country's entire startup ecosystem.
When Pyn raised $10 million in 2021, it became the first Australian company to receive funding from legendary Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.
The HR company, which offers internal communication tools, had signed up 50 companies to its product then. Now between its free and premium offerings that number is 3000, co-founder Joris Luijke said. It’s one of many startups that have grown off the back of Atlassian, where Luijke served as VP of People from 2008 to 2013.
“If you work at Canva or Atlassian, if you work at Culture Amp, you know how to build a good company,” Luijke said. “You have a blueprint for building a good company.”
Those words go some way in explaining why Canva’s impending secondary share sale, reported to be worth USD1.5 billion, will be of huge consequence to Australia’s startup ecosystem – and potentially the country’s wider economy too. It’s an opportunity for early employees to cash out on some of their lucrative stock options. Some will inevitably go on to start their own companies. It will be a preview for Canva’s IPO, expected in the next two years.
