Canva knocked back Adobe ‘countless times’. Now it has AI mania on Wall Street to contend with.
In leaked investor communications, founding shareholder Bill Tai concedes Canva is facing challenges on the path to its IPO, and reveals it rejected approaches from its chief rival.
The first seed investor in Canva has conceded in closed door talks that the wave of AI-related IPOs currently consuming Wall Street and the languid market performance of software stocks could complicate the Australian software company’s long awaited plans for a public listing.
In a recorded video session leaked to Capital Brief, Bill Tai, the venture capitalist who wrote Canva’s first cheque at a USD3 million valuation, also revealed Canva had knocked back several acquisition attempts by its rival Adobe, and suggested Anthropic or another AI giant could look to acquire the company.
Canva’s highly anticipated IPO has been upended by the SaaSpocalyse sell off that has hit peer company Figma (down nearly 90% since its debut in mid-2025) and chief rival Adobe (down 49% over the past year).
Now there are added concerns the vast amounts of capital being raised in the mega IPOs of SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI will make it harder for others to list.
