As far as keynote speakers for the second year of SXSW Sydney go, few are as fitting as Canva co-founder and CEO Melanie Perkins.
Perkins kicked off the conference’s second edition at Sydney’s International Convention Centre on Monday. Interviewed by Mary Meeker — a renowned internet analyst and venture capitalist — Perkins walked the audience through Canva’s evolution, from its humble beginnings in her mum’s living room to becoming a global design giant.
SXSW is meant to focus more on culture than finance, but Perkins’ presentation felt very much like she was honing the kind of pitch she will soon need to deliver to institutional investors when Canva finally hits the go button on its long-anticipated IPO, expected within the next 18 months.
There were plenty of charts showing metrics with lines moving up and to the right. Among the most noteworthy: paying subscribers have risen to 21 million as of September, up from 16 million this time last year. Total users now stand at 190 million, with 59% coming from non-English-speaking markets. In terms of hard financial data, Canva generated USD2.4 billion ($3.6 billion) in annualised revenue as of July.
