CEO · Founder, Canva · angel in 2 deals
Every published round Melanie Perkins took part in, and every parcel of existing shares it bought off another holder. Deals we hold but haven't published yet are not counted.
| Company | Stage | Announced | Amount | Role | Alongside | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lorikeet | Series A | Aug 2025 | $54m | Participant | Startup Daily (Tue 23 Dec 2025), SmartCompany (Tue 23 Dec 2025), Startup Daily (Tue 14 Oct 2025), Cut Through Venture, Startup Daily (Mon 13 Oct 2025), SmartCompany (Mon 6 Oct 2025), SmartCompany (Fri 8 Aug 2025), Startup Daily (Thu 7 Aug 2025), Athletic Ventures portfolio, Blackbird Ventures portfolio, Square Peg Capital portfolio | |
| Fingerprint For Success | Seed | 3 Feb 2023 | $5m | Participant | SmartCompany, Forbes Australia |
Companies Melanie Perkins has backed in a published round, and companies whose existing shares it bought off another holder.
| Company | What it does | First invested | Rounds | Led |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fingerprint For Success | 3 Feb 2023, Seed | 1 | 0 | |
| Lorikeet | Aug 2025, Series A | 1 | 0 |
Fund closes reported for Melanie Perkins, as distinct from the investments it has made.
Companies Melanie Perkins has backed that another company then bought. An exit for the holding, not a deal Melanie Perkins did.
Stories naming Melanie Perkins. Where several outlets covered the same round, they are bundled under whichever ran the fullest account.
Blackbird and Airtree mark Canva's worth down sharply, the employee share price falls too, and commentators question whether a 2027 sharemarket float remains realistic amid sliding confidence in AI-era software.
Perth solar-glass maker ClearVue has signed a $600,000 subcontract to fit Canva's new Sydney headquarters, converting May's preliminary agreement, shortly after a $6.25 million capital raise.
Hyper reflects on how founders find purpose through ikigai, using portfolio company GymGoer's founding story and Canva's origins as examples.
Interview with Canva co-founder Melanie Perkins on the release of Canva AI 2.0, its agentic and memory features, and Anthropic's Claude Design launch, which builds on the two companies' partnership.
Blackbird partner Rick Baker recalls backing Canva's founders in 2013 and argues its 2026 AI launch extends that founding purpose to a new frontier.
Also Blackbird Ventures portfolio·Startup Daily·Startup Daily
Startmate reflects on a decade of backing founders, profiling breakout alumni across its cohorts and describing how its mentors reinvest in newer startups, alongside its fund model and returns.
Canva launched an employee share sale valuing the design software firm at $42 billion, led by Fidelity with JPMorgan's asset arm joining, ahead of a planned IPO; US rival Figma listed last month.
Sydney AI customer-support startup Lorikeet has closed US$35 million in a Series A led by QED Investors, its third round in under a year, lifting total funding beyond $75 million.
Also SmartCompany·Cut Through Venture·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily
Canva has raised US$40 million at a US$1 billion valuation, becoming an Australian unicorn, with Sequoia China joining long-time backers Blackbird Ventures and Felicis Ventures in a round led by Blackbird.
A retrospective on Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia alumni, covering Timee's Japanese listing, Canva's secondary share sale, Airwallex's series E and acquisition, and Kopi Kenangan's unicorn round.
A fresh sale of existing shares has lifted Canva's valuation to about $48.7 billion from $38.5 billion in January, boosting the co-founders' wealth and edging the design software firm toward a possible public listing.
Women's Agenda interview with Canva co-founder Melanie Perkins on her SXSW Sydney conversation with investor Mary Meeker, covering Fusion Books, Silicon Valley rejections, and the early backers who funded the design platform.
SmartCompany's rolling coverage of SXSW Sydney day two, recording Polymath's pre-seed raise and Build Club's recent funding, the Equity Clear launch, Startmate's Demo Day, and women-founded startup pitches at Google's event.
Data centre company AirTrunk's multi-billion-dollar sale to Blackstone and a Canadian pension board is celebrated by founders of South Asian heritage, who see Robin Khuda's journey as inspiration for Australia's startup ecosystem.
Also Forbes Australia·ARN (ARNnet)·SmartCompany·Forbes Australia
Blackbird announces its investment in Atticus's $10.8 million raise and profiles the startup's founding team, product craft, and enterprise customers.
Opinion piece on the buzz around a musical number promoting Canva's enterprise offering at its Los Angeles event, noting cofounder Cliff Obrecht's approval, huge viewership and the company's US listing ambitions.
Canva is turning a purchased Sydney office tower into its eighth global campus, with headcount up by more than a thousand; the piece recalls its fund for paying creators whose content trains its AI.
Canva launched Magic Studio, ten generative AI tools bundled into existing subscriptions at no extra cost, alongside a royalty program for creators and an enterprise security platform.
Fingerprint for Success, an AI coaching platform, has closed a $6.5 million second seed round led by Investible, with Canva's founders investing again; its lifetime funding now totals $9.2 million.
Fingerprint for Success, maker of AI coach Marlee, raised $5 million in an Investible-led seed round, lifting total funding to $9 million, with participation from Five V Capital, Salesforce Ventures and several high-profile angels.
Also SmartCompany
Roundup of female-founder wins: Reejig raises $15m, Healthy Mummy acquired by Halo Food Co for $17m, Shebah exits administration, Canva donates to Afghanistan relief, and CBA buys into Paypa Plane.
Three Western Australian female-led businesses were named recipients of grants in the second round of the federal Boosting Female Founders program, sharing $944,107 between them.
Canva has completed its acquisition of London data-visualisation startup Flourish, adding 44 staff and 800,000 customers, after earlier 2021 purchases of Kaleido and Smartmockups; terms were undisclosed.
Also SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup News (WA)·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Techboard·Techboard·Startup Daily·Forbes Australia·Forbes Australia·Forbes Australia
A year-in-review of Startup Daily's most-read 2021 stories, recalling major Australian tech exits including A Cloud Guru, Afterpay and Sweat, Canva's soaring valuation across three raises, Zero Co's crowdfunding record, and new VC funds.
Weekly roundup covering Canva's huge raise and rich-list climb, a run of Australian startup funding rounds including SiteMinder and Mable, Domain's purchase of IDS, and Mailchimp's sale to Intuit.
Also Startup Daily·Australian FinTech·Cut Through Venture·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Australian FinTech
Veteran venture capitalist Daniel Petre will withdraw from daily duties at the firm he co-founded in 2014, moving toward a chair role, while discussing ecosystem maturity, a future fund and philanthropy among Australia's newly wealthy.
Ignition Lane's weekly roundup covers Canva's US$71 million raise, several Australian payments acquisitions and mergers, local raises by Cyble, Enboarder, Rendr and Basiq, plus overseas deals including Plaid, Box, Ramp and Coinbase's listing.
Canva's valuation reached US$15 billion after a new funding round led by T. Rowe Price, Dragoneer, Blackbird Ventures and Skip Capital. The article also recalls Canva's earlier US$60 million raise and Blackbird's first investment.
Also SmartCompany·Startup News (WA)·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup News (WA)
An analysis of a new salary report finds women underrepresented in Australian startups and female-founded firms raising little, while noting women co-founders at unicorns and Airwallex appointing Susan Ho to a leadership role.
Techboard revises its analysis of large 2018 funding events won by female-founded companies, recounting raises by Airwallex, Canva, Judo Capital and others, earlier big rounds, and UrbanYou's acquisition.
Shoes of Prey co-founder Michael Fox is launching an unnamed plant-based meat venture on the Sunshine Coast with Mars accelerator grant backing, while the piece recalls Shoes of Prey's collapse and Beyond Meat's US listing.
Also SmartCompany
Canva has bought stock photo sites Pexels and Pixabay and launched a photography subscription, with a report saying the Sydney design company has just completed a new round that could value it at US$2.5 billion.
Also TechCrunch Venture·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·SmartCompany
Canva buys stock photo sites Pexels and Pixabay and launches a subscription service, with the article recalling its billion-dollar valuation after a $50 million raise and an earlier Zeetings acquisition.
Also Startup Daily·TechCrunch Venture·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·Startup News (WA)·Forbes Australia·Forbes Australia·Forbes Australia
A year-end roundup of Australia's largest 2018 startup capital raises, covering Judo Capital, Deputy, Airwallex, Inflazome, SafetyCulture, Culture Amp, Canva, Havven, Athena, Ansarada and Data Republic, with investors and earlier rounds recalled.
Also Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Techboard·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·Techboard·Techboard·SmartCompany·Startup Daily·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·Forbes Australia·Crunchbase News·Wholesale Investor
Interview with Canva's co-founder sharing fundraising lessons, alongside news the design company has secured fresh backing led by Blackbird and Felicis, doubling its valuation to $458 million.
The design platform secured fresh capital from its previous backers, lifting its worth substantially, while its co-founder reflects on growth, global user numbers and lessons for other local entrepreneurs.
Canva raised a US$15 million Series A led by Felicis Ventures at a US$165 million valuation, with existing backers and two actors joining; Felicis also led Culture Amp's March raise.
Also SmartCompany·SmartCompany·SmartCompany·Dealroom·TechCrunch Venture
The online design platform has secured additional backing from new and existing backers to support growth, and unveiled an embeddable feature plus partnerships with several website service providers.
Also TechCrunch Venture
Sydney online design startup Canva, founded by Melanie Perkins, Cliff Obrecht and Cameron Adams, has secured a $3 million seed round from Australian and US backers after the founders met investors at a Hawaiian kitesurfing camp.
Also TechCrunch Venture