Canva hikes prices by 300pc as it readies for IPO | Information Age

Gotta get those price hikes in quick! Photo: Shutterstock

Canva has announced a price increase of 300 per cent for some of its users as the Australian tech company prepares for a public listing in the US.

Canva provides a design software platform for individuals and businesses, and was valued at $37.8 billion as of its last funding round.

Subscribers to Canva Teams, which is targeted at businesses with several users, were emailed late last week to notify them of the price increase, which amounts to a three-times jump.

A spokesperson for Canva said the price rise was due in part to the introduction of a number of new features on the Canva platform, including many powered by AI and generative AI.

In Australia, the subscription fee for Canva Teams is currently a flat fee of $39.99 per month for up to five users, as the Australian Financial Review reported.

Under the changes, it will now cost $40.50 for each user, with a minimum of three users.

This means a Canva Teams subscription for three users will be increasing from just under $480 per year to $1,458 per year.

A new AI push

Canva unveiled a new suite of AI-powered tools at its Canva Create conference in Los Angeles in May, along with a renewed push to target bigger businesses.

“Our suite of products has grown significantly in the last couple of years with the launch of new offerings like the Visual Suite and Magic Studio,” a Canva spokesperson told the Australian Financial Review.

“Starting in September, the price of Canva Teams is changing for existing customers to reflect the current price of the plan and the value of our expanded product experience.”

In the US, Canva Teams customers currently paying $US15 per month for five users will have to pay a flat fee of $US10 per person per month instead.

There also appears to be a further price hike slated for 2026 for Canva Teams subscribers.

An email sent to a Canva Teams subscriber with five users in the US late last week said that from April next year it will cost $442.70 ($US300) per year and that this will jump to $737.80 ($US500) per year from April 2026.

Canva price increase is one of the biggest increases I have ever seen YoY. pic.twitter.com/8MOEYMcRm3

— Will Sanders (@wlsndrs) August 30, 2024

Listing in the US

The steep price increase comes as Canva is readying for a potential public listing in 2026.

The company will be conducting the IPO in the US, with Canva co-founder Cliff Obrecht earlier this year saying that this was an “obvious” decision as Australian investors “don’t understand tech as well [compared to] higher multiples, more sophisticated investors in the US”.

This would be a similar path as fellow Australian tech giant Atlassian took in 2015 when it listed on the Nasdaq.

Canva also acquired generative AI design startup Leonardo.AI earlier this year, in a deal reportedly worth well over $100 million.

Leonardo.AU, which had previously been dubbed “the next Canva”, provides an AI-powered platform that is capable of making images and 3D models based on written prompts.

In April, $2.4 billion in Canva shares switched hands in a secondary market sale that accounted for 6 per cent of the overall business.

This provided a boon for earlier employees involved in Canva’s Employee Stock Ownership Plan.

Canva is regularly featured on lists of the best tech firms to work at in Australia.

It came in at number nine on LinkedIn’s annual list of the top 25 companies for career growth in Australia for 2024, the first time it has landed on the list.