By Cara Waters
Investors in Australian software unicorn Canva are hopeful extreme turbulence in sharemarkets won't derail the company's hopes for public listing as newly published financial accounts indicate the graphic design platform continues to boom.
Canva's annual financial report published by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission on Tuesday shows the company recorded $86.3 million in revenue for its Australian entity in 2018, a 118 per cent increase on the previous year.
Canva co-founder Melanie Perkins has overseen the company's soaring revenue. Credit: Wolter Peeters
Canva was valued at US$3.2 billion ($5.23 billion) last year when it received a new injection of funding and the company has continued to grow with 20 million active monthly users. Canva has not publicly declared plans for an IPO but its eventual listing would be the most eagerly anticipated float of an Austalian tech business since Atlassian.
Software stocks have been hit hard in the broader market collapse triggered by coronavirus fears. AirTree Ventures partner Craig Blair, who has backed Canva in multiple funding rounds, said that while "times are very uncertain" Canva remains well positioned.
"When it comes to an IPO frankly Canva is in charge of its own destiny, it can do whatever it wants there," he said. "The fundamentals of the business are strong and it's in a stronger position than the incumbents."
The figures filed with ASIC are just for Canva's local business indicating the importance of global revenue to the technology company. A spokesperson for Canva previously stated in October last year that it was on track to generate $291 million in annualised revenue.
Canva recorded a loss of $4.1 million for 2018, ASIC accounts show, however its directors' report noted the company maintained underlying profitability with an adjusted earnings before interest, depreciation and tax of $1.3 million for the year after adjusting for non cash items relating to shore based payments expenses and foreign exchange.
Canva's accounts also reveal it paid $22 million to buy free stock photography sites Pexels and Pixabay, acquistions which it used to launch Photos Unlimited, Canva's "Netflix-style" subscription model for paid stock photography.
Co-founder and chief executive Melanie Perkins said Canva continued to generate positive cash flows from operations and when asked whether coronaviru was impacting sales she said "business continues as usual".
She declined to comment on whether the market turbulence stemming from coronavirus would affect the timing of any initial public offering for the company.
For now, Ms Perkins is focused on the impact of coronavirus on the community and Canva's 800 employees.
She published an open letter online on Tuesday calling on business and civic leaders to #stopthespread of coronavirus by committing to social distancing and making working from home mandatory where possible.
The letter has been signed by other Australian tech founders and venture capitalists including Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar, Culture Amp founder Didier Elzinga, Deputy co-founder Ashik Ahmed and Expert 360 co-founder Bridget Louden.
Ms Perkins said Canva had asked all employees to work from home since Friday and had suspended travel for team members.
"Business leaders can - and need to - play a role in stopping the spread, and to lessen the pressure on our healthcare workers," she said. "Measures such as implementing work-from-home, reducing social contact, and simply being kind and compassionate to each other is what’s going to help us get through these testing times as a nation."
Ms Perkins said Canva was extending its not for profit program to public health organisations so they can use Canva Pro for free to help spread accurate information about COVID-19.
"While cases may seem currently low in Australia, we need to encourage urgent action in order to slow the spread here," she said. "There is still a lot more we can be doing to support organisations to do more, and are calling on business and civic leaders to do their part here, in particular, we are concerned about the impact our schools staying open are having on the viruses spread."