The world is moving towards a tech environment where people are now revolutionizing to graphics format. With this perspective, the business giants initiated various animation and graphic designing platforms. Although, they failed to catch the top spot in the industry.
The only software that remains is Canva. With over 60 million monthly active users, across 190 countries, Canva is leading above all other platforms. And here we will see how Melanie Perkins, from an average family, backed this world-level platform.
“If you can offer a free tier that provides a lot of value, it will naturally help your product to spread much more rapidly” – Melanie Perkins
Early Life of Melanie Perkins
Melanie Perkins was born in 1987 in Perth, Western Australia. She is the daughter of an Australian-born teacher and a Malaysian engineer of Filipino and Sri Lankan descent.
She did her secondary education at Sacred Heart College, located in the northern Perth suburb of Sorrento.
During her schooling days, Melanie had aspirations of becoming a professional figure skater thus attended competitive ice-skating training sessions.
She would routinely wake up around 4.30 am daily to train. However, she quit it due to personal reasons.
Now, Melanie believes that ice skating enabled her to be disciplined and taught her the importance of consistency. Overall, her training for ice-skating build her base and prepared her for the future that awaited her.
Melanie was already a business-minded lady.
When she was just 14, she used to sell handmade scarves. This shows the entrepreneurial spirit she had since her early days.
After high school, Melanie joined the University of Western Australia where she studied communication, psychology, and commerce. Around this period, she was also a private tutor for students interested in graphic design.
While doing this job, Melanie, unfortunately, realized the difficulties students had in learning design programs such as Adobe Photoshop.
She even believed that it took students almost a semester at University in becoming familiar with the basic feature of these tough design programs.
While other people always found it as a problem, Melanie thought and took it as a business opportunity. She was thinking about making the design process easier for its consumer.
Thus, she dropped out of university at age 19 to start her first business with her partner Cliff Obrecht.
Melanie Perkins Age
Melanie Perkins is 39 years old as of May 2026. She was born on May 13, 1987. The Australian entrepreneur co-founded Canva, one of the world’s most valuable design platforms.
Her age places her among the youngest self-made billionaires globally.
Melanie Perkins – Early Career
Melanie Perkins co-founded Canva in 2013 with Cliff Obrecht and Cameron Adams. The platform democratizes graphic design for millions worldwide. As CEO, she has grown Canva to 260 million monthly active users by 2025. The company’s business revenue reached 3.5 billion dollars in 2025.
Canva launched its Creative Operating System in 2025. This major initiative integrated AI across the entire visual design suite. Moreover, in 2026, Perkins unveiled Canva AI 2.0 at the Canva Create conference. This agentic AI technology automates creative workflows for enterprise clients.
Her platform at Canva.com now integrates with major tools like Mailchimp, HubSpot, and PayPal. These partnerships position Canva as a broader productivity platform beyond design.
Furthermore, Perkins was recognized on Forbes’ World’s 100 Most Powerful Women in 2023. She also earned a spot on Inc.’s 2026 Female Founders 500 List.
Formation of Canva
Melanie and Obrecht were doing great with Fusion Books though they were suffering a lack of funds for growth and expansion.
She looked to many small investors in Perth, but more than 100 of them denied investing. Overall, they had to face tough challenges to get funds from investors.
However, the two-partner believed in them, in their business, and looked forward to other sources. Around this period, prominent investor, Bill Trai visited Perth to judge a start-up competition.
Melanie and Obrecht proposed their idea for Canva in front of him over dinner. Along with this, there were other venture capitalists including Rick Baker from Blackbird Ventures.
They didn’t get funding but became regular fixtures at gatherings hosted by Trai for investors and start-up initiatives.
Some of the gatherings were held at Silicon Valley, where the two partners met Lars Rasmussen, co-founder of Google Maps.
He expressed interest in their ideas but told the founder to hold everything until they found a professional tech team of the caliber required.
Rasmussen then served Canva as the tech advisor where he let them meet Cameron Adams, an ex-Google employee with the relevant technical expertise.
Although, he was not that interested to work with their business as he was initiating his own business.
Adam was trying to raise funds for his business in Silicon Valley. At this time, Melanie sent her another email asking if he is interested in their business.
Fortunately, he agreed to join Canva, becoming its third founder and chief product officer.
Launch of Canva
The worse days went away after Cameron joined the company and invested funds for the brand to grow. In 2013, they officially launched Canva after two rounds of seed funding.
The three co-founders announced their positions also, Melanie as the CEO of Canva, Obrecht as the COO, and Cameron as the COP of the company.
Canva’s rise was no less than a rocket. It rapidly grew up and diversified the business.
In fact, they had more than 600,000 users in their very initial days. And with the coming months, they expanded the company’s reach to Beijing and Manila.
Melanie earned huge fame in Silicon Valley with just a little diversification of her business outside Australia.
She became a topic to discuss for many tech businesspersons of the United State. She was cleaning the graphic designing business competition on a large scale.
She came into the limelight all over the world when she was named the Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in Asia List.
In 2020, the company raised $60 million, and thus its valuation went up to $6 billion.
Melanie Perkins Personal Life
Melanie Perkins married Cliff Obrecht in January 2021 on Rottnest Island. Obrecht is her business partner and co-founder of Canva. Together they committed to the Giving Pledge in 2021.
This commitment dedicates at least half of their fortune to philanthropic causes.
Melanie Perkin Net Worth
Melanie Perkins’ net worth is approximately 7.6 billion dollars as of May 2026. Forbes reported this significant valuation based on her stake in Canva.
Additionally, she and her husband Cliff Obrecht hold joint assets valued at 18.5 billion Australian dollars. Their combined wealth places them atop Australia’s Young Rich List for 2025.
Also Read: Life Story of Late American Motivational Speaker and Entrepreneur Jim Rohn
The Bottom Line
Melanie, since her starting days, desired to innovate a platform that can make the whole graphic designing process easier. Yet, she has no funds to initiate this plan and grow broadly. However, she had faith in her.
Her dream is now true and that’s all because of her hard work and struggles.
We all have always two options in life, either commit to something and work hard for it, or just leave away and live a 6 to 8 job life.
More than 90% of people chose to live a 6 to 8 hours job life. And it’s not fake that they had no idea about something.
Many of them had, though kneeled down against their issues, little problems, and failed to face the challenges.
We encourage you to work hard until you didn’t get something. Just don’t care about the reward. Just work and work consistently in the right way.
One day, success will be below your feet.
I hope you had a good time going through the success story of Melanie Perkins. We would love to listen to your feedback and opinions regarding this article.
Have a Good Day!
Top References & Sources
- wikipedia.com
- forbes.com
- linkedin.com
- canva.com
- cnbc.com
- entrepreneur.com
“If you are determined and want it, you can just go for it” – Melanie Perkins
Make Sure to Check: World’s First Self-Made Billionaire – Whitney Wolfe Herd, Founder of Bumble
FAQs.
What is Melanie Perkins net worth in 2026?
Melanie Perkins’ net worth is approximately 7.6 billion dollars as of May 2026.
How old is Melanie Perkins?
Melanie Perkins is 39 years old, born May 13, 1987.
Who is Melanie Perkins married to?
She is married to Cliff Obrecht, her Canva co-founder since January 2021.
What company did Melanie Perkins found?
Melanie Perkins co-founded Canva, a graphic design platform, in 2013.
How many users does Canva have?
Canva has 260 million monthly active users as of 2025.