Canva to Invest Significant in India's Rapidly Growing Market, partners with IITs and IIMs, to mentor students

During the launch of Canva's 'Magic Studio,' Co-founder and COO Clifford Obrecht expressed the company's commitment to investing heavily in India, citing it as one of the fastest-growing markets for this global graphic and design company. He also highlighted India's significance as having one of the largest creator communities on Facebook.

This declaration coincides with India's growing importance as a pivotal market for global social media giants, given its substantial user base for platforms like Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook. Social media companies are strategically eyeing India as they seek to monetize their various products.

Canva's 'Magic Studio' introduced new features like Magic Media, Magic Expand, Magic Grab, Magic Morph, and Magic Edit, available in 11 Indian languages. Education emerged as a prominent use case for Canva in India, with a substantial number of students among its users. Presentations and social media design are the most popular product categories in the Indian market.

Canva has actively engaged in partnerships and initiatives in India, such as the Canva for Startups program, which offers free trials to startup communities in collaboration with incubators and accelerators like Headstart, Razorpay, and Instamojo. This program has already benefited over 1,000 startups and SMBs.

Additionally, Canva has partnered with esteemed educational institutions in India, including the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), to provide support and mentorship to students through competitions and entrepreneurship cells.

Canva has also collaborated with education-focused organizations like the Centre for Teacher Accreditation, Vedantu, and state and central Education Departments, along with leading school networks, to offer teacher training and mentorship support, promoting visual learning in classrooms.

Founded in 2013, Canva was valued at $40 billion in 2021 but saw its valuation adjusted to $25.6 billion in 2023. As of this year, the Australian design company has completed a decade of operation. Co-founder and CEO Melanie Perkins shared that Canva achieved over $1.7 billion in annualized revenue, serving 16 million paying subscribers and boasting more than 150 million monthly active users.

Canva's Magic Studio, an AI design platform, will offer a suite of AI tools built on proprietary models, in partnership with industry leaders. It is designed to be comprehensive and interoperable, catering to individuals, teams, and organizations. Magic Studio will also provide access to the Canva Apps Marketplace, offering AI-enabled design and productivity tools, including Dall-E, Imagen by Google, MurfAI, and Soundraw.

Notable features within Magic Studio include Magic Switch, which converts designs and ideas into various content formats with a single click, Brand Voice, a copywriting assistant, and Magic Design, capable of transforming prompts or media into compelling, fully designed videos and presentations.

Melanie Perkins emphasized the company's focus on simplifying complex tasks, aiming to empower the vast majority of individuals without advanced design training. The launch of Magic Studio marks a significant step in this direction, empowering over 150 million individuals and thousands of businesses to unlock their creativity and achieve their goals.

Canva also announced a $200-million fund dedicated to providing content and AI royalties to its creator community over the next three years. This Creator Compensation Program will compensate Canva Creators who consent to using their content to train the company's proprietary AI models.