Collaborative graphic design app Canva raises $200M led by T. Rowe Price at a $40B valuation; its founders pledge to give away 30% of Canva to charitable causes
Canva is now one of the world's most valuable startups after raising $200 million in new funding at a $40 billion valuation. Source: Canva .
ForbesAlex Konrad
Context & Ripple Effects
Canva's valuation curve has gone near-vertical: a $15B round in April 2021 followed a $6B mark in June 2020 and $3.2B in late 2019, so the $40B price T. Rowe Price paid just five months after the April round caps roughly a twelve-fold re-rating in under two years.
What makes the headline more than another mark is the founders' commitment to give away 30% of the company — an equity-scale pledge attached to one of the world's most valuable startups, made at what later coverage shows was close to the top: subsequent staff share sales priced at $26B in 2024 before recovering to a $42B sale in August 2025, when Canva reported $3.3B+ annualized sales and 240M+ MAUs.
First-order effects
T. Rowe Price leads a $200M check into Canva at $40B, making the asset manager the anchor buyer of a valuation set just months after the $15B April round — with the founders simultaneously committing 30% of the company's equity to charitable causes.
Second-order effects
Late-stage investors who bought at or near this $40B mark face mark-to-market pressure when the same company's shares later trade at $26B in the 2024 staff-and-investor sale, forcing repricing across Canva's cap table before the 2025 recovery to $42B.
The 30% charitable pledge locks a large block of founder equity into philanthropic vehicles, constraining how much stock can ever hit the secondary market in sales like the 2024 and 2025 transactions.
Third-order effects
If the pattern holds, mega-round valuations set by crossover buyers like T. Rowe Price become reference points that later employee liquidity events either validate or force downward — with Canva's $40B-to-$26B-to-$42B arc as the case study.
Founder pledges of company equity at scale normalize charity commitments as a component of late-stage financing announcements, adding a governance layer to cap tables alongside institutional holders.
The trend: Growth-stage design platforms are being repriced on a multi-year whipsaw — crossover-fund marks at the 2021 peak giving way to discounted employee share sales, then recovering on revenue scale — while founder equity pledges become part of the mega-round playbook.
The opportunity that we have is only superseded by the responsibility we feel. We hope we can live up to it over the years to come. So lucky to turn a wild idea into reality with the best team, community and investors. Exciting progress on our 2-step plan: https://medium.com/...
So damn lucky to be on @canva's journey since 2014. Just an astonishing company. Milestones today: -valued at $40B -close to $1B in ARR -30% of the equity (i.e. $12B today) pledged by founders @MelanieCanva & @cliffobrecht to do good in the world 🤯🙏🏽 https://medium.com/...
It's a big day for all @canva with news of our $US40B valuation🚀But even bigger: our phenomenal founders @MelanieCanva @cliffobrecht will give the majority of their equity (30%) to the Canva Foundation. Canva is a truly a force-for-good company 💙https://medium.com/ ...
Canva CEO @MelanieCanva: “It has felt strange when people refer to us as “billionaires” as it has never felt like our money, we've always felt that we're purely custodians of it.” https://medium.com/...
... and with Mel and Cliff's announcement today that they will be committing the vast majority of the wealth they have created from Canva to make an impact on the poorest people on the world is simply awesome. https://medium.com/...
In the early days - it was so easy for designers to write off a company like Canva (myself included) - but man they've done so much to make design accessible and now the founders committing serious $$$ to philanthropy. HUGE respect. https://medium.com/...
“We have this wildly optimistic belief that there is enough money, goodwill, and good intentions in the world to solve most of the world's problems, and we want to spend our lifetime working towards that.” ❤️ https://medium.com/...
Stirring stuff from @canva. Step 2 is often pushed to later. Great to see them pledging their wealth and doing more now. I hope more teams are inspired by and adopt this culture. https://medium.com/...
Truly the company of a generation. From humble beginnings in 2012, @MelanieCanva @cliffobrecht @themaninblue and the whole of team @canva are an inspiration for what's possible for entrepreneurs from Australia. And from anywhere for that matter. https://twitter.com/...
The founders of the company have SOUL. Authentic and authentically interested in building a better world. Kudos @MelanieCanva , @cliffobrecht , @cameronadams ,@themaninblue ; creators of the smash hit.. @canva https://www.forbes.com/...
It's incredibly rare to see founders commit most of their equity to charity while still private 🚀. Canva's CEO @MelanieCanva and husband and COO @cliffobrecht just pledged away a combined stake valued at $12 billion: “We're purely custodians of it.” https://www.forbes.com/...