Melanie Perkins

Melanie Perkins is cofounder and CEO of design software maker Canva, which was valued by private investors at $40 billion in September 2021.

Canva was launched in 2013 by Perkins, now-husband Cliff Obrecht and Cameron Adams in Sydney, Australia, but was met by investor skepticism due to its location.

Like Obrecht, she owns an estimated 18% stake. The couple has pledged to transfer more than 80% of their stake to the Canva Foundation for charitable causes.

Defying the doubts, Canva has attracted 60 million monthly users to its freemium software, with 500,000 teams from companies like Intel and Zoom paying for it.

Canva's software enables the creation of attractive visuals for menus, resumes and Instagram graphics.