One of Canva’s most notable investors in US has marked the tech company up by 22 per cent leading to its rise in valuation.
Global investment firm Franklin Templeton’s higher stake suggests that the private tech market has already bottomed out and is beginning to stabilize.
The firm can be quite aggressive in its markdowns since it valued its stakes about 60 per cent lower than it did a year ago even after Canva’s positive adjustment last quarter which makes its 22% markup worth noting.
As of September end, Canva had become Australia’s most valuable startups with a $1 billion valuation.
Another reason for this markup catching attention is that many listed tech giants, including Meta (Facebook’s parent company), Salesforce and Atlassian, still trading near their year-to-date lows, filings last week with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
“The company has seen strong growth this quarter with monthly active users increasing by more than 20 million following the launch of the new Visual Worksuite, and [it]has been profitable for six years with a substantial cash balance,” said Blackbird Ventures partner Rick Baker.
“These are great signals and clearly the market is recognizing that too.”
“While the broader market conditions will lag behind the progress of any particular start-up, generational companies continue marching forward and Canva is truly a generational company.“
It’ll be interesting to see what T. Rowe Price – another leading US investor who had knocked off 30 per cent more off Canva’s valuation around August – does.
Its September quarter update is due next week.
Canva, which was launched in Sydney in 2013 by Melanie Perkins, Cliff Obrecht and Cameron Adams and operates an online graphic design platform.
