ASX tech investors might be scouring the ASX for a company called Canva today. Before you search for 'ASX Canva' though, you might want to read this first.
Canva is one of the biggest Australian tech companies. According to a report from Forbes, this digital design company has just been valued at a whopping US$15 billion ($19.6 billion) after a recent funding round. It was sitting at a valuation of US$6 billion less than a year ago.
The new valuation was helped by the company reporting that it is profitable. It also reported that annualised revenues have grown beyond US$500 million. That's up 130% in a year. Canva now reportedly has 55 million users, including 3 million paying ones.
But unfortunately for ASX tech investors, Canva is not listed on the ASX. This company remains a private one, owned largely by its founders Melanie Perkins, Cameron Adams and Cliff Obrecht. As such, it's only institutional investors that are privy to owning shares. The report tells us that it's these investors that are pushing the valuation of Canva to new heights though.
The funding round that valued the company at US$15 billion reportedly resulted in Canva raising US$71 million in new funding. That came from a handful of big institutional investors, including fund managers T. Rowe Price, Blackbird Ventures and Dragoneer.
That new valuation has pushed the stakes that Canva's founders have to new heights as well. Ms Perkins and Mr Obrecht both own a little less than 15% each in the company after the funding round. That values their holdings at roughly $2 billion each.
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Will Canva IPO on the ASX?
Despite this new valuation, which makes Canva more valuable than listed ASX tech companies Altium Limited (ASX: ALU), Appen Ltd (ASX: APX), Airtasker Ltd (ASX: ART) and Zip Co Ltd (ASX: Z1P) put together, there is no talk of an imminent ASX IPO for Canva.
But given the ASX's enthusiastic accommodation of Airtasker, which rocketed more than 80% when it IPOed last month, I'm sure its founders are thinking about it. If Canva did hit the ASX boards, it would immediately become one of ASX's most valuable tech companies.
But remember, we might not even see Canva on the ASX if it does decide to go public. Australia's largest tech company is theoretically Atlassian Corporation (NASDAQ: TEAM), which is currently valued at US$55.8 billion. But Atlassian decided to list on the US Nasdaq exchange when it IPOed back in 2015, rather than our ASX. Canva could well decide it's large enough to play in the big end of town now too.
