Tech company Canva, one of Australia's most successful unicorns, is now worth an astonishing $55 billion.
A $55 billion valuation would place Canva at a higher market capitalisation than many ASX 200 blue chip shares. That includes Telstra Corporation Ltd (ASX: TLS), Coles Group Ltd (ASX: COL) and even Woolworths Group Ltd (ASX: WOW).
This new valuation for Canva was reported in the Australian Financial Review (AFR) this morning. According to the report, Canva has just completed a new US$200 million funding round. It was reported some of the company's earliest backers, like BlackBird Ventures and AirTree Ventures, took part.
This funding round values Canva at US$40 billion, or $54.76 billion in the local currency. That's pretty much on par with the current market capitalisation of Fortescue Metals Group Limited (ASX: FMG). It was only 6 months ago that the company was valued at less than half of that figure.
The report also goes through some of Canva's financials:
Canva now claims to have over 60 million monthly active users, up from 55 million at its last raise, and said it was on track to exceed $US1 billion ($1.4 billion) in annualised revenue by the end of 2021.
The company has been profitable since 2017. It claimed there are now more than 500,000 paying teams subscribed to Canva, including from companies like American Airlines, Zoom, SkyScanner, Intel, Salesforce, PayPal and Marriott International.
So if you're not an investor with BlackBird Ventures and the like, when can you or I expect to be able to participate in this growth story? When will Canva IPO and join the ASX boards as a public company?
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When will Canva IPO?
Not for a while, at least according to another report in the AFR this week. This report claims Canva is unlikely to go public "for at least a year".
This is reportedly on valuation concerns, with inside investors worries that the public markets won't accept an even higher valuation that might make an IPO attractive. Here's what the report said on the matter:
Regardless, the word on the street is that Canva would have to be willing to accept a substantial discount on its current valuation if it were to list now, so why not just wait?
The report also flags that the company may bypass the ASX altogether if it does eventually float, citing the company's size and scale as more suited to the US Nasdaq exchange. In fact, the report stated "You can lock in the NASDAQ for Canva", so that's pretty unequivocal.
Unfortunately, we retail investors simply miss out sometimes. It seems it will stay that way for Canva. At least for now, anyway.
