Canva is on a mission to democratize design, says co-founder Cameron Adams

Canva, with a 10.3% share, may appear to be a distant fourth, but this web-based design tool is also very popular, mostly with non-designers, because of its ease of use and intuitive interface. “In India—our fourth-largest market—we see significant growth potential. We have doubled our local team and focused on creating a truly local experience with region-specific content and language support,” Cameron Adams, co-founder and chief product officer of Canva, told Mint during his first visit to India. 

Canva has over 240,000 freelancers and over 10,000 teachers on Facebook in the country, most of whom use its presentation and social media templates. According to Adams, over 139 million presentations, comprising resumes, business proposals, pitch decks, and Instagram posts with quotes, were created in India in 2024.

The company’s Magic Studio tools support Indian languages like Assamese, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Maithili, Malayalam, Marathi, Punjabi, Sindhi, Tamil, and Telugu. Canva’s Photo Background remover is the most used artificial intelligence (AI) feature in India, said Adam, who added that India ranks in the top three countries globally using Canva video editing tool and Canva website builder.

When asked about competition with companies such as Adobe, Adams said: “In the competitive design space, we empower those who wouldn’t traditionally consider themselves creative.” 

He asserted that Canva is on a “mission to democratize design”, adding that when Canva was launched in 2012, design was largely inaccessible—expensive software and specialized knowledge were required to create compelling visuals.

Social media beginning

The company began with a focus on social media graphics and expanded into presentations. It currently has about 220 million monthly users who create videos, websites, t-shirts, tote bags, and a wide range of other products. 

It isn’t just individuals or small businesses using Canva; larger teams, enterprises with over a thousand employees, major non-profits, and educational institutions began to leverage the platform even before the covid-19 outbreak. “This grassroots adoption within organizations highlighted the need for a more coordinated, enterprise-focused solution,” Adams explained, adding that this realization led to the launch of Canva Enterprise at the Canva Create event in Los Angeles in 2024.

The unlisted company, valued at about $49 billion, now has around 22 million paid subscribers and over $2.5 billion in annualized revenue each year. “Previously, design was confined to specialized teams, often resulting in delays or off-brand content when non-designers had to create materials themselves. We’re now used by 95% of the Fortune 500 companies. Large teams are benefiting from shared libraries, brand templates, and streamlined collaboration, bridging the gap between creative departments and the rest of the organization,” Adams explained.

Canva also leverages AI, which is now “an integral part of its end-to-end experience—from the moment users land on its homepage to the final publication of a design”. According to Adams, it once took weeks to craft a great design, but Canva reduced that to minutes. 

“With AI, we’re now reducing it to seconds. Looking ahead, the next 10 years for Canva will focus on empowering teams to collaborate, create outstanding designs with AI partners, and do so faster and at higher quality,” he said.

Striking balance

But how does one balance rapid AI-driven innovation with product stability and user trust? “Our heritage in innovation drives us to deliver a smooth, powerful experience—one that AI further enhances by enabling users to generate better ideas and higher-quality content faster,” Adams said, adding that he believes the future is about humans and technology partnerships.

 “While AI accelerates and enables creativity, the human spark remains at the core. This philosophy also extends to our professional creative partners—photographers, illustrators, videographers, and graphic designers—who have contributed their content to our platform. Early on, we gave creators access to a massive audience, and with our Creators Fund, we now reward them monthly when their work is used in AI models, all while respecting their choice to opt in or out,” he said.

Addressing concerns around bias, content ownership, and authenticity of AI-generated images, Adams pointed out that Canva has a “dedicated trust and safety team ensuring our outputs are diverse, locally relevant, and free from bias. We even open source much of our work in this area, continually researching and testing new innovations to safeguard our users”.

Gaining traction

Meanwhile, Canva’s plug-in for ChatGPT has gained a lot of traction, topping the GPT store for months. Our strong partnership with OpenAI has helped shape our understanding of how people interact with AI, allowing us to develop products that truly meet user expectations. 

Further, by partnering with companies like HubSpot, FedEx, and Dropbox, Canva seamlessly embedded its design tools into the daily workflows of millions of professionals, streamlining the creation, sharing, and printing of designs.

Acquisitions, too, like that of generative AI art content and research startup Leonardo.ai and professional design tools company Affinity in 2024, have helped “bridge the gap between professional designers and non-designers, ensuring that great creative work flows seamlessly across organizations”, Adams said.

When asked what aspiring entrepreneurs should do if they want to emulate Canva’s feat in the design space, Adams said, “For aspiring design startups, my advice is simple: Focus on what you’re truly passionate about. Building a lasting business requires overcoming challenges and staying deeply invested in your vision—because design, at its core, can make the world a better place.”