Founder Profile
Melanie Perkins
Last reviewed: October 2026 · By Swet Parvadiya
Who is Melanie Perkins?
Melanie Perkins is a founder of Canva Pty Ltd, which was founded in 2013 with Cliff Obrecht and Cameron Adams.
- Company founded
- Canva Pty Ltd
- Founded
- 2013
- Co-founders
- Cliff Obrecht and Cameron Adams
Background
University dropout who built Fusion Books, an online yearbook design platform in Australia.
Founding Story
Melanie Perkins (born 1987) co-founded Canva after realizing how difficult complex design software like Adobe InDesign was for students to learn. She pitched over 100 investors before securing initial funding. As CEO, she oversaw the product's rapid global adoption, focusing entirely on simplifying the user experience and introducing freemium web-based design templates.
Perkins was born in 1987. Before Canva she co-founded Fusion Books, a web-based yearbook publisher.