Canva targets SMBs with new subscription product

Startup raises $6m

Australian-founded startup Canva is set to next month unveil a new design product for teams and organisations called Canva for Work.

Canva provides an online design platform.

Canva for Work will be available in June.

“As the world becomes an increasingly visual place, the existing tools provided by Microsoft and Adobe no longer meet the needs of companies where everyone has to create high quality graphics and express their ideas visually,” said Canva CEO and co-founder Melanie Perkins

According to a survey by Canva of 500 SMBs in the US, 79 per cent of respondents found design marketing materials time consuming.

Eighty seven per cent said that they wished design was more efficient at their company while 78 per cent of companies said that people who are not professional designers create social media graphics, customer facing presentations and other materials.

"A lot of professions didn't require as much visuals but marketers and social media teams are required to create more visual content ranging from social media graphics to presentations," Perkins said.

The startup also announced that Matrix Partners, Shasta Ventures and Blackbird Ventures had invested US$6 million of capital in the business. This money will be used to promote Canva for Work and "get into the hands of every team who needs it," said Perkins.

In mid-2014 Canva announced it had raised $3.6 million and unveiled new partnerships with web hosts to integrate its quick graphic design tool.

Read more: Bigcommerce rolls out 'enterprise' ecommerce platform

The Sydney-based startup, which has Apple luminary Guy Kawasaki as its chief evangelist, signed agreements with GoDaddy, Tailwind, Agora Pulse, Post Planner and TabSite to integrate Canva into their platforms.

Under the partnerships, each company will add Canva “design” buttons next to existing upload options. Users can click the button to quickly design graphics without leaving the website.

Follow Hamish Barwick on Twitter: @HamishBarwick

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