Canva raises $15 million at a $345 million valuation for its online design tool

Canva has raised an additional $15 million for its online design platform, putting the company at a $345 million valuation. The latest round was led by Blackbird Ventures and Felicis Ventures and will be used to make Canvas’ tools more accessible and to develop a suite of products and offerings to help employees better present their skills and projects.

Founded in 2012 by Cliff Obrecht, Cameron Adams, and Melanie Perkins, Canva is on a mission to make graphic design easily accessible and simple for everyone. It now counts more than 10 million users in 179 countries, with more than 100 million designs created.

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Canva seeks to reduce companies’ dependence on designers to create quality presentations, business cards, posters, and more. The service is available on both the desktop and mobile devices, with an iPhone app released this summer. “Design is no longer a niche thing that needs to be done for a couple of ads in the newspaper; every single profession needs design to help communicate their message,” Perkins said. “The world is rapidly becoming more visual, and design is becoming more and more important across every profession.”

To date, Canva has raised over $42 million, with the last round just shy of a year ago. This latest investment comes from existing investors, amid what the company characterized as increased attention from venture capitalists. It opted to accept additional funding from Blackbird and Felicis because “We have loved working with them…Both focus on investing in companies that will transform entire industries and have a strong product focus. If there’s strong alignment on your long-term vision, it makes the smaller decisions a lot easier.”

The company claims that it didn’t need to raise the money, that this was an opportunistic round. Perkins explained that this meant Canva was “able to choose the investors we want to work with to ensure that we set Canva up for long-term success. We have so much left to do as a company,” he added, “it’s great to be able to have the resources to quadruple-down on all of our plans.”

Previous investors include 500 Startups, Founders Fund, InterWest Partners, Vayner/RSE, Shasta Ventures, Matrix Partners, Square Peg Capital, and actors Owen Wilson and Woody Harrelson.