(Reuters) -Australian graphic design platform Canva launched an employee stock sale that values the company at $42 billion, it said on Wednesday, ahead of a reported IPO this year.
The stock sale comes at time when the company is investing heavily in AI tools for its more than 240 million monthly active users.
Employees will be able to sell their shares to both new and existing investors in the funding round led by shareholder Fidelity Management, Canva said. JPMorgan’s asset management division is joining as a new investor.
“Identifying companies that can provide investors with pivotal exposure to breakthrough work in AI is an important pillar of our research in active management,” Felise Agranoff, a portfolio manager at a JPMorgan Asset Management arm said.
“We believe that Canva stands out in the design sector and can help create long-term value for investors.”
Canva Co-Founder and COO Cliff Obrecht said the funding round was “significantly oversubscribed”.
Details of the number of shares to be sold were not revealed.
Launched in 2013, Canva is a web-based platform that lets users design everything from wedding invitations and birthday cards to social media posts and presentations.
The company recently introduced AI-powered tools that allow users to generate designs and interactive elements using plain English. It reported annualised revenue of $3.3 billion.
Technology-focused news website The Information reported last year that Canva’s IPO was expected to happen in 2025.
(Reporting by Chandni Shah in Bengaluru and Byron Kaye; Editing by Harikrishnan Nair)
