Live: Melanie Perkins’ net worth
Real-time net worth: US$7.6 billion (Forbes estimate). Loading the latest figure…
Net worth over time
Profile
- Age
- 39
- Source of wealth
- Software, self-made
- Company
- Canva, cofounder and CEO
- Citizenship
- Australia
- Marital status
- Married to Cliff Obrecht
- Education
- University of Western Australia (dropped out)
Key facts
- Perkins is cofounder and chief executive of design software company Canva, which she launched in Sydney in 2013 with her now husband, Cliff Obrecht, and Cameron Adams. Investors were sceptical because of where it was based.
- She learned to kitesurf in an effort to win investment from a group of kiteboarding venture capitalists, including angel investor Bill Tai.
- Like Obrecht, she owns an estimated 18% of Canva. The couple has pledged to transfer more than 80% of their stake to the Canva Foundation for charitable causes.
- Canva was valued at US$42 billion in August 2025 and has 260 million monthly users. At Canva Create 2026, she unveiled Canva AI 2.0.
- In November 2026, she announced a restructure affecting about 1,271 roles, or 22% of the company, telling staff it had been Canva’s “hardest year yet” and that growth had slowed for the first time in a decade.
- “If the whole thing was about building wealth, that would be the most uninspiring thing I could possibly imagine,” Perkins has said.