Canva, a staple of the creator economy, comes for the enterprise economy

Adding to the Canva(s)…. Sydney-based startup Canva racked up 185M monthly users by making graphic design accessible to non-design pros. You might’ve used its free version to create Insta carousels or quick slide decks. Snacks was on the ground at the Canva Create event yesterday, where the privately held company showed how it’s expanding beyond its DIY creator roots with AI-infused products for corporations.

• Meet Canva Enterprise: Canva’s workplace tools aren’t just for making external comms (like ads and social posts) but for internal work too (like onboarding modules, trainings, and brainstorm boards).

• Canva’s pitching it as an all-in-one hub for teams like sales, creative, and HR. Brand templates let team members create and collab on content like sales-pitch decks. Early users at Workday and Expedia said their teams have saved thousands of hours.

• AI magic: Building off its AI design tools, Canva added genAI enterprise features like a tool that can churn out copy in the brand’s voice and a video editor that can remove backgrounds and clean up sound.

• Risky business: Canva’s moved fast to stay ahead of AI, launching integrations with partners like OpenAI, but there’s still a risk of bigger tools squeezing it out or making it less relevant.

An enterprising endeavor… Canva already expanded beyond amateur designers to pros with its acquisition of Adobe competitor Affinity last month. Now it’s not just coming for Adobe, but for Google, Microsoft, and other makers of workplace tools. With Enterprise, employees at big companies can make Google Docs-style suggestions in Canva docs. Canva’s chief marketing officer, Zach Kitschke, told Snacks that the top reason people use Canva is for presentations and that many already use individual accounts to support their daily work.

• There’s a reason to go after corporate: Canva’s revenue from orgs grew nearly 50% last year, and the company reportedly expects it to grow another 60% this year — nearly 20% faster than individual account sales.