The Interview5 Dec 2025

Melanie Perkins, Canva CEO: From information to imagination

Zoe Kleinman, the BBC’s Technology editor, speaks to Canva CEO Melanie Perkins about the current tech and AI revolution that is transforming the internet and the world. Perkins, who is still only in her late-30s, is well-known for her entrepreneurial drive, having quit university at just 19 years old to launch her first venture.

Unlike many of today’s Silicon Valley-based big tech companies, Canva started out in the Australian city of Perth with a mission to ‘empower the world to design’.

It offers a variety of templates and tools to help users without technical skills or a design background to create a range of professional-looking graphics and presentations, from wedding invitations to business pitch decks.

Since launching in 2013, it has grown to become a multi-billion dollar business used by around 250 million people every month.

The success of Canva has catapulted Perkins into a number of lists ranking the world’s most powerful women, compiled by the likes of Forbes and Fortune. But it is a far cry from the very early days, when she was rejected by over 100 investors as she sought to get it off the ground.

The Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world, from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC. You can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get your podcasts.

Presenter: Zoe Kleinman Producers: Ben Cooper and Philippa Wain Editor: Justine Lang

Get in touch with us on email TheInterview@bbc.co.uk and use the hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media.

(Image: Canva CEO Melanie Perkins holds a microphone. Credit: Alisha Jucevic/Getty Images)

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