Global design software leader Canva, headquartered in Australia, has deepened its investment in South Africa by opening a regional office in Johannesburg and expanding its local workforce as part of a broader Africa growth strategy. The new office, located in Rosebank, houses Canva’s nine-person South African team and represents the company’s most significant physical investment in the region to date.
This move underscores Canva’s commitment to accelerating its presence across Africa, focusing on education, small business enablement, and the creator economy. Canva is enhancing its localization strategy by introducing support for nearly 20 African languages, including Zulu and Afrikaans, to make its platform more accessible to diverse communities.
This follows strong adoption of Canva’s tools across the continent, with South Africans creating over 77 million designs in the past year.
Globally, Canva now serves 260 million monthly active users and recently surpassed US$3.5 billion in annual revenue. To improve affordability and accessibility, Canva has rolled out local currency pricing in South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, and Kenya, ensuring that its services remain competitive and inclusive.
Central to Canva’s Africa expansion is its Canva for Education initiative, which provides free access to students and educators. The company is partnering with local universities to integrate its tools into academic programs, empowering the next generation of creators and entrepreneurs.
Canva’s ambitions extend beyond design templates. Following its acquisition of Affinity—a popular suite for photo editing, layout, and vector design—the company has made Affinity software free to download and use without restrictions, positioning itself as a strong challenger to Adobe, the developer of Photoshop and Illustrator.
Responding to customer demand, Canva is also considering a Linux version of Affinity, with executives suggesting that while no final decision has been made, the move is likely to happen.
