Australia-headquartered design software maker Canva has deepened its investment in South Africa, opening a regional office in Johannesburg and expanding its local workforce as part of a wider Africa growth strategy.

The move comes as the company accelerates its push into education, small business enablement and the creator economy across the continent.

The new office, in Rosebank, is home to Canva’s nine-person South African team and marks the company’s most significant physical investment in the region to date.

It follows strong uptake of Canva’s tools across the continent, the company said, with more than 77 million designs created by South Africans in the past year. Canva now serves 260 million monthly active users globally and recently surpassed US$3.5-billion in annual revenue.

Canva is also broadening its localisation strategy, expanding its platform to include nearly 20 African languages, including Zulu and Afrikaans.

Central to Canva’s Africa strategy is education. Through its Canva for Education initiative, the company is partnering with local universities. The platform is being rolled out free of charge to students and educators.

Rand pricing

To improve accessibility and affordability, Canva has introduced local currency pricing in South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya.

Canva, which last year acquired popular photo editing, layout and vector drawing tool Affinity, recently made the Affinity software free to download and use, without any restrictions, challenging Adobe, which develops Photoshop, Illustrator and other professional creative design software.

Read: Adobe releases Photoshop for iPhone – Android on its way

The company revealed it is giving serious consideration – following customer requests – to port the software to Linux. No final decision has been made about developing a Linux version, but company executives suggested it is likely to happen. – © 2025 NewsCentral Media

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