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Meet Australia's $3.5BILLION power couple: How uni dropout Melanie Perkins, 33, built a tech empire with her boyfriend from her mum's living room - and the unlikely extreme sport that kick-started it all

Australian entrepreneur Melanie Perkins has taken the tech world by storm with a digital empire she created from her mother's living room with her boyfriend.

The success of the couple's graphic design software program, Canva, has catapulted the pair to the top of Australia's young rich list.

Ms Perkins, 33, and her fiancé Cliff Obrecht, 34, landed in second place on AFR's rich list this year with an estimated worth of $3.43 billion. 

The pair landed in second place behind Atlassian's Scott Farquhar, who is worth about $17.77 billion.

The Perth-born entrepreneur is one of only 12 women on the list - a slight improvement from last year, which only featured nine females.

Ms Perkins previously told Daily Mail Australia how she dreamed up the idea for a  graphics design business from her mother's couch while studying a first-year digital media subject at university in 2005.  

 Melanie Perkins, originally from Perth, founded the Sydney-based digital graphics business Canva with her fiance Cliff Obrecht in 2013 after dropping out of university

Melanie Perkins, originally from Perth, founded the Sydney-based digital graphics business Canva with her fiance Cliff Obrecht in 2013 after dropping out of university

Melanie Perkins (pictured with her fiance Cliff Obrecht) is the founder and CEO of Canva, an online graphic design app

Melanie Perkins (pictured with her fiance Cliff Obrecht) is the founder and CEO of Canva, an online graphic design app

She fell in love with graphic design and developed skills that far exceeded those of her peers, to the point where she was invited to teach graphic design workshops to students in other faculties.

She fell in love with graphic design and developed skills that far exceeded those of her peers, to the point where she was invited to teach graphic design workshops to students in other faculties.

Ms Perkins found most people struggled to use the clunky software, so she developed a business idea.

Ms Perkins found most people struggled to use the clunky software, so she developed a business idea.

'It was really complex and difficult, and it would take the entire semester to just learn where the buttons were on the software,' she said.

'It was really complex and difficult, and it would take the entire semester to just learn where the buttons were on the software,' she said.

'At the same time Facebook was taking off, and it was so easy to use and everyone was on it. 

'At the same time Facebook was taking off, and it was so easy to use and everyone was on it.

'And I just had this belief that in the future it wasn't going to be as complex to do design work.'

'And I just had this belief that in the future it wasn't going to be as complex to do design work.'

In 2007, Ms Perkins came up with the idea to create easy-to-use graphic design software which allows anyone to create graphics seamlessly.

She started the company six months before she graduated university so never actually completed her degree. 

Canva closed its first funding round of $3million in early 2013, and after more than a year of development launched in August of the same year. Pictured: Ms Perkins and Mr Obrecht (left)

Canva closed its first funding round of $3million in early 2013, and after more than a year of development launched in August of the same year. Pictured: Ms Perkins and Mr Obrecht

Ms Perkins found most people struggled to use the clunky software, so she developed a business idea

Ms Perkins found most people struggled to use the clunky software, so she developed a business idea

Her first company, Fusion Books, allowed schools and students to make their own yearbooks.

She had no business or marketing experience but said her inexperience gave her confidence that it wouldn't be too difficult to start a company from scratch.

'My boyfriend became my co-founder and we started in my mum's living room,' she said.

'Our naivety in some ways helped us … If I knew at the time all the things I didn't know it would have been intimating.'

The couple started with a bank loan and a tax rebate of $5,000, which they used to advertise online and send sample yearbooks to school.

Ms Perkins and her co-founder and fiance Cliff Obrecht (pictured together) now have a stake in their digital design business Canva

Ms Perkins and her co-founder and fiance Cliff Obrecht (pictured together) now have a stake in their digital design business Canva

Ms Perkins, 33, and Cliff Obrecht, 34, landed in second place on AFR's rich list this year with an estimated worth of $3.43 billion

Ms Perkins, 33, and Cliff Obrecht, 34, landed in second place on AFR's rich list this year with an estimated worth of $3.43 billion 

Their first sale was to a French school in Sydney in 2008. 

CANVA TIMELINE:

2005: Melanie Perkins found her love for graphic design at university.

2007: She came up with an idea to create easy-to-use graphics software to help schools make their own yearbooks.

Ms Perkins and her now-fiance developed a plan for Fusion Yearbook on her mother's couch in Perth.

2008: Fusion Yearbook makes its first sale to a French school in Sydney.

2008-2010: The couple sold the software to more than 120 schools.

2010: Ms Perkins and Mr Obrecht went to the Innovator of the Year awards in Perth to present Fusion Yearbooks, and met Silicone Valley investor Bill Tai.

2011: The couple travelled to o the US to meet with Mr Tai and Google Maps co-founder Lars Rasmussen.

2012: Ms Perkins attended a MaiTai Global conference in Hawaii where she met with a range of investors.

2013:  Canva closed its first funding round of $3million and officially launched.

2014: Canva had reached one million users, and last month the company reached four million users and raised $12.6million in investment.

2014-2020: The company has raised more than $400m from investors and increases in value with each investment round.

'When we got our first $100 cheque, it was the most exciting moment ever, knowing people were prepared to pay for what we had built,' Ms Perkins said.

'We never took on external financing but we kept putting every cent back into the business.'

They sold to 15 schools in their first year, 30 in their second and 80 in their third.

On the back of that success Ms Perkins decided to expand the Fusion model beyond school yearbooks, which is when Canva was born. 

Canva was aimed at business groups who wanted to easily crated their own social media graphics, presentations, posters, documents and other visual content.

But Ms Perkins needed investors to help with her vision.

While still trying to find investors in the business' early days in 2012, the Western Australian taught herself the water sport to gel with investors at the MaiTai event in Hawaii - a gathering of entrepreneurs centred around kite surfing.

Through the event, Ms Perkins crowd funded $21million with contributions from Hollywood stars Owen Wilson and Woody Harrelson.

The company has since raised more than $400m from investors and increases in value with each investment round. 

Canva raised $USD60million ($AUD87.6million) in its latest investor round despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic - a resilience Ms Perkins puts down to the company's ability to adapt to the work from home market. 

'I think something I'm most proud of is seeing our team rallying through this crazy period - in one day we realised we had to shut down the office and cancel my wedding at the same time. It was a big few hours,' she recently told the How I Built This podcast.

She said the company pivoted to the changing demand of consumers as Canva's clients changed to a work-from-home environment. 

'It has been incredible seeing the transition. There are less event invitations and flyers but what they are creating is things like presentations and zoom backgrounds so that was a huge swing almost overnight,' she said.

'Everyone had to transition on a dime - people are designing more but completely different things to what people were doing before.'

WHAT SETS THE CANVA OFFICE APART?

 Ms Perkins wanted to create the perfect workplace for her employees.

Canva staff are offered free overseas trips with the entire office and are allowed to work the hours they wish to work.

Other extravagant incentives for more than 80 staff members include 'elaborate celebrations' when the team hit their target goal, free gym and yoga membership cards and free meals.

Lucky employees treated to freshly-made meals cooked by top chefs and Ms Perkins strongly believes siting down with the entire team in a lunch room is a great way to bond over work.

'One of the Canva perks people hear about a lot is the chef cooks lunches every day,' she previously told Daily Mail Australia.

'The chefs are very talented of course, but the real value and exciting part of the lunches is the team sits down with a changing range of people every day and connect as people.

'That feeling of community and connection is really important for any business that wants to try to achieve big things, because you're going to need to take risks and try things together, and so trust is very important.' 

Pictured: The Canva office where employees are treated to an in-house chef who cooks lunch

Pictured: The Canva office where employees are treated to an in-house chef who cooks lunch

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