Aug 14, 2026 – 1.00pmCanva and two of its longest-standing Australian backers have wiped US7.1 billion ($10 billion) from the design software giant’s valuation as it struggles to find its feet in the artificial intelligence era.The downgrades from Blackbird Ventures and Airtree are surpassed by an internal valuation cut by Canva, and come a week after the company cut revenue growth expectations after finding it difficult to roll out AI-powered tools given the soaring cost of using frontier models.Subscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber? Fetching latest articles
Canva’s biggest backers slash $10b from software giant amid AI pivot
The downgrades from Blackbird Ventures and Airtree came as the Sydney-headquartered tech outfit cut its own valuation ahead of issuing shares to employees.
TL;DRAI
Canva's $10B valuation cut by Blackbird, Airtree, and internally reflects frontier model costs outpacing AI rollout revenue. The downgrade signals hard unit economics: expensive inference erodes SaaS margins when AI becomes table-stakes.
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