Tech billionaire Scott Farquhar has revealed that Canva co-founders Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht would have been the last people he would pick to work with as a successful couple, and now the couple is worth a whopping $13 billion.
Ms. Perkins and Mr. Obrecht co-founded the graphic design platform Canva with Cameron Adams in 2013.
They married on Rottnest Island, off the coast of Perth, in 2021 and had their first child in early 2022.
The couple ranked ninth on this year’s Australian Financial Review rich list, with a combined wealth of $13.18 billion.
Farquhar, the co-founder of Atlassian, who is worth an estimated $18 billion, said Perkins and Obrecht were “very, very different people.”
Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht (pictured together) co-founded the graphic design platform Canva with Cameron Adams in 2013
“If you were to do a dating scene and say, ‘Let’s get two people together,’ and you had to predict which ones would work out, they would be at the bottom of the list of people you think would be successful together.” ‘ he said in a new docuseries The Founder, now streaming on Prime Video, Google Play and Apple TV.
“However, when you see the way it works and the respect they have for each other and what they’ve accomplished together, it totally works.”
The tech mogul said Ms Perkins was “the dreamer” in the partnership, while her husband was the more practical one.
“Mel lives five years, ten years in the future, if you’ve spent time with Cliff, he’s in the moment, right now, and I think he’s very practical, which complements Mel’s tendency to dream big,” Farquhar said.
Ms. Perkins described her husband as the type of person who would never let anything get in the way of achieving his goals.
“He has incredible business, negotiation and people skills,” he said.
Canva now has more than 125 million monthly users and has a workforce of more than 3,000.
But despite their massive wealth, Ms. Perkins and Mr. Obrecht have pledged to reserve a majority for the Canva Foundation, their company’s charitable initiative.
The charity sent funds to more than 13,000 people in Rural Lilongwe, Malawi, through its first pilot programme.
Scott Farquhar, the Atlassian co-founder with an estimated wealth of $18 billion, said Ms. Perkins and Mr. Obrecht were “very, very different people.”
Canva now has more than 125 million monthly users and has a workforce of more than 3,000
But despite their massive wealth, Ms. Perkins and Mr. Obrecht have pledged to reserve a majority for the Canva Foundation, their company’s charitable initiative.
In May of this year, the company announced that another $20 million would be sent to the southeast African country to help fight poverty.
Money was also donated to the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and Ukraine after the country was invaded by Russia.
“We don’t see money as our own money,” Obrecht said.
“We see it as money that we are going to give away and use to make the world a better place.
“If I was just working to put more dollars in my bank account, I wouldn’t be coming to work at all.”
The Founder series focuses on entrepreneurs in the Australian tech landscape.
Another episode focuses on the man behind Finder, the self-proclaimed “king of cryptocurrency” Fred Schebesta.
The Finder.com.au website allows users to compare services such as insurance, home loans, electricity and gas providers, as well as mobile phone plans.
Schebesta, who has an estimated net worth of $250 million, announced he would step down as co-CEO of the company in December last year.
He is now the chief executive and is focused on more business-related projects as he resides in his $16.8 million ocean-view mansion in South Coogee in eastern Sydney.
Fred Schebesta, the founder of Finder, also appears in the docuseries.
