In early November, Canva announced the opening of applications for its $60 million innovation fund. This aims to provide financial support to developers by allowing them to create, develop and market their applications directly on the Canva App Marketplace. Canva’s goal is simple: to create the most comprehensive and scalable visual communications platform possible, bringing together as many design and AI features as possible in one place.
Canva Developers
Last June, Canva launched its new Canva Developers program. Since then, thousands of developers have joined the program and around sixty new applications, having already been used more than 15 million times, have seen the light of day. The Canva App Marketplace now has hundreds of apps, including its latest suite of AI-powered tools. Canva has added 21 new features, including image generators such as Dall-E from Open AI.
Thus, the investment fund aims to support and reward developers, while seeking to offer an increasingly diverse and dynamic range of applications. Today, any developer in the world who has an idea to spark the creativity of Canva users and wants to be rewarded for it can participate.
“ We’re excited to take this next step in development for our developer community and believe it will make Canva a rewarding place for developers to bring their ideas to life and deliver tremendous value to our users.“, explains Anwar Haneef, ecosystem manager at Canva.
How the Canva Innovation Fund works
The innovation fund will be divided into two divisions. The first, App Adoption Award, is an award recognizing apps reaching key retention milestones, based on the number of monthly users. These prices are open to all developers who have launched a free application and meet specific criteria. The second, called Developer Grants, will be used to finance development or IT costs, in order to help developers create open access applications. Developers can apply until March 2024. However, Canva will further support AI-based app ideas that give Canva users access to the latest technology, as well as free design apps.
Canva’s Innovation Fund aims to promote a diverse app ecosystem and marketplace, while ensuring that developers who are BIPOC, LGBQIA+, or from disadvantaged regions have support and opportunities. Thus, more than just financial support, Canva intends to partner with beneficiaries to provide them with advice at each stage, from design to development, until marketing.
If you would like to apply, don’t hesitate any longer and fill out this form !
