Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht, the co-founders of design software platform Canva, have topped The Australian Financial Review’s Young Rich List 2023 for the third year in a row.
With a combined wealth of $13 billion, the couple have transformed their small graphic design tool that they created more than a decade ago in Perth, WA, into one of Australia’s most successful tech companies.
More than 135 million people use Canva every month, and although rising interest rates meant the company took a hit, the platform is still worth around $39 billion in total.
Perkins, Australia’s second richest woman in 2022 behind Gina Rinehart, and her husband Obrecht now own 30 per cent of Canva, pledging to donate most of their profits to charity.
The couple first topped the AFR’s Young Rich List in 2021, after co-founders of Atlassian Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar turned 41 and no longer made the cut for the list. Perkins, 36, and Obrecht, 37, have remained at the top since.
Perkins is one of just 16 women included in the AFR’s Top 100 Young Rich List this year, and the only woman who cracked the top 10 richest.
At ranks 15 and 16, Jessica Sepel and Dean Steingold have a combined wealth of $454 million from Sepel’s vitamin brand and health blog, JSHealth. While her husband focuses on the business side of the company, Sepel, using her expertise in nutrition, works on formulations for the brand.
Familiar high-profile names feature on the Young Rich List this year, including Miranda Kerr (#25), Margot Robbie (#47) and Ash Barty (#97).
There were two women that made their debut on the Young Rich List this year. The couple behind the women’s boutique fashion brand White Fox, Georgia and Daniel Contos, came in at ranks 62 and 63 on the list, with a combined wealth of $100 million.
Siblings Argylica and William Conditsis also debuted on the list at ranks 80 and 81 with a combined wealth of $60 million. They founded their women’s event wear brand Babyboo which has reached international success in the last few years.
While the technology sector has historically been the biggest booming industry to feature on the Young Rich List, this year’s list saw alternative energy, retail and property sectors as the most generative industries.
The 16 women to make the AFR’s top 100 Young Rich List are:
- Melanie Perkins, co-founder of Canva
- Jessica Sepel, co-founder of JSHealth
- Tahnee Beard, co-founder of Culture Kings
- Miranda Kerr, former Victoria’s Secret model and founder of Kora Organics
- Kayla Itsines, co-founder of Sweat
- Margot Robbie, Hollywood actor
- Natasha Oakley, model and co-founder of Monday Swimwear
- Jennifer Hawkins, former Miss Universe and television presenter
- Emily Skye Anderson, co-founder of James Cosmetics and Emily Skye Fit app
- Georgia Contos, co-founder of White Fox
- Mina O’Neill, Rethink Investing
- Jane Lu, founder of Showpo
- Matilda Murray, co-founder of Stax
- Argylica Conditsis, co-founder of Babyboo
- Tammy Hembrow, influencer and founder of Tammy Fit
- Ash Barty, former tennis player