Tesla keeps cutting jobs and the feds probe Waymo

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waymo driverless jaguar i pace

Image Credits: Kirsten Korosec

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility!

What a wild week for transportation news! It was a smorgasbord of news that seemed to touch every sector and theme in transportation, including tariffs on Chinese EVs, an escalating Tesla strike in Sweden, a federal investigation into Waymo, a buzzy EV IPO, executive shuffling at Ford, and an Uber shuttle service developed for commuters in India and Egypt that has been adapted for American concertgoers. 

Let’s go!

A little bird

blinky cat bird green
Image Credits: Bryce Durbin

We heard from a few little birds this week. 

First up, here’s a deep cut for all those autonomous vehicle nerds. Remember Roborace, the autonomous vehicle racing series that never was? As you might recall, it died in 2022, but founder Denis Sverdlov (who also founded the now-defunct EV startup Arrival) had talked about trying to revive it if more funds were secured. It seems those dreams have died. One little bird spotted that the roborace.com domain is up for sale. 

Meanwhile, we continue to talk to little birds about the autonomous vehicle company Motional. As you might recall, the autonomous vehicle startup received a direct investment of $475 million from Hyundai. That money came with some strings, namely some belt tightening that included pausing all commercial operations. Our latest scoop, thanks to several insiders, is that more than 550 employees, or about 40% of its workforce, have been laid off from Motional. While many of those were in commercial operations, the cuts affected other departments, including product, safety, cybersecurity and legal teams.

Got a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at [email protected], Sean O’Kane at [email protected] or Rebecca Bellan at [email protected]. Or check out these instructions to learn how to contact us via encrypted messaging apps or SecureDrop.

Deals!

money the station
Image Credits: Bryce Durbin

A trade war with China may be heating up and EV demand may be softening, but it’s apparently not enough to discourage Zeekr investors!

Zeekr Intelligent Technology Holding, the Chinese EV brand under China’s Geely Holdings, sold 21 million shares at $21 per share to raise $441 million, an upsize from earlier plans to sell 17.5 million shares between $18 and $21. Shares popped 38% on Zeekr’s first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange, giving it a valuation of $7 billion — and the capital it needs to expand outside China in 2024.

Shares have settled a bit since, but Zeekr is still holding onto a $6.6 billion market cap. That’s surprising stability considering President Joe Biden released plans to increase tariffs on imports of Chinese EVs from 25% to 100% in 2024.

Other deals that got my attention …

Kyle Vogt, the founder and former CEO of Cruise, has a new VC-backed robotics startup focused on household chores called the Bot Company. Reminder: Vogt resigned from Cruise in November just weeks after one of the company’s robotaxis hit and dragged a pedestrian. But investors still seem keen to back Vogt and his ideas. Sidebar: Comma.ai founder and firebrand George Hotz didn’t seem too pleased. 

Vogt, who co-founded the Bot Company with former Tesla AI tech team leader Paril Jain and an ex-Cruise software engineer Luke Holoubek, raised $150 million from former GitHub CEO and investor Nat Friedman, Pioneer founder and investor Daniel Gross, Spark Capital general partner Nabeel Hyatt, Stripe CEO Patrick Collison, Stripe co-founder John Collison and Quiet Capital. 

Li Industries, a Pineville, North Carolina, lithium-ion battery recycling startup, raised $36 million in a Series B funding round co-led by Bosch Ventures, Khosla Ventures and LG Tech Ventures. Other new investors included Formosa Smart Energy Tech Corp., Anglo American Decarbonization Ventures and Chevron Technology Ventures coming in as new investors. Previous backers Shell Ventures and Myriad Ventures also joined. 

Magic Lane, the Amsterdam-based startup that developed software development kits to bring mapping, location and navigation into ride-hailing apps, micromobility and vehicles, raised €3 million ($3.26 million). The round was led by No Such Ventures.

Orange Charger, a startup that sells landlords a 240-volt smart outlet among other products, has raised $6.5 million in a seed round led by Munich Re Ventures and Climactic with participation by Baukunst, Crow Holdings, Lincoln Property Ventures, and Spacecadet Ventures.

Uber agreed to buy Foodpanda — the Taiwan unit of Delivery Hero — for $950 million in cash. As part of the deal, Uber will take a stake in Delivery Hero through the purchase of $300 million newly issued ordinary shares.

Notable reads and other tidbits

Autonomous vehicles

Cruise has reportedly reached a settlement between $8 million and $12 million with the pedestrian who was hit and then dragged by one of its robotaxis. TechCrunch has confirmed that range. 

Meanwhile, Cruise is ramping up robotaxi testing in Phoenix with “supervised” autonomous driving. 

Waymo’s autonomous vehicle software is under investigation after federal regulators received 22 reports of the robotaxis crashing or potentially violating traffic safety laws by driving in the wrong lane or into construction zones.

Electric vehicles, charging & batteries

Fisker has the attention of the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration once again. The federal agency opened a fourth investigation into the Fisker Ocean SUV, this time to probe multiple claims of “inadvertent Automatic Emergency Braking.”

Tesla isn’t done cutting jobs. CEO Elon Musk said in April that the company would lay off more than 10% of its 140,000-person workforce. We’ve seen several waves since then that suggest the cuts have gone beyond that initial target. There have been reports that Musk wanted to cut 20% of employees. The latest is 601 workers at Tesla facilities in California, according to a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notice. 

By the way, remember when Musk axed the entire Supercharger team? Reporter Tim De Chant got an inside look into the Tesla Supercharger team, including that it was indeed profitable. Since his article was published, Musk has reportedly started hiring some of that team back. 

This week’s wheels

mercedes esprinter
Image Credits: Kirsten Korosec

The 2024 Mercedes-Benz eSprinter is more than just a giant all-electric cargo van. Although as you can see in this photo, it is a big-un. I only had a few days behind the wheel, but it was enough to learn it maneuvered easily in traffic — in spite of its size. The van has quite a bit of tech packed inside and starts at $71,866. 

There is a bit too much to list, so here are just a few important bits. First up, the range from the 113-kilowatt hour battery (per the European WLTP cycle) is supposed to be 273 miles, which is considerably more than the 159-mile range on the Ford E-transit van.

The interior layout puts function first and the infotainment system clearly displays the information a commercial driver might need, and can be accessed by voice or the steering wheel. There are EV-specific features as well, including a navigation setting that calculates an optimized route, including charging stops in real time depending on the current traffic situation and topography of the route.

While the towing capacity is less than its diesel counterpart, there was plenty of upside to the EV van, notably its drivability. 

One note about the regenerative braking that took some getting used to. There are five selectable recuperation levels to choose from (D-, D, D+, D++ and ‘D Auto’), all of which can be adjusted with the paddles on either side of the steering wheel. D Auto is conceptually great. That setting automatically determines when to apply the brake based on the traffic situation and adjusts accordingly. I found that it was easy to use but would unexpectedly hit the brakes if a vehicle, far ahead of me, would come into my lane.

OpenseedVC, which backs operators in Africa and Europe starting their companies, reaches first close of $10M fund

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Maria Rotilu Founder & General Partner, OpenseedVC

Image Credits: OpenseedVC

Founder-market fit is one of the most crucial factors in a startup’s success, and operators (someone involved in the day-to-day operations of a startup) turned founders have an almost unfair advantage in finding that fit. Data shows that a lack of expertise and business acumen in founders contributes to failed VC investments.

The same principle applies somewhat to operator VCs (firms typically launched by former startup founders). While there’s no definitive proof that operator VCs make better investors, recent research does indicate that founders and operators who become VCs are significantly more successful at backing companies than traditional investor VCs.

Operator VCs have a long history in Silicon Valley. Still, their adoption is less widespread in Europe and Africa: Only 8% of VC firms in Europe and Africa are led by former operators, compared to nearly half in the U.S. OpenseedVC is applying the model in Africa and Europe with a new fund.

The firm, which plans to be the first check in startups launched by operators across both regions, has reached the first close of its $10 million angel-style early-stage fund. General partner Maria Rotilu said “the first close is well into the millions and fundraising is still in progress,” without specifying how much. OpenseedVC hopes to reach the final close within a year, she added.

Supporting operators with funding… and operators

Rotilu founded OpenseedVC with a clear vision: to invest early in experienced operators eager to launch their technology companies. In a statement, OpenseedVC said it would provide these founders with not only capital and conviction at the earliest stages but also the support of a community of seasoned operators, which currently comprises more than 50 individuals.

“If you’re supporting operators that have identified a problem and are making the leap into building their technology, you’ve likely recognized a common challenge: the need for capital and guidance from other experienced individuals. To address this, we focus on enhancing the operator network in four key areas,” said Rotilu in a conversation with TechCrunch.

“In the early stages, expertise in software engineering is crucial. You’d need someone who’s recruited technical talent, built teams and understands infrastructure design, offering invaluable firsthand experience. So if that’s the common thread, I would say firsthand experience is what we optimize for across software engineering, product, go-to-market and people and talent.”

Most of the individuals in OpenseedVC’s operator network are people Rotilu has either worked with or received referrals for. Some are also limited partners in the fund, though they don’t earn carry now. Rotilu also mentioned that other LPs include founders and professionals from traditional and tech businesses and high-net-worth individuals across Africa, Europe and the U.S.

Backing pre-seed startups in Africa and Europe

London-based OpenseedVC is targeting at least 60 startups over the next five years. The early-stage fund, which says it operates with an open application process and allows founders to apply without needing an introduction, will provide checks of up to $150,000 to startups focusing on the future of commerce (including B2B software, AI and fintech), future of work (productivity) and digital health.

“We look at the earliest stages; that’s our sweet spot. Openseed is keen on making pre-seed investments, but the early stage of pre-seed because the later stage of pre-seed is more where you find the traditional VCs. We tend to move independently and quickly — and don’t necessarily need a founder to get a lead investor or anything like that before we invest,” remarked Rotilu. She added that the fund is interested in specific founder profiles within its broader operator-focused lens: domain experts (operators at high-growth tech companies, including first-time founders) and second-time founders who have built and exited a startup.

So far, the early-stage fund has made two investments: one in a stealth U.K.-based AI-enabled supplier dispute resolution software and another in Intron, a speech-to-text transcription model for underserved accents, starting with Africa. 

“We chose Africa and Europe to apply our thesis to work in these regions. Our thesis is that by backing experienced operators early in their journey with the right capital and support from peer operators, you can build a diversified portfolio that generates incredible returns for investors and provides crucial support for ambitious operators when they need it most,” said Rotilu, who prior to OpenseedVC invested across multiple regions with different funds.

Before launching her fund, Rotilu was an operator in various roles, including country manager at Uber and general manager at Branch in Nigeria, where she helped both tech companies scale to millions of users. She later pursued an MBA at Oxford, where she served as managing director at the Oxford Seed Fund, one of the largest student-led funds in Europe. 

Striving for a diversified portfolio

During her MBA, the operator-turned-investor with a background in computer science interned at Hustle Fund, an early-stage fund in the U.S., where she gained experience investing in startups across the U.S., Latin America, Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. She then joined Octopus Ventures, one of Europe’s largest funds, as a principal and fund manager of First Cheque Fund, the firm’s £10 million early-stage fund for European startups in B2B software, fintech and health sectors.

Rotilu said that at Octopus, she realized a need to focus more on Africa, a market where she had made several angel investments during her professional career. The London-based VC firm provided little avenue for that, and Rotilu, who also wanted clarity and autonomy to develop a strategy she thought suited her experience as an operator and investor across Africa and Europe, saw that as an opportunity to launch her VC firm. 

The increasing number of female-led VC firms globally is a positive trend (even though it’s still difficult for women, particularly those of color, to seek funding or raise a fund). As more women participate in venture investing and more LPs and firms support them, this trend will increase funding for female-led startups, setting the stage for every stakeholder’s success. Most female-led funds are conscious of this significance, so it’s no surprise that OpenseedVC will also actively look to support startups led by female operators.

“There are very few female-led funds globally, and we have a specific perspective on what a diversified portfolio should look like. We focus on diversification across geography, industry and gender,” Rotilu remarked. “A lot of work is being done around diversity, and as a fund, we apply a gender lens to our portfolio strategy. We aim for a truly diverse portfolio, striving for a 50/50 balance in co-founding teams,” she said.

Contour Venture Partners, fundraising, VC

Contour Venture Partners, an early investor in Datadog and Movable Ink, has raised $42M for its fifth fund

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Contour Venture Partners, fundraising, VC

Image Credits: Malte Mueller / Getty Images

Longtime New York-based seed investor, Contour Venture Partners, is making progress on its latest flagship fund.

The firm closed on $42 million, raised from 64 backers, for Contour Venture Partners Fund V, according to an SEC filing from May 17. The firm is targeting $90 million for its fifth flagship fund and started fundraising in May of last year, the filing says. It had previously raised $20 million of that as part of a separate parallel fund, according to a filing from last December.

Contour Venture Partners declined to comment.

It’s been a tough few years for venture funds looking to raise new vehicles. In the past year, VCs, including DCVC, Tiger Global and Founders Fund, have also lowered their fundraising expectations. Venture fundraising was down more than 50% last year compared to 2022’s record-breaking year, according to PitchBook data.

Contour writes checks between $500,000 and $1.5 million and prefers to lead rounds in seed and early-stage companies. The firm focuses on sectors such as SaaS, digital media and financial services and has a preference for companies based in New York or in the Northeast.

While Contour isn’t equipped with a war chest of capital like some seed firms, it has built a track record of investing in solid companies.

The firm was one of the first checks into cloud analytics platform Datadog in 2011, which went on to IPO in 2019 with a $7.8 billion valuation. Contour backed lending-focused financial platform OnDeck in 2006, which has struggled in recent years but had a notable exit when it went public in 2014 with a $1.3 billion valuation.

Contour’s active portfolio includes product intelligence platform Pendo, which has raised more than $460 million in venture funding and was last valued at $2.6 billion. The company is also an investor in Movable Ink, a content personalization startup that has raised nearly $100 million and was last valued at $1.3 billion.

The nearly 20-year-old firm has raised more than $370 million since its founding in 2005 across four flagship funds and three opportunity funds. The firm is still led by its two founding partners, Matt Gorin and Bob Greene.

Correction: This piece and its headline have been updated to reflect the existence of a parallel $20 million fund, which counts as part of the original $90 million Contour set out to raise.

Zen Educate raises $37M and acquires Aquinas Education as it tries to address the teacher shortage

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Ex-footballer and Zen Educate brand ambassador Jermain Jenas, flanked by founders Slava Kremerman (left) and Oren Cohen

Image Credits: Zen Educate / Ex-footballer and Zen Educate brand ambassador Jermaine Jenas, flanked by founders Slava Kremerman (left) and Oren Cohen

Zen Educate, an online marketplace that connects schools with teachers, has raised $37 million in a Series B round of funding.

The raise comes amid a growing teacher shortage crisis on both sides of the pond, with a recent report from ADP Research Institute noting that the global pandemic exacerbated the existing supply/demand imbalance due to “stagnant wages and a stressful work environment.”

Founded out of London in 2017, Zen Educate replaces traditional third-party recruitment agencies that often use analog workflows and charge exorbitant fees. Zen Educate digitizes everything through a self-serve platform, removing pricey intermediaries from the equation in the process. Through the platform, teachers and schools create profiles and Zen Educate can automatically match the two entities based on their compatibility — this uses data such as proximity, skills, experience, among other preferences.

Schools can use Zen Educate to hire for full-time roles, but teachers can also use it to more easily find temporary or part-time roles that fit around their lives.

“Like in all areas, educators are looking for greater flexibility in their work, and thus, there is a greater need for flexible working solutions in education like Zen Educate,” the company’s co-founder and CEO Slava Kremerman told TechCrunch.

On top of that, Zen Educate also promises higher pay, given that it takes a smaller cut than incumbent agencies.

“The average incumbent industry take rate is between 35% and 38%,” Kremerman said. “We’re a little over half that. As a result, teachers earn more and schools save money.”

Zen Educate app
Zen Educate app.
Image Credits: Zen Educate

Expansion

Zen Educate raised a $21 million Series A round in late 2022 as it sought to expand into the U.S. market after soft-launching in Minneapolis. Today, the company operates across four additional states — Texas, Colorado, California, and Arizona — on top of 11 regions in England. And more than 15% of its 300-person workforce are now based in the U.S.

“From the Minneapolis soft-launch, we are now the second-largest provider in the state,” Kremerman said. “We are live across five states and we are working with nine of the top 200 largest school districts in the U.S.”

Kremerman also said that its technology-based approach has helped it adapt to the different regulatory environment in the U.S.

“Licensing is state-specific, whereas England and Wales have a standardized national standard,” Kremerman said. “We’re able to use our credentialing technology to adapt and roll out quickly between states, whereas most traditional staffing firms struggle with this.”

With another $37 million in the bank, the company said it’s planning to expand into more markets across the U.S. and U.K., and launch new software for school administrators, which includes adding to its school workforce management software that packs tools for credentialing, compliance, and absence management.

Furthermore, Zen Educate is also bolstering its resources through acquisitions, announcing its second-ever acquisition today with the purchase of teacher staffing agency Aquinas Education. The company said that it intends to complete several more acquisitions both in the U.S. and U.K.

Notably, Aquinas Education counts former professional soccer player turned TV presenter Jermaine Jenas as one of its owners. Following this acquisition, Jenas now joins Zen Educate as brand ambassador as well.

Zen Educate’s Series B round was led by Round2 Capital, with participation from Adjuvo, Brighteye Ventures, FJ Labs, Ascension Ventures, and several angels.

Tesla lobbies for Elon and Kia taps into the GenAI hype

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Image Credits: Joshua Lott / Getty Images

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility!

Is it me, or is the Tesla board being a bit extra these days as it tries to convince shareholders to vote in favor of relocating the company to Texas and to approve CEO Elon Musk’s $56 billion pay deal? Perhaps that’s because the board is worried neither measure will pass. Tesla board chair Robyn Denholm told the Financial Times that the company needs to climb “Mount Everest” to win over shareholders ahead of an annual meeting on June 13. 

The result has been a parade of appeals and additional proxy materials that make the pitch for the controversial pay deal that — reminder! — was struck down in January by a Delaware court. 

Do you think shareholders will say yes? 

A little bird

blinky cat bird green
Image Credits: Bryce Durbin

This week, TC contributor Jagmeet Singh didn’t overhear a little nugget; he saw it. 

During a trip to Dubai, Singh opened up the BluSmart ride-hailing app and discovered the India-based company had quietly launched a service in the United Arab Emirates’ most populous city. 

Rumors that BluSmart was planning to set up shop in Dubai and Abu Dhabi has swirled for months. After spotting the new service area, TechCrunch received confirmation from BluSmart co-founder Anmol Jaggi that a pilot started Tuesday, with 100 Audi E-Tron SUVs and 130 drivers in the city. The formal launch will be in early June, he said.

Got a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at [email protected], Sean O’Kane at [email protected] or Rebecca Bellan at [email protected]. Or check out these instructions to learn how to contact us via encrypted messaging apps or SecureDrop.

Deals!

money the station
Image Credits: Bryce Durbin

Harbinger, a startup building medium-duty electric commercial vehicle chassis, has had my interest since I visited the Southern California-based headquarters earlier this year. The market opportunity to electrify medium-duty vehicles has always seemed like a bit of a no-brainer to me since the segment covers such a wide swath, from school buses and RVs to delivery vans and emergency response vehicles.

And it seems the interest — at least in Harbinger’s chassis — is high. The company announced this week at the ACT Expo that it has locked in $400 million of binding vehicle preorders from customers, including a multi-year order from Bimbo Bakeries USA, the U.S. business of Grupo Bimbo. Thor Industries, the recreational vehicle manufacturer behind brands Airstream, Jayco, Tiffin and Thor Motor Coach, also placed an order. 

Harbinger also shared this week that it closed an additional $13 million in Series A funds from investors that included the Coca-Cola System Sustainability Fund, managed by Greycroft. The added funding pushes its Series A round to $73 million. 

Other deals that got my attention …

South 8, a battery startup focused on boosting EV performance in cold weather, recently attracted new funding from Porsche Ventures in the form of a SAFE note, which will be applied to a Series B round that the company is starting to raise. The size of Porsche Ventures’ investment was not disclosed.

Seattle-based Overland AI and New Brunswick, Canada-based Potential — two startups focused on off-road autonomous vehicle technology — have both raised seed rounds. Overland raised a $10 million seed round led by Point72 Ventures, and Potential raised a CA$2 million (~$1.5 million) extension to its seed round led by Brightspark Ventures, a Canadian early-stage VC.

Spiro, an Africa-based electric two-wheeler company, secured a $50 million debt facility with the African Export-Import Bank. 

Notable reads and other tidbits

Autonomous vehicles

Aurora Innovation revealed a new self-driving truck, loaded with its autonomous vehicle tech and manufactured by Volvo, that could be on public highways as early as this summer. 

The U.K. government has enacted the Automated Vehicles Act, a law that regulates self-driving vehicles and is expected to bring the technology to public roads within two years.

Electric vehicles, charging & batteries

Airbnb and ChargePoint have partnered to “make it easier” for hosts to install EV chargers at their listings by providing discounts on chargers and accompanying installation services.

Audi plans to jointly develop a new EV platform designed for China with partner SAIC. 

The Chevrolet Equinox EV, which has an estimated range of 319 miles on the front-wheel-drive model, is rolling into dealerships. The Equinox EV has a starting price of $43,295. However, GM says a cheaper $34,995 version will be available later this year.

Kia revealed the EV3 — the next electric vehicle in its lineup. One item that got my attention: It used OpenAI’s large language models (LLMs) to build a highly customized version of ChatGPT for its in-car assistant. 

InfluenceMap released an analysis last week that I missed. The report, which examined climate lobbying activities of 15 of the largest automakers, found that all except for Tesla have actively advocated against at least one policy promoting electric vehicles. 

McLaren Automotive is getting into the “hyperbike” business. The company unveiled four limited edition electric bike models – the Extreme 600, Extreme 250, Sport 600, and Sport 250. No word on pricing!

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has launched a formal investigation into an April crash involving the all-electric VinFast VF 8 SUV that claimed the lives of a family of four.

Yoshi Mobility, a mobile car care startup that raised $26 million in April, is launching an EV mobile charging service that will debut on General Motors’ BrightDrop Zevo 600 vehicles. The company aims to commercialize the service by early next year. 

Ride-hailing 

Uber and Lyft reached an agreement with Minnesota that will result in higher pay and protections for drivers while placing limits on state government. TC reporter Rebecca Bellan digs into who wins, who loses and who pays. 

This week’s wheels

What is “This week’s wheels”? It’s a chance to learn about the different transportation products we’re testing, whether it’s an electric or hybrid car, an e-bike or even a ride in an autonomous vehicle. Keep an eye out to learn about my time behind the wheel of the 2024 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, as well as two EV surprises that I just can’t mention quite yet! Later this summer I plan to get into the Fiat 500e, test a few e-bikes and more!

Canva launches a proper enterprise product — and they mean it this time

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Canva logo on bag sitting on a table.

Image Credits: Bloomberg / Getty Images

Back in 2019, Canva, the wildly successful design tool, introduced what the company was calling an enterprise product, but in reality it was more geared toward teams than fulfilling true enterprise requirements. On Thursday, the company changed that, announcing a new enterprise version that is truly geared toward the needs of larger organizations.

That includes the types of features that you would expect in this kind of product, including single sign-on, enhanced security offerings and tools for managing larger groups of users that IT would expect. It also offers centralized brand management and dedicated support.

Cam Adams, co-founder and CPO at the company, says in 2019, they were looking at moving from supporting mostly individual users to supporting small teams from between five and 100 users. Over the intervening years, they began seeing much larger organizations using Canva, and recognized that they needed a product more geared toward the requirements of these larger companies.

“We now have cohorts with up to 5,000 people using Canva inside an enterprise, and because of that, there’s a new type of Canva enterprise product that we’ve needed to ship to meet the needs of those larger groups. And that’s what we’ve actually done with Canva Enterprise,” Adams told TechCrunch.

This version is trying to address three specific problems Canva saw as it moved into larger organizations.

For starters, design isn’t confined to one group anymore. It spans multiple departments and industries. Secondly, there are myriad AI tools and Adams says he’s seeing CIOs becoming increasingly wary of “AI tool creep.” And finally, there is a workflow component. As more departments are involved in the design process, and as AI becomes more prominent, it requires a tool that can handle not just back-end user management, but also moving work across these different constituencies.

“We’re no longer just thinking about empowering every person. We’re really thinking about the second decade of Canva being about empowering every organization. And when we think of enterprises, we’re really looking at bringing all that fragmentation together into the one platform,” he said.

The prior version of the product is becoming a proper teams product and will cost $100 per seat per year with a three-person minimum. The enterprise pricing starts at $300 per seat per year, but with negotiated volume-based discounts available.

The Australian company was founded in 2012 and has raised more than $560 million, most recently at an astonishing $26 billion valuation, per the company. It boasts over 180 million monthly users worldwide.