Canva Developers Innovation Fund

Canva’s goal for the Apps Marketplace is to provide innovative and delightful capabilities to our users that align with our mission to empower everyone in the world to design. To help with this goal, we have created programs to reward developers of particularly delightful apps that best follow our app design guidelines.

App developer grants

Through October 2023 to March 2024, Canva will have two grant programs that will reward particularly innovative developers creating delightful apps:

1. Designer-focused free-to-use apps that provide new and delightful capabilities.
2. Underrepresented developers in global markets that are not served by traditional venture capital.

To apply, fill in the App Innovation Fund Application form today.

1. Designer-focused, free-to-use apps

We want more free-to-use apps to help our users create particularly delightful designs. We want apps users can pick up and play without having to sign up or log in, that will help them create amazing, delightful designs. We want a design app that creates viral buzz and provides innovative capabilities to Canva creators.

Eligibility criteria

• Must be an app where you can get significant value, free-to-use (no sign-up or sign-in).
  • We will evaluate freemium (for example, where user get more use tokens or premium features with sign-up and subscription) on a case-to-case basis.
• Cannot require authentication to use free-to-use capabilities.
• Developer must support and enhance their app for a minimum of 1 year.

2. Underrepresented developers

We want a diverse and inclusive app ecosystem to best represent Canva's diverse user base. Canva is committed to empowering underrepresented developers and companies in global markets that are under-served by venture capital. We want to look to developers that are BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, or from under-served regions, such as Africa, who can contribute to the diverse app ecosystem we want Canva to be.

Eligibility criteria

• Must be an app where you can get significant value, free-to-use (no sign-up or sign-in).
  • We will evaluate freemium on a case-to-case basis, where a user gets more tokens or premium features with sign-up and subscription.
• Cannot require authentication to use free-to-use capabilities

User Adoption Award program

At Canva, we believe a key path to gaining viral user adoption of apps is to have apps with incredibly simple onboarding and user experiences. A key aspect to a simple user experience in the Canva Apps Marketplace is minimizing authentication and paywall friction, as per the authentication guidelines. The User Adoption Award program exists to facilitate this, encouraging an alternative to requiring users authenticate and pay with separate services.

Canva offers one-time award payments for developers who create (preferably) free apps, without manual authentication, that reach each of the four user adoption milestones for the first time.

Eligibility criteria

• Available to publicly listed Apps SDK apps that adhere to our App Developer Terms.
• We encourage that the app is free for Canva users, but at a minimum have a generous amount of free usage available before requiring payment, or that the user can access an end-to-end functionality before they have to log in to an account. For more information on how this can be set up or for an alternative to paid authentication, see how user tokens can help achieve frictionless authentication.
• App must be available to users on web and mobile.
• Available to apps released before 01 June 2024.
• Award eligibility is for the first 12 months after the app’s initial release.
• This program is not available for apps built by Canva or Canva employees.
• You must not use automated, deceptive, fraudulent, or other invalid means to artificially inflate monthly active app use.
• The user adoption program is not available to developers in:
  • Belarus
  • North Korea
  • Russia
• To enroll in the program and be eligible for one-time User Adoption Award payment, you must provide Canva with all requested payment details.

Canva may, in its sole discretion, reject any enrollment or participation in the User Adoption Award program at any time for any reason, including but not limited to:

• The payment details, app, or other material provided is incomplete, inaccurate, or misleading
• The app does not comply with the eligibility criteria above.

User adoption calculation

An app’s user adoption tier is based on Canva’s calculation of the number of monthly active app users.

A user is counted as active when they have performed at least one of the following actions within an app:

• Added something to a Canva design (for example, images, audio, video, text) using the addAudioTrack API, or the addNativeElement API.
• Uploaded assets to Canva using the upload API.
• Exported a Canva design using the requestExport API.

Monthly active app use is calculated and determined by Canva, the calculation is done in two steps:

1. The number of unique users is determined on a rolling 30-day period
2. This figure is then averaged for the last 7 days to obtain a smoothed value that removes day-of-week variations.

Usage tiers, award amounts, and payments

Payments for the User Adoption Award program begin in December 2023. If you become eligible for a User Adoption Award payment, Canva will contact you via email with instructions on how to provide details for receiving payment. You must provide your payment details in accordance with our instructions in order to enrol in the program and receive the one-time award payment. The payment will be made the next payment period after receiving these details. You are responsible for all taxes related to the award payment.