Cliff Obrecht

Cliff Obrecht is an Australian technology entrepreneur based in Sydney. He is a co-founder and the chief operating officer of Canva, which he founded with Melanie Perkins and Cameron Adams. He grew up in Perth and studied arts and education at the University of Western Australia.

While at university, Obrecht and Perkins built Fusion Books, an online design tool for school yearbooks. Crunchbase lists him as its Managing Director. The pair then sought funding for a broader design platform and, according to Wikipedia, received more than 100 investor rejections. Blackbird Ventures invested in 2012 and Canva launched in 2013. Forbes reported that Canva was valued at $42 billion in August 2025.

Obrecht and Perkins are married. They have pledged to give more than 80 percent of their wealth to charitable causes through the Canva Foundation.

Crunchbase lists six personal investments for Obrecht across five portfolio companies. These are BottleCap AI, Unsloth AI, Propeller Aero, Marlee and Vendr. Most announcement dates on the public Crunchbase page are hidden, so this page gives years only where a source states them.

He invests selectively. A third-party summary of a 20VC podcast interview says he chooses not to actively angel invest and prefers to back ideas he believes the world needs. Treat that as a summary, not a direct statement from him.

His most recent listed investment is the BottleCap AI seed round. BottleCap AI raised $7.5M in January 2026, led by 20VC. Dealroom describes the company as Prague-based and founded by Google and Meta alumni. It is building more efficient foundation models. Obrecht is named among the angels, alongside David Singleton and Xavier Niel.

Crunchbase also lists an angel round in Unsloth AI. The year is not shown in the public data.

Public data shows seed and angel rounds, with some later-stage participation. Crunchbase lists a Series A in Marlee and a Series B in Propeller Aero. He has backed companies in the United States, Europe and Australia. Obrecht has not published a check size or a formal investment thesis. Public sources do not state what he looks for in a pitch beyond the interview summary above.

• BottleCap AI: Prague-based lab building efficiency-first foundation models; $7.5M seed led by 20VC, January 2026.
• Unsloth AI: Listed by Crunchbase as an angel investment; year not public.
• Marlee: Listed by Crunchbase with a seed round and a later Series A. CB Insights dates a seed round to January 2023.
• Propeller Aero: Listed by Crunchbase as a Series B participation; year not public.
• Vendr: Listed by Crunchbase as a seed investment; year not public.

• crunchbase.com/person/cliff-obrecht
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliff_Obrecht
• forbes.com/profile/cliff-obrecht
• app.dealroom.co/news/feed/google-and-meta-alumni-raise-7-5m-to-build-1
• earlyearlystage.substack.com/p/early-early-stage-33-brent-hoberman
• cbinsights.com/investor/melanie-perkins
• deciphr.ai/podcast/20vc-canva-cofounder-cliff-obrecht-on-the-journey-f