Localisation is key to Indian community’s creativity: Cameron Adams

In his first visit to India, Cameron Adams, Co-founder and Chief Product Officer, Canva, identified the country as a key growth driver in the company’s global strategy. Canva, the world’s leading all-in-one platform for visual communication and collaboration, unveiled its strategic vision for India in 2025 during Adams’ visit to the country. As Canva’s fourth-largest market, India presents exciting growth opportunities, driven by a dynamic community of creators, designers, educators, and businesses of all sizes. The visit marked several key milestones, including Canva India’s first community event at scale, a preview of the new Hindi website, and efforts to strengthen nation-wide state education partnerships. Reaffirming the company’s commitment to empowering the world to design and championing creativity in the classroom, workplace, and beyond.

The Canva Connection

Adams’ maiden visit to the country served as the perfect occasion to hold Canva India’s inaugural community event, bringing together 100+ creators, educators, partners, and brand advocates. The evening was a celebration of creativity, collaboration, and the transformative power of design. It was brimming with conversations around innovation, design trends, and the future of visual communication, fostering new connections and ideas.

In a free flowing discussion with visual designer Anant Ahuja, Adams expressed his gratitude to the Indian community for their continued support towards the company.

“As our fourth-largest market, India continues to embrace Canva with incredible enthusiasm. We are committed to empowering our vibrant Indian community’s creativity and ability to express themselves with localised features, innovative AI tools, and bespoke content on a platform that feels like home,” said Adams.

“We’ll continue to cater to the unique needs of this market by investing in culturally relevant tools, like WhatsApp templates to enhance everyday conversations. We also look forward to working with local partners to expand our offering in India, be it via content or through Canva for Education – free for all K-12 teachers and students,” he added.

Building for India

As part of the community event, Canva also previewed the beta version of its new Hindi website, presented by Chandrika Deb, Country Manager at Canva India. The localised website aims to empower millions of Hindi-speaking users, educators, and businesses to create and communicate effortlessly in their native language, making visual communication more inclusive and accessible to India’s varied demographics. The website is designed by local experts who have a deep understanding of Indian users’ preferences, aesthetics, and behaviours. The UI and UX elements are intuitive, authentic, and culturally relevant, shaped by insights into the needs and interests of Indian users. Canva is aiming to roll out the full Hindi website experience in the coming months.

India’s Passion for Design

The company continues to gain strong momentum in the country, seamlessly blending creativity, collaboration, and productivity in one platform. In 2024, India created a whopping 666 million designs on Canva, with resumes, business proposals, pitch decks, and Instagram posts being the most popular templates, indicating a shift toward more visual tools being used for and at work.

India was also named one of the top 5 countries using Canva’s ready to use Work Kits globally, with Marketing Work Kits being the most widely-used. AI tools continue to be adopted by Indian users, with photo background remover being the go-to AI feature nation-wide on Canva.

Additionally, Canva India saw a surge in demand for both Canva Video and Canva Websites, featuring in the top three countries using the tools globally.

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