Canva

Key Findings

• Economic: The governing economic finding is Square Peg’s continuing Canva ownership after an expressly partial 2024 secondary sale; Square Peg still lists Canva in its portfolio.^{1, 2} Separately, Square Peg identifies Israel as an investment geography and describes Israeli portfolio relationships; the audited record does not establish Square Peg’s current Canva stake size or governance/control rights.³ Canva also maintains documented Israel-facing civilian commercial access through a certified reseller whose service territory includes Israel, and Israeli public-spending records show civilian Ministry of Health and Ministry of Foreign Affairs purchases of Canva licences.^{4, 5, 6}
• Digital: Canva directly removed Students for Justice in Palestine templates in October 2023 after determining that imagery in them breached its violence policy. Separately, Canva apologised and implemented a fix after its Magic Layers feature was documented replacing “Palestine” with “Ukraine” in some designs.^{7, 8}
• Political: Canva’s own current partner directory presents Israel as an ordinary service territory through certified reseller Xanadu. The reviewed record does not establish a higher-level Israeli state advocacy campaign, military partnership, or settlement-specific sponsorship.⁴
• Not found: No public evidence identified of a Canva contract with the IDF or Israeli Ministry of Defense, purpose-built military technology, Israeli military supply-chain integration, a Canva-operated Israeli office or R&D centre, or settlement-specific Canva operations.^{9, 10}

Target Profile

Key Facts:

• Canva’s FY25 group disclosure places Canva, Inc. at the top of the corporate structure, above Canva Australia Holdings Pty Ltd, Canva Pty Ltd and Canva UK Operations Ltd.¹¹
• Canva’s disclosed acquisitions include businesses from Australia, the United Kingdom, Austria and other non-Israeli locations; the reviewed acquisition record identified no Israeli-domiciled Canva acquisition.^{12, 13}
• Canva reported 260 million monthly users and US$3.5 billion of company revenue for 2025, without an Israel-specific revenue breakout.¹⁶
• The Canva Foundation’s 2025 partnership with Médecins Sans Frontières supported humanitarian crisis response that MSF later said included medical care in Gaza and Sudan; no Gaza-specific amount was disclosed.^{17, 18}

Executive Summary

Canva is a privately held global design and visual-communication company whose documented Israel/Palestine nexus is primarily commercial, digital and investor-linked rather than military. Its current certified-partner directory lists Israel among the countries served by Dubai-based reseller Xanadu, providing a continuing channel for Canva Enterprise, Business and Campus services.⁴ Israeli public-spending records separately report purchases of Canva licences by the Ministry of Health in 2022 and a Ministry of Foreign Affairs training/ICT team in 2024.^{5, 6} These are documented civilian government transactions; the audits identified no corresponding IDF or Ministry of Defense contract.

The strongest digital finding concerns Canva’s own moderation conduct. On 11 October 2023, a Canva spokesperson confirmed that Students for Justice in Palestine templates had been removed after Canva determined that imagery in them explicitly referenced a recent act of violence and breached platform policy.⁷ The final V6.5 review treats the resulting suppression of the affected pro-Palestinian advocacy material as an eligible digital-harm result while making no finding of discriminatory intent. A separate 2026 incident involved Canva’s Magic Layers AI replacing “Palestine” with “Ukraine” in some designs; Canva apologised, fixed the behaviour and said it was adding safeguards.⁸ The evidence does not establish that this substitution was intentional political moderation or linked to an Israeli actor.

The economic record includes direct Israel-facing commerce and a more indirect investor nexus. Square Peg disclosed a partial Canva secondary sale in 2024 but subsequently continued to describe Canva as a major holding and still lists it in its portfolio.^{1, 2} Square Peg separately identifies Israel as an investment geography and names Israeli portfolio relationships, but those investments are Square Peg’s activities: no evidence established that Canva controls the Israeli portfolio companies or directs Square Peg’s investments.³ The fixed Economic score reflects this continuing equity-owner relationship and indirect portfolio flow while assigning lower proximity because no current 10% or greater holding, governance right or control was established.

The military record is bounded negative evidence: the reviewed public sources did not verify a qualifying Canva military relationship. No public evidence identified a Canva contract, tender, framework agreement or memorandum with the Israeli Ministry of Defense, IDF, Israel Prison Service, Border Police or Israel Police; no verified weapons, targeting, logistics, military infrastructure or defence-supply relationship was found.^{9, 10} A Rafael job vacancy merely listed Canva among ordinary office/design skills and did not establish procurement or integration.¹⁹ No settlement-specific Canva office, reseller branch, customer, infrastructure asset or operating company was identified either.

Under the fixed, human-vetted V6.5 scoring, Canva receives Military 0.00, Digital 1.00, Economic 2.57 and Political 2.17. The resulting Complicity Index score is 232, placing Canva in Tier D (Moderate Complicity). The classification is driven by verified civilian commercial availability, investor-level economic exposure and Canva’s own moderation/market-framing conduct, while substantial military, settlement and state-security allegations remain unsupported.

Timeline of Relevant Events

Corporate Overview

Canva’s current legal structure is headed by Delaware-incorporated Canva, Inc. Canva Australia Holdings Pty Ltd sits beneath it and wholly owns Canva Pty Ltd and Canva UK Operations Ltd.¹¹ Canva’s procurement disclosure identifies Canva US, Inc. for North American customers, Canva UK Operations Ltd for UK customers, and Canva Pty Ltd for customers elsewhere.²⁴ Canva Pty Ltd is headquartered in Sydney.¹¹

The company has expanded through acquisitions including Pexels, Pixabay, Kaleido/remove.bg, Smartmockups, Flourish, Affinity/Serif, Leonardo.Ai and later MagicBrief, Doohly, Simtheory, Ortto, Cavalry and MangoAI.^{12, 13, 25} The audited acquisition review identified no Israeli-domiciled acquisition among those businesses.

No public evidence identified a Canva-owned Israeli subsidiary, R&D centre, office, sales centre, warehouse or data centre.^{11, 24} Canva’s disclosed customer-data architecture places relevant AWS and other processing locations outside Israel, and Israel is not an enumerated Canva data-residency region.^{26, 27}

The documented Israeli commercial relationship is therefore principally market access rather than local corporate infrastructure. Canva’s own partner directory lists Xanadu, headquartered in Dubai with offices also in London and Riyadh, as a certified reseller serving Israel.⁴ Public records separately document small civilian Israeli government purchases in 2022 and 2024.^{5, 6} Neither record establishes a military, intelligence or settlement customer.

Canva also uses security technology from companies with Israeli origins or Israeli R&D links. A Queensland Government contractor catalogue identifies Canva as a Baidam Solutions customer for Check Point network equipment and firewalls; Wiz’s customer case describes broad Canva deployment of Wiz Cloud; SentinelOne reported a Canva deployment in 2023.^{28, 29, 30} The audits did not identify any disclosed Canva Customer Personal Data residency in Israel. Separately, the reviewed sources did not verify the routing or residency of security telemetry or other vendor-service data; that uncertainty is not evidence of Customer Personal Data residency in Israel. The products were not shown to be used by Canva for military, political-surveillance or predictive-policing purposes.

Domain Summaries

Military: Military

Mechanism of Involvement

No mechanically eligible Military mechanism was established. Targeted searches found no public evidence of a Canva contract, procurement framework, memorandum, tender award or paid supply relationship with the Israeli Ministry of Defense, IDF or other Israeli security bodies.^{9, 10}

The only verified evidence of Canva workplace use in a military-company context is a Rafael Advanced Defense Systems vacancy listing Canva alongside ordinary office applications as a desirable skill.¹⁹ The vacancy does not identify an enterprise licence, procurement arrangement, integration, classified deployment or Canva military product.

No public evidence identified Canva as an Israeli defence exporter, weapons-system partner, military logistics provider, defence-infrastructure contractor or supplier of purpose-built targeting, fire-control, radar, weapons, munitions or autonomous lethal systems.^{9, 10} Canva’s Leonardo.Ai acquisition must also be kept distinct from Leonardo S.p.A., the Italian defence company named in arms-supply reporting; the audits explicitly established that they are different entities.^{13, 31}

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

Canva’s strongest defence in this domain is the breadth of the negative record. The audited evidence identifies Canva as a general-purpose creative-software business, and no qualifying military result was found.

The Rafael vacancy supports only employee familiarity with Canva. It cannot establish a commercial relationship. Likewise, the fact that Canva investors may hold other defence-related companies does not create a Canva defence supply chain without a specific Canva transaction or control nexus.

No public evidence identified a Canva defence export licence, Israeli military end-user certificate, military construction contract, weapons integration, military logistics service or Israeli security-body cloud contract. The final Military score is therefore zero.

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Digital: Digital

Mechanism of Involvement

The governing Digital finding is Canva’s direct removal of Students for Justice in Palestine templates in October 2023. Canva stated that imagery in the templates explicitly referenced a recent act of violence and violated its policies.⁷ The V6.5 examiner treated the documented downstream removal of the affected pro-Palestinian advocacy material as a qualifying digital-harm result, while making no finding that discriminatory intent was established.

A second documented incident occurred in April 2026, when Canva’s Magic Layers feature replaced “Palestine” with “Ukraine” in some designs. Canva apologised, said the feature should preserve original content, fixed the issue and said it was introducing additional checks.⁸ The audits classified this as a verified Palestine-related AI/content-integrity failure. No evidence established deliberate political programming or an Israeli-state role.

Canva also has documented relationships with Israeli-origin cybersecurity technology. Check Point equipment was supplied through Baidam Solutions, Wiz describes Canva as a significant Wiz Cloud customer, and SentinelOne documented a 2023 Canva deployment.^{28, 29, 30} These are defensive enterprise-security relationships. They were not shown to provide Israeli government surveillance access to Canva data.

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

Canva has a facially neutral Acceptable Use Policy prohibiting content associated with violence, hostility, discrimination and terrorism, and it cited the violence policy when explaining the SJP-template removals.³⁴ The evidence therefore establishes the moderation outcome but does not establish anti-Palestinian intent.

Canva also acknowledged and fixed the Magic Layers “Palestine” substitution. The documented incident supports a product-integrity failure; it does not establish that Canva intentionally instructed the system to suppress Palestinian identity.⁸

No public evidence identified a Project Nimbus role, Israeli military or intelligence AI contract, offensive-cyber product, surveillance-derived training dataset, autonomous targeting system or Israel-based Canva customer-data centre.^{26, 27, 35}

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Economic: Economic

Mechanism of Involvement

Canva has documented commercial availability in Israel through its certified reseller Xanadu.⁴ Civilian public procurement records also report Canva licence purchases by Israel’s Ministry of Health and Ministry of Foreign Affairs.^{5, 6} No Israel-specific Canva revenue figure, Israeli payroll, Israeli tax contribution or local owned office was identified.

The score’s governing economic frame is the equity-owner relationship with Square Peg. Square Peg disclosed only a partial Canva sale in 2024, continued to identify Canva among its largest holdings afterward and still lists Canva in its portfolio.^{1, 2, 21} Square Peg separately identifies Israel as an active investment geography and names companies including Fiverr, Aidoc and Tomorrow.io among its Israeli relationships.³

The final V6.5 adjudication treats that continuing ownership plus Israel-focused portfolio activity as an indirect portfolio-flow mechanism. The proximity remains limited because no reviewed primary source established Square Peg’s current Canva percentage at 10% or more, a Canva board right, voting control or other control mechanism.

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

Square Peg’s Israeli investments are not Canva subsidiaries. No public evidence identified Canva directing those investments or controlling Square Peg’s portfolio companies.³ The audits therefore preserve the distinction between an investor-level economic link and Canva’s own corporate operations.

The verified Israeli government purchases are small civilian software procurements. They do not establish military use, strategic infrastructure status or a settlement-specific customer.^{5, 6}

No public evidence identified a Canva-owned Israeli factory, office, data centre, R&D facility, logistics asset or settlement operation. Canva was not identified in the audited exact-name review of the accessible 2026 OHCHR settlement-business materials, although the audits caution that non-listing cannot prove the absence of every possible indirect relationship.³⁶

Canva Foundation support also reached humanitarian medical work in Gaza and Sudan through MSF in 2025.^{17, 18} That finding is retained as part of the documentary record and is not used to erase separate commercial relationships.

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Political: Political

Mechanism of Involvement

The governing Political frame is Canva’s own current presentation of Israel as an ordinary commercial service territory. Its certified-partner listing identifies Xanadu as providing Canva Enterprise, Business and Campus services in Israel.⁴ The final V6.5 review classified this as business-as-usual normalization rather than higher-level political advocacy.

The communication is current and directly attributable to Canva’s partner directory, producing high proximity. Its magnitude remains limited because the evidence does not establish a national political campaign, Israeli state sponsorship, military partnership or multi-year ideological programme.

The broader political record is mixed. Canva’s October 2023 statement confirmed removal of SJP templates while expressing distress over violence in Israel and Gaza.⁷ Its historical responses to Ukraine, Afghanistan and Black Lives Matter were more extensive and resource-specific, but the audits assign no motive inference from that difference.^{37, 38}

A Palestine-focused event was also held at Canva’s Sydney community space in February 2025, with Our Race identified as the host. The evidence establishes venue use but not Canva authorship or sponsorship of the event.³⁹

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

No public evidence identified Canva lobbying on anti-BDS legislation, Israeli military aid or settlement policy, sponsoring a “Brand Israel” campaign, accepting an Israeli state honour, or entering a non-commercial political partnership with Israeli military or settlement bodies.

No public evidence identified donations from Canva, the Canva Foundation or the named founders to the IDF, FIDF, JNF/KKL, reservist funds or settlement organisations. A November 2023 petition raised donation allegations and demanded disclosure, but the audit treats those allegations as unverified rather than factual.⁴⁰

Bob Iger’s separate conduct also cannot be automatically attributed to Canva. Disney donated US$2 million for humanitarian relief after the October 2023 attacks while Iger was Disney CEO, including US$1 million to Magen David Adom.⁴¹ The source identifies Disney as the donor, and the bounded research did not establish that Iger held a Canva board seat on the donation date or that Canva participated in the decision. Canva only publicly described him as a board member by May 2024.¹⁵

The settlement evidence remains negative: no public evidence identified a settlement sponsorship, settlement donation, settlement municipality customer or public endorsement of the settlement enterprise by Canva.

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Complicity Index Score

Method: V6.5

• V_MAX: 2.57 Avg_OTHERS: 1.06
• BRS Score: 232 Tier: D (Moderate Complicity)

Economic provides the highest domain score because the adjudicated record combines a continuing Canva equity-owner relationship with Square Peg’s separate Israel investment activity, while proximity is reduced because current stake size and governance control were not established. Digital and Political are driven by conduct directly attributable to Canva - the SJP-template removal and current Israel service-territory listing - while Military remains zero because no mechanically eligible military relationship was verified.

The V6.5 method is scale-free and evidence-only: Impact reflects the verified activity type, Magnitude the scale of the documented result or relationship, and Proximity the directness of Canva’s connection. These scores are the fixed, examiner-adjudicated values after deterministic eligibility review and bounded human vetting.

Methodology Note

• Evidence is restricted to facts established in the four completed Military, Digital, Economic and Political audits. Allegations marked unresolved or unverified remain qualified or are excluded.
• Scoring is scale-free: Impact (I) concerns the type of activity, Magnitude (M) its documented scale, and Proximity (P) Canva’s directness to the conduct or result.
• Temporal treatment matters. A genuine completed divestment or cessation may affect current attribution where the audits establish that the relevant ownership, operation or activity actually ended. A partial sale, by itself, does not establish cessation or warrant a temporal discount while the relevant ownership relationship continues.
• Entity attribution is specific. Conduct by an investor, director, customer, portfolio company or similarly named company is not automatically attributed to Canva. For the methodology’s upstream-owner Indirect Portfolio Flow scenario, however, the relevant nexus is the verified continuing ownership relationship plus the qualifying upstream owner’s portfolio activity; Canva control or direction of those portfolio companies is not required for that specific scenario.
• A verified settlement operation may be relevant to both Economic and Political under the methodology; no such Canva settlement operation was established in these audits.
• “No public evidence identified” is used where the audited checks found no verified evidence. It records the result of the reviewed public-source search and is not treated as proof that undisclosed conduct is impossible.