Canva, the global visual AI platform, hosted its first-ever community meetup in Pakistan.
LAHORE, Pakistan — Canva, the global visual AI platform, hosted its first-ever community meetup in Pakistan at the COLABS campus in Lahore, bringing together designers, visual artists, founders, and creative operators.
Held in partnership with COLABS, the event; titled “Empowering the World to Design”; featured a keynote by Ahmad Iqbal, MENAP General Manager, Canva followed by a panel discussion, “AI, Tools, and Taste: The New Creative Hierarchy.”
The meetup marks Canva’s first on-ground community engagement in Pakistan and reflects the platform’s growing adoption among freelancers, small businesses, and content creators in the country.
Canva’s creator ecosystem enables designers, illustrators, photographers, video makers, and educators to contribute content to a platform used by more than 265 million people each month. Markets like Pakistan are increasingly emerging as contributors to that global ecosystem.
Over 13 million designs are produced on Canva by users in Pakistan every month, with over 800,000 students using the platform for academic and creative work.
“We’re so excited to be engaging with our flourishing community in Pakistan,” said MENAP General Manager, Canva. “Pakistan is part of a global shift where digital adoption is accelerating. This shift creates new opportunities but also widens the gap between those who have access to effective tools and those who don’t. We’re excited to work together with our community here, empowering everyone to design with ease, accessibility and simplicity.”
Speaking about the partnership, he added, “It’s been an incredible experience working with COLABS. The team and the community here have exceeded expectations in bringing this together.”
COLABS operates a network of flexible workspaces and community hubs across Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. The company operates more than 10 locations with over 5,000 members from 300 companies, and more than 250 partners.
The COLABS Creative Collective, which focuses on fostering and promoting local artists through programs and collaborations, partnered on the event as part of its broader efforts to support Pakistan’s creative ecosystem.
“We’ve been fortunate enough to help companies like Spotify and Google build their communities in Pakistan and we are glad that we were also able to partner with Canva for their first ever official gathering in Pakistan. It reflects what we’re trying to do at COLABS.
“The focus is on bringing the right mix of people into the same room. When creators, founders, and operators come together like this, the value comes from the conversations and interactions that follow.”
Canva is a free-to-use online visual communications and collaboration platform which aims to enable everyone and anyone to design, by simplifying the design process. With a simple drag-and-drop interface, users can create social media posts, presentations, posters, videos, logos and more, without technical expertise.
Founded in Lahore in 2019, COLABS is a workspace and ecosystem operator that provides business solutions, and curated community programs. It currently serves over 5,000 members across 10 active sites. The platform hosts over 1,000 events each year, welcoming more than half a million visitors. COLABS is backed by regional venture capital firms including Shorooq, Waseel, Indus Valley Capital, Fatima Gobi Ventures, Zayn VC, Waad Investment and key angel investors.
