Remove any image background in 5 seconds — automatically, with AI
93
Overall score
38
Heat score
Inputs
Image File (JPG, PNG, WebP, HEIC), Image URL, Batch Image Upload
Outputs
Transparent PNG, Background Removed Image, White Background Image, Custom Background Image, Bulk Processed ZIP
AI Type
Vision
Model Architecture
Custom/Proprietary
Daily Prompts
N/A
Context Length
N/A
Accuracy
95%
Content
91%
Reasoning
88%
Company
Canva Austria GmbH (formerly Kaleido AI)
Founded
2019
HQ
Vienna, Austria
Employees
50
Total Raised / Total Funding
N/A
Revenue
$20M
Valuation
N/A
ARR
$20M
CEO
Benjamin Groessing
Estimated Paid Users
500K
Current estimate
Total Earnings Till Date
$20M
+1.02% from last month
Market Share
8.5%
Current share
Average Session
8
Per active user
Hallucination Rate
3%
Model quality signal
Growth Rate
+1.61%
Monthly active users
Burn Rate
N/A
Total expenses / years active
Paid User Gain
+5.60%
Monthly paid user trend
$62M
Total Loss
$2.1M
Total Profit
$337M
Accuracy
95%
Context
91%
Reasoning
88%
Safety
90%
No benchmark scores available.
Type: Image
Description: Initial background removal model trained primarily on human portrait images. Used deep learning semantic segmentation (U-Net inspired architecture) to identify foreground subjects and output transparency masks. Specialized for human subjects with clean edge separation. Processed its first 6 million images in 9 days post-launch, achieving accuracy that outperformed any other automated tool available at the time for portrait photography.
Architecture: Custom/Proprietary
Type: Image
Description: Expanded training data to include animals, products, vehicles, logos, and complex backgrounds beyond human portraits. Significantly broadened use case coverage to include e-commerce product photography, pet photos, automotive imagery, and graphic design assets. Powered Unscreen's temporal background removal model for video by adapting frame-by-frame segmentation with inter-frame consistency constraints.
Architecture: Custom/Proprietary
Type: Image
Description: Current production model. Major improvements in fine edge detection — hair, fur, transparent objects, and motion blur. Reduced average processing time per image from 3.5 seconds to under 2 seconds at standard resolution. Now powers both the remove.bg web/API platform and Canva's built-in Magic Studio Background Remover feature used by 220M+ Canva users. Enterprise API handles multiple resolutions with 75% accuracy improvement on previously-failing edge cases.
Architecture: Custom/Proprietary
Total Funding
N/A
Rounds
1
Funding Update
N/AFeb 2021
remove.bg was built by Kaleido, co-founded by Benjamin Groessing and David Fankhauser in Vienna, Austria in 2013. Kaleido was entirely bootstrapped — the founders declined multiple investor approaches throughout their history and grew the company organically to profitability from launch. Benjamin Groessing stated: 'We completely bootstrapped Kaleido with no investors involved from day one. It has just been two founders and an incredible team. We've been profitable from the start — so this acquisition wasn't essential for our existence.' Canva acquired Kaleido (including remove.bg, Unscreen, and Designify) in February 2021 for an undisclosed amount. Austrian press sources (Die Presse, Der Brutkasten) cited the deal as among Austria's largest tech exits, in the same tier as Runtastic (€220M) but in the 'two-digit millions' range — consistent with TechCrunch's description of the deal as 'approaching nine figures.' Best estimate: $60–90M USD. No external funding rounds exist to report.
Benjamin Groessing
Co-Founder & CEO
David Fankhauser
Co-Founder & CTO
No direct competitors available.
2023 · Sep 1
Released a major model update improving detection of fine and complex edges — including hair, fur, transparent objects, and motion blur. The update significantly improved accuracy on difficult cases that previously required manual touch-up with the Erase/Restore brush. API performance also improved, reducing average processing time per image from ~3.5 seconds to under 2 seconds at standard resolution.
2024 · Jun 1
Kaleido.ai officially rebranded as Canva Austria. remove.bg, Unscreen, and Designify continued operating as independent products under the Canva umbrella. Deeper integration added — remove.bg users can now automatically transfer their edited image directly into a Canva design with a single click. Canva's Magic Studio Background Remover feature was built on Kaleido/remove.bg technology and launched to Canva's 220M+ users.
2025 · Aug 1
Canva Austria (Kaleido) reported 25 million monthly users across remove.bg, Unscreen, and Designify from 200+ countries. remove.bg ranked #4 in Graphics, Multimedia, and Web Design globally (Similarweb, August 2025) and #722 globally by total monthly visits (~60M). The 'remove bg' keyword had 3.8M monthly search volume globally, making remove.bg one of the highest-intent AI tool SEO properties in the world. Enterprise customers included automotive dealers, school photography studios, and major global e-commerce platforms.
Industry: Design Creative
Compliances: Not specified
Integrations: Canva, Adobe Photoshop, Figma, Zapier, Make (Integromat), Shopify, WooCommerce, remove.bg API, Unscreen, Designify
Support:email, help center, community forum
Target audience: Graphic Designers, Ecommerce Store Owners, Marketers, Photographers, Developers, Social Media Managers, Product Teams, Small Businesses, Agencies, Content Creators
Supported languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Dutch, Polish, Russian, Turkish, Swedish, Arabic, Hindi, Indonesian
remove.bg (Kaleido product — acquired BY Canva)
February 23, 2021
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remove.bg is an AI-powered background removal tool built by Kaleido (now Canva Austria). You upload any image — photo, product shot, portrait, logo — and remove.bg's deep learning model automatically detects the foreground subject and removes the background in under 5 seconds, outputting a high-resolution PNG with transparent background. No Photoshop skills required. The service is available as a web app, desktop app for Windows and Mac, iOS and Android app, Photoshop plugin, Figma plugin, and a developer API.
Yes — the web app is free for previews and small outputs. Free users receive a watermark-free download at reduced resolution (up to 0.25 megapixels). Full HD and original resolution downloads require credits or a subscription. Subscriptions start at $9/month for 40 credits/month (Subscription 40) scaling to $99/month for 1,000 credits/month. The API is billed at $0.20–$2.00 per image depending on resolution tier. Businesses processing large volumes can negotiate enterprise contracts.
remove.bg works best with portraits and people (highest accuracy), product photography on simple backgrounds, animals and pets, cars and vehicles, and logos on flat backgrounds. Complex scenes with transparent objects (glass, hair in motion), heavily textured backgrounds matching the subject, or images with very fine detail at edges (fur, wisps of hair) may require manual touch-up using remove.bg's built-in Erase/Restore brush tool.
remove.bg was built by Kaleido, a bootstrapped Vienna-based startup co-founded by Benjamin Groessing and David Fankhauser. Canva acquired Kaleido in February 2021 for an undisclosed amount reported to be in the high two-digit millions (TechCrunch cited near nine figures). Canva kept remove.bg operating as a standalone product with its own brand rather than merging it into Canva, leveraging the site's SEO authority and brand recognition. Kaleido later rebranded as Canva Austria. remove.bg now integrates a one-click 'Edit in Canva' button that funnels traffic into Canva's ecosystem.
remove.bg does not publish official MAU figures, but several verified milestones are public: 100 million users from 180+ countries used remove.bg and Unscreen in 2020 (pre-acquisition); 1 billion images and videos processed in 2020; Kaleido scaled to 43,000 paying customers from 181 countries within 18 months of launch (mid-2020); Canva Austria (Kaleido's post-acquisition entity) reported 25 million monthly users across remove.bg, Unscreen, and Designify; Similarweb ranks remove.bg at #722 globally with approximately 60 million monthly visits as of August 2025.