Canva acquires Simtheory and Ortto

Canva has acquired Simtheory and Ortto, strengthening its capabilities in artificial intelligence and marketing infrastructure.

The acquisitions bring together expertise in agentic AI, customer data and automation, supporting Canva’s strategy to evolve from a design-focused platform into a system that supports end-to-end workflows.

Expanding AI collaboration and workflows

Simtheory adds capabilities in AI-powered collaboration and agent management, enabling teams to build assistants that can operate across tools and workflows. The platform focuses on helping organisations move from content generation to execution by integrating AI into day-to-day tasks.

The addition supports Canva’s broader push to embed AI more deeply into its platform, enabling users to move from initial ideas through to completed outputs within a single environment.

Strengthening marketing and data capabilities

Ortto brings customer data and marketing automation tools, allowing teams to manage campaigns across channels including email, SMS, push notifications and in-app messaging. Its platform integrates data in real time, supporting more personalised and scalable marketing activity.

The acquisition enhances Canva Grow, the company’s marketing suite, and builds on earlier deals including MagicBrief, MangoAI and Doohly, expanding Canva’s ability to support the full marketing and content lifecycle.

Cliff Obrecht, Co-Founder and Chief Operations Officer, Canva: "We’re excited to welcome Simtheory and Ortto to Canva. They’ve built exceptional teams and technology, and this acquisition marks an important step toward evolving Canva from a design tool into the system where work happens end-to-end, whether it’s a quick idea or a full campaign.

Simtheory accelerates our evolution from a design platform with AI tools to an AI platform with design and productivity tools at its core. We’re excited to share some of our early work together at Canva Create on April 16, where we’ll unveil the biggest transformation in Canva’s history, reimagining the process of creation, just as we did a decade ago. At the same time, Ortto strengthens our ability to power the entire marketing and content lifecycle through Canva Grow, from planning and creating to publishing and optimising across every channel. This builds on our recent acquisitions of MagicBrief, MangoAI and Doohly, and we’ve only scratched the surface of the opportunity here."

Founders join Canva leadership

Both companies were founded by Chris Sharkey and Mike Sharkey, who previously co-founded Stayz. They will join Canva in leadership roles across its AI and marketing technology teams following the acquisition.

Mike Sharkey, CEO, Ortto: "We’re thrilled to be joining Canva. The opportunity to bring our technology to the quarter of a billion people using Canva every month and to help more people make the most of AI in their everyday work is incredibly exciting to us. It’s rare to find such strong alignment in mission and values.

From day one, we’ve been working to make complex things simple with both Simtheory and Ortto, and we can’t wait to continue doing that on an even larger scale as part of Canva."

Focus on end-to-end platform vision

The deals reflect Canva’s continued investment in building a platform that supports the full creative and marketing process, from ideation to execution and optimisation. The company reports more than 265 million monthly users globally.

Further updates are expected at Canva Create on April 16, where Canva plans to outline the next phase of its platform development.

www.canva.com

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