Design platform Canva acquires AI and marketing startups to expand its tools for teams and businesses worldwide
Canva: Design platform acquires AI and marketing startups for growth.
Canva announced on Wednesday it has acquired two companies, Simtheory and Ortto. Simtheory helps teams use AI to build smart assistants for work. Ortto combines customer data with marketing tools in one system. These tools will help Canva users create, share, and measure content all in one place.
The two companies were started by Chris and Mike Sharkey, who also founded Stayz, a vacation rental service. Now they will work at Canva in AI and marketing roles. Simtheory’s platform lets teams use different AI models for real tasks. Ortto connects data from emails, texts, apps, and surveys to run marketing campaigns.
Canva’s co-founder Cliff Obrecht said these acquisitions help the company become more than just a design tool. He said Canva will now focus on AI tools with design features. Canva Grow is a tool that helps users create and measure marketing work. These deals are part of Canva’s plan to improve its marketing and design services.
Canva has been buying other companies recently. Two weeks ago it bought Doohly, a digital advertising startup. Six weeks ago it bought Cavalry for animation and MangoAI for ad improvement. In January it bought MagicBrief for marketing data. Canva now has more than 265 million users and made $4 billion last year. It also added 20% more monthly active users.