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Canva Buys AI & Marketing Giants, Boosts Workflow Power
9 Apr
Summary
- Canva acquired AI platform Simtheory and marketing firm Ortto.
- Acquisitions aim to enhance AI capabilities and marketing automation.
- Founders of acquired companies join Canva in leadership roles.
Canva announced on Wednesday the dual acquisition of Simtheory, an AI collaboration and agent management platform, and Ortto, a customer data and marketing automation company. These strategic moves signify Canva's ongoing investment in artificial intelligence and marketing infrastructure.
Both Simtheory and Ortto were founded by Chris and Mike Sharkey, who will now assume leadership roles within Canva's AI and marketing technology divisions. These acquisitions are expected to significantly enhance Canva's capabilities in agentic AI, data infrastructure, marketing automation, and customer engagement.
The integration of Simtheory and Ortto aims to evolve Canva from a design tool into a complete system for team workflows. Simtheory's platform empowers teams to build AI assistants that operate across various tools and manage tasks. Ortto offers a unified platform for customer data and marketing automation, enabling the design and execution of customer journeys across multiple channels.
These recent acquisitions follow a pattern of strategic growth for Canva, which has recently acquired Doohly, Cavalry, MangoAI, and MagicBrief. As of the close of 2025, Canva reported $4 billion in annualized revenue, serving over 265 million users, with a notable 20% increase in monthly active users.
