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Canva Acquires Simtheory and Ortto to Expand AI and Marketing Automation Capabilities

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Canva Boosts AI and Marketing Capabilities with Simtheory and Ortto Acquisitions

Canva announced on Wednesday the acquisition of Simtheory, an AI collaboration and agent management platform, and Ortto, a customer data and marketing automation company. The financial terms of these transactions were not disclosed.

Canva stated that these acquisitions are part of its ongoing investment in artificial intelligence and marketing infrastructure. The aim is to enhance its capabilities in agentic AI, data infrastructure, marketing automation, and customer engagement.

These acquisitions are intended to support Canva's evolution from a design tool into a comprehensive system that supports entire team workflows, from initial ideas to campaign scaling and measurement.

Acquisition Details and Leadership

Simtheory and Ortto were both founded by Chris and Mike Sharkey, who previously established Stayz, a vacation rental service acquired by Fairfax Media. Chris and Mike Sharkey will join Canva in leadership roles within the company’s AI and marketing technology teams.

Platform Capabilities

Simtheory

Simtheory’s platform is designed to assist teams in utilizing AI to develop assistants. These assistants are intended to understand business operations, integrate across various tools, and manage tasks. The platform enables the application of AI models across diverse use cases and the setup of tailored agentic workflows.

Ortto

Ortto integrates a customer data platform with marketing automation functionalities. This integration allows teams to design and execute customer journeys across multiple channels, including email, SMS, push notifications, in-app messaging, forms, and surveys, all managed within a single system. Ortto's architecture features an event-driven design and no-code integrations, which facilitate real-time data connectivity and activation. The platform currently serves over 11,000 customers across 190 countries.

Strategic Rationale

Cliff Obrecht, Canva's co-founder and COO, stated that the acquisition of Simtheory accelerates Canva's transition from a design platform with AI tools to an AI platform with core design and productivity tools. He added that Ortto strengthens Canva's ability to support the full marketing and content lifecycle through Canva Grow.

Canva Grow is defined as the company’s tool for asset creation and performance measurement, encompassing planning, creation, publishing, and optimization across all channels.

Recent Acquisition Trend

These acquisitions are part of a series of recent purchases by Canva:

  • Two weeks prior: Acquired Doohly, a digital outdoor advertising startup.
  • Six weeks prior: Acquired animation startup Cavalry and ad performance company MangoAI.
  • January 2025: Acquired marketing intelligence startup MagicBrief.

Company Performance

Canva concluded 2025 with $4 billion in annualized revenue. The company reported serving over 265 million users, including 31 million paid users, and a 20% increase in monthly active users.