Canva announced the dual acquisition of Simtheory and Ortto, enhancing its capabilities in AI collaboration and customer data management. The financial terms of the transactions were not disclosed. These acquisitions align with Canva’s strategies to invest in AI and marketing infrastructure.
Simtheory is an AI collaboration platform, while Ortto specializes in customer data and marketing automation. Both companies were founded by Chris and Mike Sharkey, who will assume leadership roles at Canva. The acquisitions aim to transition Canva from a design tool to a comprehensive platform capable of managing all aspects of workflows.
Simtheory’s platform allows teams to build AI assistants that understand business needs and manage tasks across various tools. Teams can implement agentic workflows tailored to their specific requirements and leverage the latest AI models for diverse applications.
Ortto combines a customer data platform with marketing automation tools. It enables users to design and run customer journeys across email, SMS, push notifications, in-app messaging, forms, and surveys. Ortto’s event-driven architecture and no-code integrations facilitate real-time data activation. More than 11,000 customers across 190 countries utilize Ortto’s platform.
Cliff Obrecht, Canva co-founder and COO, stated, “Simtheory accelerates our evolution from a design platform with AI tools to an AI platform with design and productivity tools at its core.” He added that Ortto enhances Canva’s capabilities to power the entire marketing and content lifecycle through the company’s Canva Grow tool.
This acquisition follows Canva’s recent purchases, including the acquisition of digital outdoor advertising startup Doohly two weeks ago. Six weeks prior, the company acquired Cavalry and MangoAI for improvements in animation and ad performance, respectively. Earlier in January 2025, Canva also acquired marketing intelligence startup MagicBrief.
Canva reported closing 2025 with $4 billion in annualized revenue, over 265 million users, and 31 million paid users. The company experienced a 20% increase in monthly active users, indicating significant growth in its user base.
