Canva Acquires AI and Marketing Automation Platforms in Dual Deal
Canva announced Wednesday it acquired Simtheory, an AI collaboration and agent management platform, and Ortto, a customer data and marketing automation company. The company did not disclose financial terms for either deal.
Both companies were founded by Chris and Mike Sharkey, who previously built vacation rental service Stayz before selling it to Fairfax Media. The brothers will join Canva in leadership roles focused on AI and marketing technology.
What These Acquisitions Add
Simtheory's platform lets teams build AI assistants trained on their business data. These assistants work across different tools and handle real tasks without human intervention. The system supports multiple AI models and lets teams configure workflows for specific use cases.
Ortto combines a customer data platform with marketing automation. It manages campaigns across email, SMS, push notifications, in-app messaging, forms, and surveys from a single interface. The platform serves more than 11,000 customers across 190 countries and uses event-driven architecture to activate data in real time.
Together, the acquisitions extend Canva's reach beyond design into the full marketing workflow-from initial planning through campaign execution and performance measurement.
Part of a Broader Expansion
These acquisitions are Canva's latest moves in a series of purchases over the past two months. The company acquired animation startup Cavalry and ad performance tool MangoAI six weeks ago. Two weeks prior, it bought digital outdoor advertising startup Doohly. In January, Canva acquired marketing intelligence startup MagicBrief.
Canva closed 2025 with $4 billion in annualized revenue and 265 million total users, including 31 million paid subscribers. The company reported a 20% increase in monthly active users.
The additions position Canva to compete more directly in AI for Marketing infrastructure. Marketing teams increasingly need tools that connect content creation, audience data, and campaign automation-areas where Ortto and Simtheory add direct capabilities.
For teams using Canva Grow, the company's asset creation and measurement tool, these integrations mean fewer platform switches when planning campaigns, building creative, and measuring results.
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