Canva Acquires Cavalry and Mango AI to Build a Full-Stack Creative OS
Canva just filled two big gaps: high-end motion graphics and AI-driven marketing. The company acquired UK-based Cavalry (2D motion graphics) and Mango AI (video ad optimization), signaling a push to make Canva a single workspace for professional video and performance creative.
Paired with last year's Affinity acquisition, Canva is stitching together photo, vector, layout, motion, and AI into one stack. For creatives, the pitch is simple: fewer app switches, more control, faster output.
What's new
- Cavalry for motion: A pro-grade 2D motion tool used across ads, games, and generative art. Expect timeline depth, data-driven animation, and better performance for complex comps.
- Affinity foundation: Acquired in 2024, Affinity has surpassed 5 million downloads and is currently offered at no charge-covering photo, vector, and layout for pro workflows.
- Mango AI for ads: A reinforcement-learning approach to improving video ads, led by former Netflix data scientists Nirmal Govind (now Canva's first Chief Algorithms Officer) and Vinith Misra, who are focused on smarter marketing products.
- Supporting stack: Magicbrief (acquired January 2025) and Canva Grow help teams spin static assets into channel-ready outputs, including Meta placements.
Why it matters for creatives
Motion isn't a bolt-on anymore-it sits next to your photo, vector, and layout tools. That means fewer exports, fewer round-trips, and tighter brand control across formats.
On the marketing side, AI can handle scale: variant testing, pacing tweaks, and performance feedback loops. Your job is to set strategy, define brand voice, and make the final calls on the last 20%-the taste and precision machines can't replicate.
Proof the strategy is working
- Canva ended 2025 with 265 million monthly active users and 31 million paying users.
- MAUs grew 20% year over year, helped by AI features and faster creative workflows.
- $500 million ARR and 100% growth in B2B accounts with 25+ seats.
- This marks Canva's fourth and fifth acquisitions in two years as it presses into professional terrain long dominated by Adobe.
What this means for your workflow
- Motion, simplified: Build animations inside the same ecosystem as your layouts and brand kits. Expect tighter handoffs and fewer plugin dependencies.
- Faster ad iteration: Use AI to generate, version, and test creative while you focus on messaging, story, and pacing.
- Consistent brand control: Centralize typography, color, and templates across static, motion, and video.
- Data-connected creative: Feed performance signals back into concepting-kill weak variants quickly and double down on winners.
Practical next steps
- Consolidate your toolkit: define where Affinity handles design, where Cavalry handles motion, and where Canva orchestrates delivery.
- Build a motion style system: transitions, type animation rules, lower-thirds, and social cutdowns that your team can reuse.
- Set clear "human-in-the-loop" gates: AI drafts first, creative direction second, final brand check last.
- Template the ad lifecycle: hooks, CTAs, aspect ratios, and platform-specific captions for repeatable speed.
- Instrument for feedback: tie performance metrics to creative IDs so you can learn which patterns actually move the needle.
The bigger picture
Expect a surge in video creation and more granular ad metrics inside Canva Grow by the end of 2026. If Canva delivers on a true "Creative OS," it will reward teams who standardize workflows early and keep their brand logic centralized.
The takeaway: let AI handle scale and grunt work. Keep humans on taste, narrative, and brand nuance. That's where the edge lives.
Related reading: AI for Creatives
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