Canva, the global leader in visual communication, has announced the dual acquisition of Simtheory, an AI collaboration and agent management platform, and Ortto, a customer data and marketing automation company. The move signals Canva’s rapid evolution from a design tool into a comprehensive, AI-driven work system that handles the entire creative and marketing lifecycle—from initial brainstorming and agentic execution to campaign scaling and data-driven measurement.
Acquisitions: Simtheory (AI Agents) and Ortto (Marketing Automation/CDP).
Leadership: Founders Chris and Mike Sharkey join Canva in AI and MarTech leadership roles.
Strategic Goal: Expanding Canva Grow to power the full content lifecycle, including planning, publishing, and optimization.
Evolution: Simtheory will shift Canva from a design tool with AI features to an AI platform with design tools at its core.
Scale: Ortto currently serves over 11,000 customers across 190 countries.
Major Event: Canva will unveil "the biggest transformation in its history" at Canva Create on April 16, 2026.
While generative AI has simplified content creation, the process of moving an idea to a finished product remains fragmented. Simtheory solves this by allowing teams to build AI assistants that understand their specific business logic and collaborate across multiple apps.
By integrating Simtheory, Canva aims to create a workflow where humans and AI agents work together to execute complex tasks autonomously. This "agentic" approach ensures that AI moves beyond just "making an image" to managing real work with the reliability required by enterprises.
“Simtheory accelerates our evolution from a design platform with AI tools to an AI platform with design and productivity tools at its core,” said Cliff Obrecht, Co-Founder and COO of Canva.
The acquisition of Ortto strengthens Canva Grow, the company's suite for professional marketers. Ortto combines a Customer Data Platform (CDP) with multi-channel automation (Email, SMS, Push).
By bringing Ortto’s event-driven architecture into the fold, Canva enables marketing teams to not only design their assets but also orchestrate personalized buyer journeys and measure real-time performance within a single system. This follows recent acquisitions of MagicBrief, MangoAI, and Doohly, further consolidating Canva's position as a powerhouse for end-to-end marketing infrastructure.
These acquisitions serve as a precursor to Canva Create on April 16, 2026. The company has teased a total reimagining of the creation process, mirroring the impact of its original launch a decade ago. With 265 million monthly active users, Canva is positioning itself to be the primary workspace for the AI era.
Mike Sharkey, Co-Founder and CEO of Ortto and Simtheory, noted: “It’s rare to find such strong alignment in mission and values. We’ve been working to make complex things simple... and we can’t wait to continue doing that on an even larger scale.”
About Canva
Launched in 2013, Canva is an all-in-one platform for visual communication. It serves enterprises, small businesses, and students in 190 countries. Powered by proprietary AI and a massive content library, Canva empowers teams to create, collaborate, and communicate with ease.
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