Canva Acquires Simtheory and Ortto to Expand AI and Marketing Capabilities
On Wednesday, Canva announced the dual acquisition of Simtheory, an AI collaboration and agent management platform, and Ortto, a customer data and marketing automation company. Although the financial terms of the deals were not disclosed, Canva highlighted that these acquisitions are part of its ongoing investment in AI and marketing infrastructure.
Leadership Additions from Simtheory and Ortto
Both companies were founded by Chris and Mike Sharkey, who previously co-founded the vacation rental service Stayz, later acquired by Fairfax Media. The Sharkey brothers will join Canva in leadership roles, contributing to the company’s AI and marketing technology teams.
Expanding Canva's Workflow and Capabilities
According to Canva, these acquisitions bolster the company’s expertise in agentic AI, data infrastructure, marketing automation, and customer engagement. This strengthens Canva’s evolution from a design tool into a comprehensive system where teams can manage their entire workflow—from ideation to campaign execution and measurement.
Simtheory: AI-Powered Assistant Creation
Simtheory’s platform enables teams to leverage AI in building assistants that understand specific business needs, integrate across various tools, and perform real tasks. The platform supports diverse use cases and allows the creation of tailored agentic workflows using the latest AI models.
Ortto: Unified Customer Data and Marketing Automation
Ortto combines a customer data platform with marketing automation tools, allowing teams to design and execute campaigns across multiple channels, including email, SMS, push notifications, in-app messaging, forms, and surveys. Leveraging an event-driven architecture and no-code integrations, Ortto simplifies real-time data activation. Canva reports that the platform is currently used by over 11,000 customers in 190 countries.
Strategic Vision Behind the Acquisitions
“Simtheory accelerates our evolution from a design platform with AI tools to an AI platform with design and productivity tools at its core,” said Canva co-founder and COO Cliff Obrecht in a press release. “At the same time, Ortto strengthens our ability to power the entire marketing and content lifecycle through Canva Grow, from planning and creating to publishing and optimizing across every channel.”
Canva Grow is the company’s integrated tool for asset creation and performance measurement, designed to support end-to-end marketing workflows.
Continued Acquisition Momentum
These acquisitions are part of Canva’s recent spree of strategic expansions. Just two weeks ago, Canva acquired digital outdoor advertising startup Doohly. Six weeks prior, the company announced the dual acquisition of Cavalry, focused on animation, and MangoAI, which specializes in ad performance optimization. Earlier in January 2025, Canva acquired marketing intelligence startup MagicBrief.
Impressive Growth Metrics
Canva closed 2025 with $4 billion in annualized revenue, alongside a user base of more than 265 million total users and 31 million paid users. The company also achieved a 20% increase in monthly active users, underlining its strong growth trajectory.
