Canva Buys Add AI and Customer Data Management Tools

In Sydney, Australia, visual communication platform Canva has announced the acquisitions of Simtheory, an AI collaboration and agent management platform, and Ortto, a customer data and marketing automation company. Both companies were founded by Chris and Mike Sharkey.

Canva says it aims to evolve from a design tool into a system 'where teams do all of their work from start to finish.' The buys fuel this, bringing expertise in agentic AI, data infrastructure, marketing automation and customer engagement to help customers all the way from early ideation through to campaign scaling and measurement. Simtheory helps companies build and apply AI agents to their workflow, while Ortto combines a customer data platform with marketing automation features, allowing teams to design and orchestrate journeys across email, SMS, push notifications, in-app messaging, forms, and surveys, in one system.

The Sharkeys (pictured) co-founded Stayz, which was acquired by Fairfax Media, and will now join Canva in leadership roles in the AI and marketing technology teams. Cliff Obrecht, Canva co-founder and COO, comments: 'We're excited to welcome Simtheory and Ortto to Canva. They've built exceptional teams and technology, and this acquisition marks an important step toward evolving Canva from a design tool into the system where work happens end-to-end, whether it's a quick idea or a full campaign.' He adds: 'This builds on our recent acquisitions of MagicBrief, MangoAI and Doohly, and we've only scratched the surface of the opportunity here.'

CEO Mike Sharkey (right) comments: 'We're thrilled to be joining Canva. The opportunity to bring our technology to the quarter of a billion people using Canva every month and to help more people make the most of AI in their everyday work is incredibly exciting to us.'

The company is online at www.canva.com .