Canva acquires Simtheory and Ortto to evolve from design platform into AI-powered workspace

Canva doubles down on AI and marketing automation with Simtheory, Ortto acquisitions | TechCrunch

Canva announced on Wednesday the dual acquisition of Simtheory, an AI collaboration and agent management platform, and Ortto, a customer data and marketing automation company. The financial terms of the deals were not disclosed. Canva says the acquisitions are part of its continued investment in AI and marketing infrastructure. Both companies were founded by Chris and Mike Sharkey, previously founders of vacation rental service Stayz, which was acquired by Fairfax Media. The pair will join Canva in leadership roles across the company's AI and marketing technology teams. Canva says the acquisitions add strengths in agentic AI, data infrastructure, marketing automation, and customer engagement, helping Canva evolve from a design tool into a system where teams do all of their work from start to finish. The additions extend Canva's capabilities across the full workflow, from early ideas to campaign scaling and measurement. Simtheory's platform helps teams use AI to build assistants that understand their business, work across tools, and handle real tasks. Simtheory lets teams apply the latest models across diverse use cases and set up agentic workflows tailored to their needs. On the other hand, Ortto combines a customer data platform with marketing automation, letting teams design and run journeys across email, SMS, push, in-app messaging, forms, and surveys in one system. Its event-driven architecture and no-code integrations make it easy to connect and activate data in real-time, Canva says. The platform is used by more than 11,000 customers in 190 countries. "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 optimising across every channel." Canva Grow is the company's tool for asset creation and performance measurement. These latest acquisitions come as Canva has been on a bit of an acquisition spree. Two weeks ago, the company acquired digital outdoor advertising startup Doohly. Six weeks ago, Canva announced the dual acquisition of startups Cavalry, which works on animation, and MangoAI, which works on improving ad performance. Before that, Canva acquired marketing intelligence startup MagicBrief in January 2025. Canva closed 2025 at $4 billion in annualized revenue with more than 265 million users and 31 million paid users. The company also saw a 20% increase in monthly active users.

Canva acquires Simtheory and Ortto in a twin deal

Both companies were built by brothers Chris and Mike Sharkey, who previously co-founded Australian holiday rental site Stayz. Financial terms were not disclosed. Canva will preview what it calls the biggest transformation in its history at Canva Create on 16 April. Canva has acquired two companies simultaneously: Simtheory, an agentic AI collaboration platform, and Ortto, a customer data platform and marketing automation company. Both were built by Australian brothers Chris and Mike Sharkey, who will join Canva in leadership roles across its AI and marketing technology teams. Financial terms were not disclosed for either deal. The Sharkeys are serial founders. Before Ortto and Simtheory they co-founded Stayz, then Australia's largest holiday accommodation booking site, which was sold to Fairfax Digital in 2006 and subsequently to HomeAway for $225 million in 2013. Ortto itself has an older lineage: it began as Autopilot, a marketing automation company the brothers founded in 2015, rebuilt from the ground up after 2018, and rebranded as Ortto in March 2022. Simtheory grew out of an AI podcast the Sharkeys launched in 2023 to explore new models and AI capabilities; the tooling they built to produce the show evolved into a multi-model AI workspace for teams. The two acquisitions serve distinct parts of Canva's platform ambitions. Simtheory brings agentic AI infrastructure: its platform allows teams to build AI assistants that understand their business context, co-ordinate across tasks and applications, and complete work with the reliability and auditability enterprises require. Cliff Obrecht, Canva's co-founder and COO said exclusive for TNW that "In a world where generating ideas is easier than ever, the challenge has shifted to turning those ideas into real, usable work. We're excited to welcome Simtheory to Canva as we evolve from a design platform with AI tools, to an AI platform with design and productivity tools. They've built great agentic technology which we're looking forward to bringing to the quarter of a billion people using Canva every month." Ortto addresses the marketing lifecycle end of Canva's ambitions. The platform combines a customer data platform with multi-channel marketing automation, enabling teams to build and run journeys across email, SMS, push notifications, in-app messaging, forms, and surveys from a single system. It uses an event-driven architecture and no-code integrations to connect and activate customer data in real time. The company counts more than 11,000 customers across 190 countries. The acquisition feeds into Canva Grow, Canva's marketing product, and follows three earlier additions in the same direction: MagicBrief, acquired in January 2025; MangoAI, acquired in February 2026 for AI-driven video ad optimisation; and Doohly, acquired in March 2026 for digital out-of-home advertising. Canva, launched in 2013 and headquartered in Sydney, is used by more than 265 million people each month and closed 2025 with more than $4 billion in annualised revenue. Mike Sharkey, CEO of both Ortto and Simtheory, said the scale of Canva's user base was the central draw: "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."

Canva acquires Simtheory and Ortto to expand AI and marketing tools

Canva announced the dual acquisition of Simtheory and Ortto, enhancing its capabilities in AI collaboration and customer data management. The financial terms of the transactions were not disclosed. These acquisitions align with Canva's strategies to invest in AI and marketing infrastructure. Simtheory is an AI collaboration platform, while Ortto specializes in customer data and marketing automation. Both companies were founded by Chris and Mike Sharkey, who will assume leadership roles at Canva. The acquisitions aim to transition Canva from a design tool to a comprehensive platform capable of managing all aspects of workflows. Simtheory's platform allows teams to build AI assistants that understand business needs and manage tasks across various tools. Teams can implement agentic workflows tailored to their specific requirements and leverage the latest AI models for diverse applications. Ortto combines a customer data platform with marketing automation tools. It enables users to design and run customer journeys across email, SMS, push notifications, in-app messaging, forms, and surveys. Ortto's event-driven architecture and no-code integrations facilitate real-time data activation. More than 11,000 customers across 190 countries utilize Ortto's platform. Cliff Obrecht, Canva co-founder and COO, stated, "Simtheory accelerates our evolution from a design platform with AI tools to an AI platform with design and productivity tools at its core." He added that Ortto enhances Canva's capabilities to power the entire marketing and content lifecycle through the company's Canva Grow tool. This acquisition follows Canva's recent purchases, including the acquisition of digital outdoor advertising startup Doohly two weeks ago. Six weeks prior, the company acquired Cavalry and MangoAI for improvements in animation and ad performance, respectively. Earlier in January 2025, Canva also acquired marketing intelligence startup MagicBrief. Canva reported closing 2025 with $4 billion in annualized revenue, over 265 million users, and 31 million paid users. The company experienced a 20% increase in monthly active users, indicating significant growth in its user base.