Canva acquires Simtheory and Ortto in a dual deal that signals the Australian design giant’s ambitions far beyond templates and drag-and-drop graphics. The company announced both acquisitions on Wednesday, confirming its push into agentic AI and end-to-end marketing automation. Financial terms for neither transaction have been disclosed.
Both Simtheory and Ortto share the same founding team. Brothers Chris and Mike Sharkey built the two companies after previously co-founding Stayz, the vacation rental platform later acquired by Fairfax Media. Following the deal, the Sharkey brothers will take on leadership positions across Canva’s AI and marketing technology divisions.
What Simtheory Brings to Canva’s AI Roadmap
Simtheory is an AI workspace and collaboration platform designed for building custom agents. As a result, teams using Simtheory can deploy personalized AI assistants that understand specific business processes and operate across multiple tools. The platform supports leading models from providers like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google, giving organizations the flexibility to tailor agentic workflows to their particular needs.
This addition matters because Canva acquires Simtheory and Ortto at a moment when AI tools are abundant, yet real-world execution remains fragmented. Generating content is only one step in a much larger process for most teams. Simtheory was built to bridge that gap between creation and action, and Canva plans to reveal early integrations at Canva Create on April 16.
Cliff Obrecht, Canva’s co-founder and COO, described the deal as a turning point. He explained that Simtheory accelerates the company’s shift from a design platform with AI features to an AI platform with design and productivity tools at its core. In other words, Canva acquires Simtheory and Ortto not just for their technology, but for a fundamentally different vision of what the platform should become.
Ortto Fills the Marketing Automation Gap
On the other side of the deal, Ortto brings a customer data platform combined with comprehensive marketing automation. Teams using Ortto can orchestrate customer journeys across email, SMS, push notifications, in-app messaging, forms, and surveys within a single system. Its event-driven architecture and no-code integrations make real-time data activation accessible for more than 11,000 clients across 190 countries.
Consequently, Canva acquires Simtheory and Ortto to close a critical loop. Ortto strengthens Canva Grow, the company’s tool for asset creation and performance measurement, by adding the ability to plan, publish, and optimize content across every channel. For marketing teams juggling disconnected platforms, this consolidation removes significant friction from campaign management.
Furthermore, the 40-person Ortto team will continue building its standalone product while simultaneously contributing expertise to Canva’s expanding marketing suite. This approach mirrors how many fintech companies balance automation with human expertise when integrating acquired technology.
A Pattern of Strategic Acquisitions
These two deals do not exist in isolation. Canva acquires Simtheory and Ortto as part of an aggressive acquisition strategy that has accelerated sharply in recent months. Just weeks earlier, the company purchased digital outdoor advertising startup Doohly for a reported $30 million. Six weeks before that, Canva announced the dual acquisition of animation startup Cavalry and ad performance company MangoAI. Earlier still, it picked up marketing intelligence startup MagicBrief in January 2025.
Together, this acquisition spree paints a clear picture. Canva is systematically assembling the components needed to own the entire marketing and content lifecycle, from initial concept through to deployment, measurement, and optimization.
Revenue Growth Backs the Expansion
The timing is notable because Canva acquires Simtheory and Ortto from a position of considerable financial strength. The company closed 2025 with $4 billion in annualized revenue and a user base exceeding 265 million monthly active users, including 31 million paid subscribers. Monthly active users grew 20% year over year, underscoring sustained demand for the platform.
That momentum gives Canva the capital and the confidence to pursue acquisitions that might otherwise seem aggressive for a design-focused company. However, this is precisely the point. When Canva acquires Simtheory and Ortto, it signals that the company no longer defines itself by design alone. The destination is a comprehensive work platform where teams move from ideas to outcomes without switching tools.
What This Means for the Broader Market
For competitors in the design, marketing, and AI collaboration space, the implications are significant. Canva acquires Simtheory and Ortto to create vertical integration that few rivals can match at this scale. Adobe, Figma, HubSpot, and standalone AI agent platforms all face overlapping competitive pressure as Canva builds out its unified ecosystem.
Additionally, the deal reflects a broader trend in tech acquisitions during 2026. Companies with strong revenue foundations are snapping up specialized startups to consolidate capabilities rather than building from scratch. Canva acquires Simtheory and Ortto because it is faster, and arguably smarter, to buy proven technology and talent than to develop comparable systems internally.
The Canva Create event on April 16 will likely offer the first concrete look at how these acquisitions translate into product features. Until then, the dual deal stands as one of the most consequential moves in Canva’s 13-year history, and a clear statement about where the company is headed next.