Acquiring Simtheory and Ortto, Canva is reiterating its commitment to artificial intelligence and marketing technology as areas of focus over the next decades.
These acquisitions are helping Canva transform from a design-centric platform to a full-service workspace where teams can do everything – from ideation to creation, execution, and measurement – in a single system. By embedding AI agents, customer data infrastructure, and marketing automation tools, Canva is looking at making the entire chain of workfrom initial concept to the rollout of large campaigns and their measurementmuch more efficient.
Both Simtheory and Ortto share the same founding duo – Chris and Mike Sharkey, who earlier were the founders of Stayz, a company that was later acquired by Fairfax Media. According to the acquisition terms, the two founding brothers will be taking up senior management positions at Canva in the AI and marketing technology departments.
Strengthening Canva’s End-to-End Work Platform Vision
Commenting on the acquisition, Cliff Obrecht, Co-Founder and Chief Operations Officer at Canva, highlighted the strategic importance of the move:
“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,” said Cliff Obrecht, Co-Founder and Chief Operations Officer at Canva.
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He further emphasized that Simtheory enhances Canva’s transition toward becoming an AI-first platform, while Ortto strengthens its marketing lifecycle capabilities through Canva Grow. This includes improvements across planning, content creation, publishing, and cross-channel optimization, building on previous acquisitions such as MagicBrief, MangoAI, and Doohly.
Simtheory: Enabling AI-Powered Collaboration and Execution
Simtheory aims to help teams implement AI-powered assistants capable of understanding the business context and accomplishing tasks across different workflows to simplify fragmented knowledge work.
By enabling enterprises to orchestrate AI agent systems of different types simultaneously in different tools and for different purposes, the platform presents a way to take AI from mere content production to actual business operations. Its solutions enable organizations to create and manage AI collaboration systems that are both controlled and scalable and support the multi-model environment.
This purchase will help Canva proceed faster with its goal of developing an integrated platform where people and AI work together effortlessly from the stage of idea generation to the final output, with other news expected at Canva Create.
Ortto: Enhancing Marketing Automation and Customer Data Infrastructure
Ortto equips Canva with the integration of comprehensive customer data and marketing automation, allowing teams to create and manage personalized marketing campaigns using data insights on a large scale.
Its modus operandi includes managing customer data and running marketing campaigns across multiple channels, such as email SMS push notifications, in-app messaging, forms, and surveys, all from one platform. Its event-driven design along with no-code integrations make it possible for companies to use live customer data for marketing-facing interactions.
Presently, Ortto serves more than 11,000 clients in 190 countries. This partnership is anticipated to greatly uplift Canva Grow by supporting full lifecycle marketing from planning and creation to distribution, measurement, and optimization.
Leadership Perspective and Strategic Outlook
Mike Sharkey, Co-Founder and CEO of Ortto and Simtheory, expressed enthusiasm about the acquisition, noting the opportunity to extend their technologies to Canva’s global user base of over 265 million monthly users. He emphasized shared values around simplifying complex workflows and making advanced technology more accessible.
The acquisition underscores Canva’s continued momentum in building a unified platform for modern work, combining AI, design, and marketing capabilities into a single ecosystem designed to support the full lifecycle of content creation and distribution.