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Canva acquires startups working on animation and marketing
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Canva acquires startups working on animation and marketing

#Canva #Acquisition #Animation #AI #Marketing #Video Creation #Affinity #Revenue Growth

📌 Key Takeaways

  • Canva acquired animation startup Cavalry and AI startup MangoAI to enhance its marketing capabilities
  • Cavalry's 2D motion animation tools will complement Canva's existing Affinity professional editing suite
  • MangoAI's reinforcement learning technology will help improve video ad performance measurement
  • Canva aims to create a complete "Creative OS" spanning photo, vector, layout, and motion editing
  • These acquisitions follow Canva's $4 billion annualized revenue achievement with 265 million users

📖 Full Retelling

Creative suite maker Canva announced on Monday its dual acquisition of UK-based animation startup Cavalry and stealth startup Mango AI, aiming to bolster its position as a comprehensive marketing solution by adding video creation capabilities and more granular measurement to its product suite. Canva specifically mentioned that Cavalry's 2D motion animation tools will enhance their existing Affinity professional creative editing suite, which they acquired in 2024. According to Canva, since revamping Affinity's design and making it free for all users last year, the software has been downloaded over five million times. The company stated that by bringing Cavalry alongside Affinity, they are "closing that [motion editing] gap and unlocking a complete professional suite spanning photo, vector, layout, and now motion editing." They described these tools as forming "the foundation of a full-stack Creative OS for professional work." The second acquisition, Mango AI, was working on building reinforcement learning systems to improve video ad performance. Founded by Nirmal Govind, former VP of Data Science & Engineering at Netflix, and Vinith Misra, a former data scientist at Netflix and Roblox, MangoAI's first product helped clients create and launch ads and observe outcomes to improve future campaigns. Canva announced that Govind will become their first "Chief Algorithms Officer" while Misra will focus on improving Canva's marketing products. These acquisitions follow Canva's previous acquisition of marketing intelligence startup Magicbrief in January 2025 and the launch of their growth tool Canva Grow for asset creation and performance measurement. According to Canva co-founder and COO Cliff Obrecht, Canva Grow is performing "incredibly well" for creating static content and publishing to Meta platforms, with plans to expand into video creation and multi-platform deployment. Canva closed 2025 with $4 billion in annualized revenue, serving over 265 million users including 31 million paid users.

🏷️ Themes

Corporate Expansion, AI Integration, Marketing Technology

📚 Related People & Topics

Marketing

Marketing

Study and process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to customers

Marketing is the act of acquiring, satisfying and retaining customers. It is one of the primary components of business management and commerce. Marketing is usually conducted by the seller, typically a retailer or manufacturer.

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Animation

Animation

Method of creating moving pictures

Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby pictures are generated or manipulated to create moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animation has been recognized as an artistic medium, spec...

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Canva

Canva

Australian multinational proprietary software company

Canva Pty Ltd. is an Australian multinational proprietary software company launched in 2013 that provides a graphic design platform to create visual content for presentations, websites, and other digital products. Its uses include templates for presentations, posters, and social media content, as we...

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Acquisition

Topics referred to by the same term

Acquisition may refer to:

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Deep Analysis

Why It Matters

This acquisition matters because it strengthens Canva's position as a comprehensive creative and marketing platform, moving beyond static design into animation and AI-driven advertising. It signals Canva's strategy to compete more directly with professional creative suites by adding motion editing capabilities and sophisticated marketing tools.

Context & Background

  • Canva acquired Affinity, a professional creative editing suite, in 2024 and made it free
  • Canva previously acquired marketing intelligence startup Magicbrief in January 2025
  • Canva launched a growth tool called Canva Grow for asset creation and performance measurement

What Happens Next

Canva will integrate Cavalry's motion editing tools into the Affinity suite and leverage MangoAI's technology to enhance video ad creation and performance measurement. The company plans to expand Canva Grow with more video creation features and multi-platform deployment capabilities.

Frequently Asked Questions

What companies did Canva acquire?

Canva acquired Cavalry, a 2D motion animation startup, and MangoAI, a startup focused on improving ad performance using reinforcement learning.

How will these acquisitions affect Canva's products?

Cavalry's technology will add motion editing capabilities to Canva's Affinity suite, while MangoAI's systems will enhance Canva's marketing products and video ad performance.

What is Canva's current user and revenue status?

Canva closed 2025 with $4 billion in annualized revenue, over 265 million users, and 31 million paid users.

Original Source
On Monday, creative suite maker Canva announced the dual acquisition of startups Cavalry , which works on animation, and Mango AI , which works on improving ad performance. UK-based Cavalry works on 2D motion animation for different verticals such as advertising, marketing, gaming, and generative art. Canva said that Cavalry’s tooling will add to the existing capabilities of Affinity, Canva’s professional creative editing suite for photos, vectors, and layouts, which it acquired in 2024 Canva revamped Affinity’s design last year and made it free for all users. The company said that since then, people have downloaded the software over five million times. Affinity has the capabilities of photos, vector, and layout editing. With this acquisition, Canva wants to add motion editing to its suite. “By bringing Cavalry alongside Affinity, we’re closing that [motion editing] gap and unlocking a complete professional suite spanning photo, vector, layout, and now motion editing,” the company said in a blog post. “Together, these tools form the foundation of a full-stack Creative OS for professional work, while preserving the depth and control professional creatives rely on,” it added. Besides Cavalry, Canva has also acquired stealth startup MangoAI , which was working on building reinforcement learning systems to improve video ad performance, according to its website. Canva said that the startup’s first product helped clients create and launch ads and observe outcomes to improve future campaigns. MangoAI was built by Nirmal Govind, former Vice President of Data Science & Engineering at Netflix, and Vinith Misra, a former data scientist at Netflix and Roblox. Canva said that Govind will become Canva’s first ” Chief Algorithms Officer” and Misra will work on improving Canva’s marketing products. In January 2025, Canva acquired marketing intelligence startup Magicbrief and later last year, it launched a growth tool called Canva Grow for asset creation and performance measurement....
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