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

Australian design platform Canva has acquired two technology companies, Simtheory and Ortto, in a strategic move announced on January 15, 2025, to significantly bolster its enterprise offerings with advanced artificial intelligence and automated marketing capabilities. The acquisitions are part of Canva's ongoing strategy to expand beyond its core graphic design tools and compete more directly with comprehensive software suites in the business productivity and customer relationship management spaces. The purchase of Simtheory, a specialist in agentic AI and data infrastructure, will provide Canva with sophisticated technology that enables AI systems to perform complex, multi-step tasks autonomously. This move is expected to power more intelligent features within Canva's platform, such as automated design generation, content personalization, and workflow optimization. Meanwhile, the acquisition of Ortto brings deep expertise in marketing automation and customer engagement, allowing Canva to integrate powerful tools for email marketing, customer journey mapping, and data analytics directly into its ecosystem. These strategic acquisitions represent a major investment in Canva's enterprise division, which has become an increasingly important revenue stream. By integrating Simtheory's agentic AI and Ortto's marketing automation, Canva aims to create a more seamless, end-to-end solution for businesses looking to create, manage, and distribute marketing materials. This positions Canva not just as a design tool, but as a comprehensive marketing and communications platform capable of challenging established players like Adobe, Microsoft, and HubSpot in the competitive enterprise software market.