Canva Acquires Simtheory and Ortto to Boost AI Marketing
▼ Summary
– Canva acquired two companies, Simtheory (an AI collaboration platform) and Ortto (a marketing automation company), to invest in AI and marketing infrastructure.
– The founders of both acquired companies, Chris and Mike Sharkey, will join Canva in leadership roles for its AI and marketing technology teams.
– Simtheory’s platform enables teams to build and manage AI assistants and agentic workflows tailored to specific business needs.
– Ortto provides a customer data and marketing automation platform used by over 11,000 customers to design cross-channel customer journeys.
– These acquisitions are part of a recent series for Canva, following other purchases like Doohly, Cavalry, MangoAI, and MagicBrief.
In a significant move to expand its artificial intelligence and marketing technology stack, Canva has acquired two companies, Simtheory and Ortto. The deals, announced this week, represent a strategic investment to transform the popular design platform into a more comprehensive workflow solution. While financial details remain confidential, the acquisitions underscore Canva’s ambition to move beyond graphic creation into a unified system for managing the entire content lifecycle.
Both Simtheory, an AI collaboration and agent management platform, and Ortto, a customer data and marketing automation company, were founded by brothers Chris and Mike Sharkey. The entrepreneurs, previously behind the vacation rental service Stayz, will now take on leadership roles within Canva’s AI and marketing technology divisions. Their expertise is central to Canva’s goal of integrating agentic AI and robust data infrastructure directly into its offerings.
Simtheory’s technology enables teams to build customized AI assistants that comprehend specific business contexts and execute real-world tasks across various software tools. This capability allows organizations to deploy the latest AI models and establish tailored, automated workflows. Ortto complements this by providing a unified system for customer engagement. Its platform merges a customer data platform (CDP) with marketing automation, letting users design and run cross-channel campaigns encompassing email, SMS, push notifications, and surveys. With no-code integrations and an event-driven architecture, Ortto facilitates real-time data activation and is currently used by over 11,000 customers globally.
Canva’s leadership framed the acquisitions as pivotal to the company’s evolution. “Simtheory accelerates our shift from a design platform with AI tools to an AI platform with design and productivity tools at its core,” stated Canva co-founder and COO Cliff Obrecht. “Simultaneously, Ortto strengthens our ability to power the entire marketing and content lifecycle through Canva Grow.” This internal tool is designed for asset creation and performance measurement, and the new acquisitions will significantly enhance its capabilities from initial planning to final optimization across all channels.
This announcement continues a pattern of strategic consolidation for Canva. The company acquired digital outdoor advertising startup Doohly just two weeks ago. Approximately six weeks prior, Canva announced the dual purchase of animation specialist Cavalry and ad performance platform MangoAI. This activity followed the acquisition of marketing intelligence firm MagicBrief in January 2025. These moves build upon a strong financial foundation, as Canva closed last year with $4 billion in annualized revenue, boasting over 265 million total users and 31 million paid subscribers alongside a 20% increase in monthly active users.
(Source: TechCrunch)
