Canva Buys Simtheory and Ortto in Dual Acquisition
▼ Summary
– Canva has acquired two companies, Simtheory (an agentic AI collaboration platform) and Ortto (a customer data and marketing automation platform).
– Both acquired companies were founded by brothers Chris and Mike Sharkey, who previously co-founded the holiday rental site Stayz and will now join Canva in leadership roles.
– Simtheory’s technology provides agentic AI infrastructure for building business-aware assistants, supporting Canva’s shift toward becoming an AI platform.
– Ortto’s platform combines customer data with multi-channel marketing automation, enhancing Canva’s marketing product suite known as Canva Grow.
– Canva, which has over 265 million monthly users, will preview a major transformation at its Canva Create event on April 16.
In a significant expansion of its capabilities, Canva has announced the dual acquisition of two technology companies, Simtheory and Ortto. This strategic move signals a major evolution for the design platform, which will preview what it describes as its most significant transformation to date at the upcoming Canva Create event on April 16. The deals bring onboard not only new technology but also the founding brothers behind both firms, Chris and Mike Sharkey.
The Sharkey brothers, seasoned entrepreneurs who previously co-founded the Australian holiday rental giant Stayz, will assume leadership roles within Canva’s AI and marketing technology divisions. The financial details of the acquisitions remain confidential. Their entrepreneurial journey includes building Stayz, which was sold in a series of transactions culminating in a $225 million deal in 2013. Ortto itself originated as Autopilot, a marketing automation company founded in 2015, which was completely rebuilt after 2018 and rebranded in 2022.
Each acquisition targets a core pillar of Canva’s growing platform strategy. Simtheory, which began as an offshoot of an AI podcast the brothers launched last year, provides an agentic AI collaboration platform. This technology enables teams to construct AI assistants that comprehend specific business contexts, coordinate complex tasks across different applications, and execute work with the reliability demanded by enterprise clients.
Cliff Obrecht, Canva’s co-founder and COO, emphasized the strategic shift these moves represent. He noted that while generating ideas has become simpler, the real challenge lies in executing them. Welcoming Simtheory, he stated the company is evolving from a design platform with AI tools into an AI platform with design and productivity tools, aiming to integrate this agentic technology for its vast user base.
Conversely, Ortto strengthens the marketing and growth side of Canva’s business. As a customer data platform (CDP) with robust marketing automation, it allows teams to manage the entire customer journey. The platform supports multi-channel campaigns across email, SMS, push notifications, and more from a unified system, utilizing an event-driven architecture and no-code integrations for real-time data activation. With over 11,000 global customers, Ortto will integrate into Canva Grow, following other recent marketing-focused acquisitions like MagicBrief, MangoAI, and Doohly.
Mike Sharkey, who served as CEO for both acquired companies, highlighted the compelling opportunity to scale their technology. The chance to reach Canva’s quarter of a billion monthly users and empower them with advanced AI tools in their daily work was a central factor in the decision. Canva, reporting over $4 billion in annualized revenue at the close of 2025, continues to build a comprehensive ecosystem that extends far beyond its design origins.
(Source: The Next Web)
