Canva acquires Simtheory and Ortto in push to become AI-powered work platform
The dual acquisition, announced ahead of next week’s Canva Create in Los Angeles, brings together agentic AI and marketing automation as the design giant signals its most ambitious transformation yet.
Canva has acquired Simtheory and Ortto, two companies founded by Australian brothers Chris and Mike Sharkey, as it pushes to become an AI-powered platform for the full creative workflow, from idea to campaign.
The design giant announced the acquisitions ahead of Canva Create, its showcase event in Los Angeles next week, where co-founder and chief operating officer Cliff Obrecht has promised to unveil what he called “the biggest transformation in Canva’s history.”
The Sharkeys previously founded Stayz before selling it to Fairfax Media.
Simtheory is an agentic AI and multi-model collaboration platform. Ortto, formerly known as Autopilot, is a customer data and marketing automation business with more than 11,000 customers across 190 countries.
While financial terms were not disclosed, Ortto alone had raised $46 million (USD32 million) from Salesforce Ventures, Rembrandt Venture Partners and Blackbird Ventures before the acquisition.
