Canva bet on AI agency and acquires Simtheory and Ortto to become full work platform

Canva announces dual acquisition to expand beyond design

Canva, an Australian graphic-design giant, announced the simultaneous acquisition of two companies from the same country: Simtheory, a platform focused on collaboration with agency AI, and Ortto, specialized in customer data and marketing automation. The movement signals the strategic evolution of the company, which is no longer just a design tool to position itself as an integrated work platform with advanced artificial intelligence capabilities.

Transaction values have not been disclosed, but industry sources indicate that acquisitions are part of Canva's broader strategy to compete directly with established corporate suites, expanding their reach beyond visual design to include customer relationship management, workflow automation, and AI-assisted business collaboration.

AI agency: the technology behind the transformation

AI refers to artificial intelligence systems capable of acting autonomously to complete complex tasks, making intermediate decisions without constant user supervision. Unlike AI tools that respond to direct commands, AI agents can plan action sequences, use multiple tools and adapt their strategies according to the context.

Simtheory specialized in creating collaborative environments where AI agents work alongside human teams, automating repetitive processes, suggesting optimizations and proactively managing workflows. The integration of this technology to the Canva platform can radically transform the experience of corporate users, who today rely on the tool mainly for visual content creation.

Ortto adds marketing automation with agency AI

Ortto complements Simtheory's acquisition by bringing expertise in customer data unification (CDP - Customer Data Platform) and marketing campaigns automation. The platform allows companies to integrate information from multiple sources, create unified customer profiles and automate custom communication journeys.

With Ortto integrated, Canva now offers corporate users not only tools to create marketing materials, but also infrastructure to manage complete campaigns, track engagement, and optimize behavioral data-based strategies – all within the same ecosystem.

Canva faces technology giants in the agency AI market

The Canva movement takes place in a time of intense competition in the corporate productivity tools sector. Giants like Microsoft (with Copilot), Google (with Duet AI and Gemini integrated into Workspace) and Salesforce (with Einstein GPT) have invested billions in generative and agentic AI capabilities.

The acquisition strategy allows Canva to accelerate its technological development without having to build these capabilities from scratch, taking advantage of experienced teams and code bases already tested in the market. The company, which reached 170 million global users in 2024, seeks to convert its broad base of individual users and small companies into corporate customers with more sophisticated needs.

Integration of the AI platforms planned for 2025

According to an official statement, both Simtheory and Ortto teams will be integrated into Canva's structure, maintaining operations in Australia. The company indicated that the first features resulting from acquisitions should begin to appear on the platform in 2025, starting with workflow automation and campaign management capabilities.

Canva's bet on agency AI reflects a broader industry trend: the transition from point tools to integrated platforms where intelligent agents orchestrate multiple functions, reducing the need for switching between applications and automating tasks that traditionally required manual coordination between different systems.