Canva is aggressively pivoting from a design-centric tool to a comprehensive AI-driven productivity ecosystem. In a strategic double-move, the Sydney-based company has announced that Canva acquires Simtheory and Ortto in a twin deal, absorbing two distinct technologies to bolster its agentic AI capabilities and its marketing automation suite.
The acquisitions bring in the expertise of Australian serial entrepreneurs Chris and Mike Sharkey, who founded both companies. The brothers will join Canva in leadership roles, overseeing the integration of their technologies into the company’s AI and marketing technology teams. While the financial terms of the deals were not disclosed, the move signals a significant expansion of Canva’s operational footprint.
This twin acquisition is a precursor to what the company describes as the biggest transformation in its history. Canva is scheduled to preview these developments at its “Canva Create” event on April 16, where the company is expected to unveil how these new assets will reshape the user experience for its 265 million monthly active users.
From Design Tool to AI Platform
The acquisition of Simtheory represents a fundamental shift in how Canva envisions the role of artificial intelligence within its platform. Unlike standard generative AI, which creates content based on a prompt, Simtheory provides “agentic” AI infrastructure. This allows teams to build AI assistants capable of understanding specific business contexts, coordinating complex tasks across different applications and executing work with the level of reliability and auditability required by enterprise clients.
The origin of Simtheory is notably organic; it evolved from an AI podcast launched by the Sharkey brothers in 2023. The tooling they developed to produce the show eventually morphed into a multi-model AI workspace for teams, which Canva now intends to scale.
“In a world where generating ideas is easier than ever, the challenge has shifted to turning those ideas into real, usable work,” said Cliff Obrecht, Canva’s co-founder and COO. “We’re excited to welcome Simtheory to Canva as we evolve from a design platform with AI tools, to an AI platform with design and productivity tools.”
For users, this means a transition from using AI to simply “make a graphic” to using AI agents that can potentially manage workflows, research, and project execution within the Canva ecosystem.
Closing the Marketing Lifecycle Loop
While Simtheory handles the “work” of productivity, Ortto is designed to handle the “reach” of the final product. Ortto is a customer data platform (CDP) and marketing automation company that enables businesses to manage the entire customer journey. By integrating Ortto, Canva is moving deeper into the marketing lifecycle, allowing users to not only design an ad but to deploy and track it across email, SMS, push notifications, and in-app messaging from a single system.
Ortto operates on an event-driven architecture with no-code integrations, allowing for the real-time activation of customer data. The platform already supports more than 11,000 customers across 190 countries. This acquisition is a direct feed into “Canva Grow,” the company’s dedicated marketing product, effectively turning Canva into a full-stack marketing operations hub.
This is not the first time Canva has targeted the marketing tech space. The Ortto deal follows a string of recent acquisitions aimed at optimizing the advertising pipeline:
- MagicBrief: Acquired in January 2025 to streamline creative briefs.
- MangoAI: Acquired in February 2026 for AI-driven video ad optimization.
- Doohly: Acquired in March 2026 to expand into digital out-of-home advertising.
The Sharkey Legacy and Canva’s Growth
The partnership between Canva and the Sharkey brothers is rooted in a history of Australian tech success. Before building Ortto and Simtheory, Chris and Mike Sharkey co-founded Stayz, which became Australia’s largest holiday accommodation booking site. Stayz was sold to Fairfax Digital in 2006 and later to HomeAway for $225 million in 2013.
Ortto itself underwent a significant evolution, beginning as a marketing automation company called Autopilot in 2015. After a total rebuild following 2018, the company rebranded as Ortto in March 2022. This experience in scaling and pivoting platforms is likely a key asset for Canva as it attempts to integrate these tools for a global audience.
| Company | Acquisition Date | Primary Function |
|---|---|---|
| MagicBrief | January 2025 | Creative Briefing |
| MangoAI | February 2026 | Video Ad Optimization |
| Doohly | March 2026 | Digital Out-of-Home Ads |
| Simtheory | April 2026 | Agentic AI Infrastructure |
| Ortto | April 2026 | CDP & Marketing Automation |
The scale of this integration is immense. Canva closed 2025 with more than $4 billion in annualized revenue, providing the financial runway to absorb these companies and integrate them into a platform used by a quarter of a billion people every month.
Mike Sharkey, CEO of both Ortto and Simtheory, noted that the primary draw of the deal was the ability to deploy their technology at an unprecedented scale, helping users make the most of AI in their daily professional workflows.
The next major milestone for the company is the Canva Create event on April 16, where the company will formally demonstrate how Simtheory and Ortto will be woven into the user interface and the broader “Canva Grow” strategy.
Do you think the shift toward agentic AI will change how you use design tools? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
