Canva has acquired two Sydney-based technology companies, Simtheory, known for its AI collaboration and agent management platform, and Ortto, a customer data and marketing automation company.
Both companies were founded by brothers Chris and Mike Sharkey, serial tech entrepreneurs who previously founded Stayz which was acquired by Fairfax Media, now part of Nine.
The Sharkeys will be joining Canva in leadership roles, overseeing AI and marketing technology teams.
The acquisitions come on the heels of Canva closing 2025 with $4 billion in annual revenue and over 265 million monthly users (31 million paying). The company is also preparing to unveil its next major platform evolution at Canva Create on April 16, promising what it calls the “biggest transformation in Canva’s history”.
“These acquisitions mark a significant step in Canva’s journey to evolve from a design tool into the system where work happens end-to-end,” said Cliff Obrecht, Canva co-founder and COO. “Simtheory accelerates our evolution into an AI platform with design and productivity tools at its core, while Ortto strengthens our ability to power the full marketing lifecycle from planning to publishing and optimisation.”
Simtheory’s platform is designed to make AI collaboration seamless for teams. Its agentic AI technology enables assistants to understand a business, collaborate across tasks and apps, and execute work reliably. By integrating Simtheory, Canva is positioning itself as a platform where human creativity and AI execution work together—from ideation to finished product.
“Simtheory allows teams to move beyond simple AI generation into real-world execution, streamlining complex workflows,” said Mike Sharkey.
Ortto brings a customer data platform paired with marketing automation, enabling marketers to orchestrate journeys across channels including email, SMS, push notifications, in-app messaging, forms, and surveys—all from one system. The acquisition strengthens Canva Grow, the company’s marketing and content lifecycle suite, and builds on prior acquisitions such as MagicBrief, MangoAI, and Doohly.
With Ortto, Canva can now support marketers in planning, executing, and optimising campaigns at scale, all while leveraging real-time customer data. Ortto serves over 11,000 customers in 190 countries.
“From day one, we’ve focused on making complex workflows simple with both Simtheory and Ortto. Joining Canva allows us to bring that capability to a quarter of a billion users every month,” said Mike Sharkey.
Launched in 2013, Canva aims to be a fully integrated AI-first platform supporting creators, marketers, and enterprises across the full workflow, from ideation through to campaign execution.
