Canva acquires agentic AI platform Simtheory and marketing automation tool Ortto ahead of its April 16 product event

Canva acquired both Simtheory, an agentic AI and multi-model collaboration platform, and Ortto, a customer data platform with marketing automation tools serving more than 11,000 customers across 190 countries, with both companies founded by brothers Chris and Mike Sharkey who will join Canva in leadership roles. Simtheory will form the foundation of what Canva calls “the biggest transformation in its history,” set to be unveiled at Canva Create on April 16, while Ortto will fold into Canva Grow, the company's marketing lifecycle product. The dual acquisition follows several other recent deals including MagicBrief, MangoAI, and Doohly as Canva pushes beyond design into end-to-end marketing and AI workflow infrastructure for its 265 million monthly users.