Canva has announced the acquisitions of Simtheory and Ortto as it continues expanding beyond its core design roots into AI, workflow automation, and marketing technology.
The move reflects a broader shift across the workplace software market, where vendors are racing to embed artificial intelligence and consolidate fragmented workflows into fewer, more comprehensive platforms.
The twin acquisitions also point to a growing ambition from Canva to extend its role from content creation into campaign execution, automation, and measurement.
“We’re excited to welcome Simtheory and Ortto to Canva,” said Cliff Obrecht, Co-Founder and Chief Operations Officer at Canva.
“They’ve built exceptional teams and technology, and this acquisition marks an important step toward evolving Canva from a design tool into the system where work happens end-to-end, whether it’s a quick idea or a full campaign.”
More details are expected at the company’s upcoming Canva Create event this week, where it has teased a major product update.
Canva’s Platform Strategy Continues To Broaden
Since its launch in 2013, Canva has built its reputation as an accessible design platform for individuals, small businesses, and enterprises.
However, the company has increasingly expanded its product scope in recent years, adding collaboration, productivity, and AI-powered tools to its portfolio.
The acquisitions of Simtheory and Ortto signal another step in that broader platform strategy.
Rather than focusing solely on content creation, Canva is attempting to move further into the full lifecycle of marketing and knowledge work, from early planning through to distribution and performance tracking.
This shift mirrors a wider trend across enterprise software.
Organisations are increasingly reassessing complex SaaS stacks and looking for ways to reduce tool sprawl. As a result, vendors are under pressure to provide more integrated experiences that combine creation, collaboration, and automation within a single environment.
A Deeper Move Into Agentic AI
Simtheory focuses on AI collaboration and agent management, an area that has gained momentum as organisations explore how AI can move beyond content generation and into task execution.
While generative AI tools have become widely adopted, many teams still rely on multiple applications to manage workflows, coordinate tasks, and move projects forward.
Simtheory’s technology is designed to bridge this gap by enabling organisations to build AI assistants that understand business context, coordinate across tools, and support multi-step workflows.
The broader software industry is increasingly exploring the concept of autonomous workflows and “AI teammates.” Vendors across productivity, collaboration, and customer experience markets are investing in tools that can automate routine work and orchestrate processes across applications.
