Canva makes a dual acquisition of Simtheory and Ortto.

      Both companies were founded by brothers Chris and Mike Sharkey, who had previously co-established the Australian holiday rental platform Stayz. The financial details of the transactions were not made public. Canva plans to showcase what it describes as the largest transformation in its history during Canva Create on April 16.

      Canva has simultaneously acquired two companies: Simtheory, an agentic AI collaboration platform, and Ortto, a customer data platform alongside a marketing automation company.

      Both businesses were created by Australian brothers Chris and Mike Sharkey, who will take on leadership positions in Canva's AI and marketing technology teams. The financial details for each acquisition remain undisclosed.

      The Sharkeys are experienced founders. Prior to creating Ortto and Simtheory, they co-founded Stayz, which became Australia's largest holiday accommodation booking site and was sold to Fairfax Digital in 2006 before being acquired by HomeAway for $225 million in 2013.

      Ortto has an earlier history as it started as Autopilot, a marketing automation business established by the brothers in 2015, which was completely rebuilt after 2018 and rebranded as Ortto in March 2022. Simtheory originated from an AI podcast the Sharkeys initiated in 2023 to investigate new AI models and capabilities; the tools developed for producing the podcast transformed into a multi-model AI workspace for teams.

      These two acquisitions cater to different aspects of Canva’s platform objectives. Simtheory introduces agentic AI infrastructure, allowing teams to create AI assistants that comprehend their business context, coordinate tasks and applications, and perform work with the reliability and auditability required by enterprises.

      Canva's co-founder and COO, Cliff Obrecht, shared exclusively with TNW that “In a world where generating ideas is easier than ever, the challenge has shifted to turning those ideas into real, usable work. We’re thrilled to welcome Simtheory to Canva as we transition from a design platform equipped with AI tools to an AI platform that offers design and productivity tools. They’ve developed exceptional agentic technology that we’re excited to provide to the quarter of a billion people who use Canva every month.”

      Ortto complements the marketing lifecycle aspect of Canva's strategy. This platform merges a customer data system with multi-channel marketing automation, allowing teams to create and manage customer journeys across email, SMS, push notifications, in-app messaging, forms, and surveys from a single platform.

      It employs an event-driven architecture and no-code integrations to connect and activate customer data in real-time. The company boasts over 11,000 customers across 190 countries. This acquisition aligns with Canva Grow, Canva’s marketing product, and follows three earlier acquisitions in the same sphere: MagicBrief, acquired in January 2025; MangoAI, acquired in February 2026 for AI-driven video ad optimisation; and Doohly, acquired in March 2026 for digital out-of-home advertising.

      Founded in 2013 and based in Sydney, Canva serves more than 265 million users monthly and finished 2025 with over $4 billion in annualised revenue. Mike Sharkey, CEO of both Ortto and Simtheory, highlighted that the vast user base of Canva was a significant attraction: “The chance to share our technology with the quarter of a billion people using Canva every month and assist more individuals in utilising AI in their daily work is truly exciting for us.”