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Canva Acquires AI Startups Simtheory and Ortto, Accelerating Shift to AI Work Platform

08 April, 2026.Business.9 sources

Key Takeaways

Canva acquires Simtheory and Ortto to become an AI-powered end-to-end work platform.
Simtheory provides AI collaboration and agent management; Ortto adds customer data and marketing automation.
Financial terms were not disclosed.

Dual Ai Acquisitions

Canva acquired two Australian-founded AI companies, Simtheory and Ortto.

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AFR

Simtheory enables teams to build AI assistants that understand their business context.

Capital Brief

Ortto combines customer data with marketing automation across multiple channels.

Both were founded by brothers Chris and Mike Sharkey, who will join Canva in leadership roles.

Obrecht called it the biggest transformation in Canva’s history.

Agentic Ai Collaboration

Simtheory’s platform focuses on agentic AI that can take autonomous action.

The technology evolved from an AI podcast launched in 2023.

Marketing-Interactive

Ortto had been rebuilt and rebranded as it expanded into lifecycle marketing.

The acquisitions extend Canva’s capabilities across the full marketing lifecycle.

Obrecht emphasized the practical benefits of speed.

Martech Ambitions

Canva signals ambitions to compete directly with enterprise marketing suites.

“share on Canva is expanding beyond design into marketing infrastructure, acquiring AI collaboration platform Simtheory and customer data and automation company Ortto as it builds an end-to-end system for campaign execution”

Marketing-Interactive

Ortto had raised $46 million from investors including Salesforce Ventures.

Analysts noted the risk of such a rapid strategic shift.

The move highlights tensions between enthusiasm for AI and skepticism about data handling.

Canva's user base exceeds 190 million monthly users.