Canva acquired Simtheory, a Sydney-founded platform that lets teams work with several AI models and set up AI agents to carry out tasks across their apps, the Australian design company announced on April 8, 2026. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The deal was announced together with Canva's purchase of Ortto, a customer data and marketing automation company. Both businesses were founded by brothers Chris and Mike Sharkey, who will take leadership roles across Canva's AI and marketing technology teams.
Canva said Simtheory would help shape the AI and design features it planned to unveil at its Canva Create event on April 16 in Los Angeles. The company described the purchase as a step in turning Canva from a design tool that has AI features into an AI platform built around design and productivity tools.
What Simtheory built
Simtheory describes itself as an AI collaboration and agent management platform. Its software lets teams build AI assistants that understand their business and can then work across tasks, apps and business processes, rather than only generating text or images.
The product is known for its multi-model approach: users can switch between a range of current AI models from different providers inside one workspace, and set up agentic systems that run multi-step work. Canva said the platform had gained traction with teams that wanted to use AI for more than content generation. CMSWire, which covered the deal, described the business as early-stage, with enterprise teams exploring how to have AI carry out work.
Canva did not disclose Simtheory's revenue, customer count, headcount or any outside funding.
“Simtheory accelerates our evolution from a design platform with AI tools to an AI platform with design and productivity tools at its core.”
Why Canva is buying
Canva launched in 2013 and says it now serves more than 265 million monthly users in more than 190 countries. According to Mediaweek, it ended 2025 with $3.5 billion in revenue, and an employee share sale in August 2025 valued the company at $42 billion.
The company has spent the past year adding AI and marketing capabilities through acquisitions, including MagicBrief, MangoAI and Doohly. Canva co-founder and chief operating officer Cliff Obrecht said Simtheory accelerated Canva's shift from a design platform with AI tools to an AI platform with design and productivity tools at its core.
Obrecht also said the two acquisitions were a step toward making Canva the place where work happens end to end, from a quick idea to a full campaign. Capital Brief reported that he also promised to unveil the biggest transformation in Canva's history at Canva Create.
The founders
Chris and Mike Sharkey are Australian serial founders. They previously co-founded Stayz, which they sold to Fairfax Media. They later built Ortto, formerly known as Autopilot, which has more than 11,000 customers in 190 countries, before starting Simtheory.
Mike Sharkey served as co-founder and chief executive of both Simtheory and Ortto. In the announcement he said the founders were thrilled to join Canva and that it was rare to find such strong alignment in mission and values. He also pointed to the opportunity to bring their technology to the quarter of a billion people who use Canva.
Canva did not say what titles the brothers would hold, only that their roles would span its AI and marketing technology teams.
What happens next
Canva did not set out a timeline for folding Simtheory's product into its own apps or say whether Simtheory would remain available as a separate service. It tied the deal directly to the April 16 Canva Create event, where it said the Simtheory team's work would inform new AI and design features.
The Ortto team, by contrast, will keep supporting Ortto's existing product while contributing to Canva Grow, the marketing product Canva introduced in October 2025.
Mediaweek noted that the deals came while Canva had still not set a date for a public listing. Chief executive Melanie Perkins said in April 2025 that an IPO was still on the horizon, and Obrecht later said a Nasdaq listing made more sense than the Australian Securities Exchange.
