Canva has announced its acquisition of Australian generative AI startup Leonardo.AI for an undisclosed amount. This move will help strengthen Canva’s generative AI offerings as it looks to take on brands like Adobe, Microsoft, and Google in the visual content creation space.

Canva’s CEO Cameron Adams emphasized the significance of the acquisition,

“This field is constantly evolving, and Leonardo.AI’s technical leadership and community impact can’t be overstated,” he wrote. “Bringing our worlds together will accelerate each of our teams’ work, taking us from strength to strength, and we can’t wait to get started.”

Adams noted that Leonardo.AI will continue to separately serve its existing business customers.

 While the deal’s financial terms remain undisclosed, it brings Leonardo.AI’s 120-member team of designers, researchers, and developers under Canva’s umbrella, significantly strengthening its AI-powered offerings.

J.J. Fiasson, founder and CEO of Leonardo.AI, said that joining Canva will allow them to focus on R&D and “invest more deeply in scaling our AI research efforts globally and move even faster to deliver new features and functionality to creatives worldwide.”

Founded in 2022 by Fiasson, Jachin Bhasme, and Chris Gillis, Leonardo.AI has quickly become a recognized brand in AI-generated content. It has amassed over 19 million registered users looking for “production-quality images and videos” spread across various industries like advertising, design, architecture, marketing, and more. Since its inception, the platform has helped create more than a billion images.

This acquisition will enable Canva to integrate Leonardo.AI’s tools, including its advanced AI system Phoenix, into its Magic Studio products. As a result, it will enhance Canva’s offerings, particularly in AI-generated image and video creation via its Magic Media feature.

Despite the acquisition, Leonardo.AI—often considered MidJourney‘s biggest competitor—will run its operations independently, furthering innovation, model research, and product development.

“We’ll continue to run as we always have done as Leonardo.AI, as an independent platform, building for our community, and with creativity at our core,” Fiasson said.

This marks Canva’s eighth acquisition since its founding in 2012. Notable previous acquisitions include image editing tool Affinity for an estimated $380 million in March 2024, data visualization platform Flourish in 2022, and Smartmockups and Kaleido.ai in 2021. Canva also owns free stock photography sites Pixabay and Pexels, as well as presentation startup Zeetings.

With over 180 million monthly users worldwide, Canva’s latest move further solidifies its position in the competitive visual content creation market, providing a robust toolbox of enhanced AI-powered tools for its vast user base.

Edited by Ryan Ozawa.

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