Australian software design giant Canva snaps up start-up for more than $120m

An Australian software design giant has added a new company to their portfolio in a purchase rumoured to be worth more than $120m.

A huge Australian software design company has added a start-up to its portfolio in a purchase rumoured to be worth more than $120m.

Canva has purchased one of Australia’s fastest-growing startups, Leonardo. AI, amid growing consumer demand for AI tools.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said it may review the purchase, according to the Financial Review, as the federal government is reportedly looking into new laws to halt big tech companies from purchasing start-ups.

The masthead also reported the purchase was more than $120m, while the start-up’s investors Blackbird Ventures reportedly called Leonardo. AI “the next Canva”.

Canva co-founder and chief product officer Cameron Adams said the purchase is set to “bring world-first breakthroughs in AI and creativity”.

Canva has purchased one of Australia’s fastest-growing start-ups, Leonardo. AI. L-R, Leonardo.Ai's JJ Fiasson, Canva's Cliff Obrecht and Melanie Perkins. Picture: Supplied.

“This field is constantly evolving, and Leonardo’s technical leadership and community impact can’t be overstated,” he said.

“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.”

The start-up, founded in 2022, boasts more than 19 million registered users, and allows creators to generate images with simple prompts, as well as create videos and sketch with AI.

It’s been used to create assets for marketing and advertising campaigns, visualise interior concepts, refine mock ups, produce videos, and produce more than one billion images over the last 18 months.

Users can also custom-train models with their own datasets.

The start-up, founded in 2022, boasts more than 19 million registered users, and allows creators to generate images with simple prompts, as well as create videos and sketch with AI. Picture: Supplied.

Leonardo. AI founder and chief executive officer JJ Fiasson said the move marks “the start of a new chapter” which will accelerate innovation at Leonardo. AI.

“Joining the Canva family means we can invest more deeply in scaling our AI research efforts globally, and move even faster to deliver new features and functionality to creatives worldwide,” he said.

The purchase will add to Canva’s suite of AI tools, coined Magic Suite, which has been used more than seven million times since it was launched in 2023.

The Magic Studio feature has also had a 40 per cent increase in monthly users this year, with demand for AI tools increasing.

Leonardo. AI will continue to operate as a stand alone platform while it’s integrated throughout the Magic Suite.

It comes after Canva acquired seven other company’s, including Affinity in 2024, Flourish in 2022, Kaleido in 2021, Smartmockups in 2021, Pexels in 2019, Pixabay in 2019, and Zeetings in 2018.