Canva Expands Portfolio: Acquires Leading Design Software Provider Affinity

Canva Expands Portfolio 2024: In a world where business deals often start with big events, Canva’s latest acquisition story was something different—a plain direct message.

Cameron Adams, Canva’s co-founder and chief product officer sent a LinkedIn message to Affinity, which is a creative design software provider. Despite the limited online presence of Affinity, Ash Hewson, the Managing Director and CEO was contacted by Adams. This led to a series of conversations which indicated a major development in the tech world.

Affinity, along with its parent company Serif has been acquired by Canva after just seven weeks of negotiations.

According to Adams, this acquisition happened within the fastest time possible for Canva though he did not mention specific financial details yet. Instead of dwelling on minor details, it took efficiency that comes from focusing more on wider matters.

Canva has evolved since being known primarily for its yearbook focus and now is one of Australia’s leading unicorns – raising over $570 million across rounds so far with highlight investors like Bessemer Venture Partners and Felicis among others showing that the trajectory has reached a significant milestone with the Affinity purchase.

This marks the beginning according to Adam’s who says this acquisition highlights Canva’s commitment going forward towards large organizations and teams that need empowering. It will be recalled that design professional favor Affinity software while sales force moves toward business users.

Adams dismisses thoughts of too many acquisitions by saying such statements are exaggerated given his approach to strategic partnerships is very focused unlike other times when too many had been spoken about it including some journalists or bloggers who can write things not understanding what exactly they mean by them.A few examples are Flourish,Kaleido,Smartmockups,Pexels and Pixabay whose acquisitions have only targeted European startups known for their rapid rise in revenues as well as profitablility.

According to co-founder Cliff Obrecht, Canva’s straight forward and honest approach toward mergers and acquisitions reflects its corporate culture. Another example of the open culture within Canva is when Adams notes that the company gets its inspiration from their seniors as seen from some of the conversations they had with Affinity about buying it.

What started as a mere direct message has led to a major milestone for both Canva and Affinity signifying how important direct communication and strategic alignment are in today’s dynamic business environment. The acquisition of Affinity signifies a strategic move by Canva as it expands its design empire towards facilitating collaboration between designers and corporates worldwide.

Also read: Airbnb Makes Significant Purchase of AI Startup for Nearly $200 Million