Canva accelerates its growth in animation and advertising with two acquisitions

While giants like Adobe are multiplying announcements around AI, such as recently with Photoshop AI Assistant, Canva is going on the offensive. Indeed, the Australian platform announced in a press release the acquisition of two startups: Cavalry, specializing in 2D animation, and MangoAI, positioned in the optimization of video ads. This dual strategic move illustrates Canva's ambition: to move beyond being a simple graphic design tool and establish itself as a truly integrated professional suite, capable of competing more directly with established players like Adobe. 2D animation to complete the creative suite allowfullscreen="1">

Cavalry, a British startup developing 2D animation software, is Canva's first target, aiming to close the gap in motion design.

This technological component will enrich Affinity, the professional suite acquired in 2024. Affinity already offers advanced tools for photo retouching, vector illustration, and page layout. Integrating animation will add editing and motion capture capabilities, creating a comprehensive offering.

After unveiling its biggest update last year, Canva is discussing the development of a "Creative OS" that covers photography, vector graphics, page layout, and now motion design. A way to meet the expectations of professional designers, some of whom were turning to alternatives like Adobe's After Effects.

However, the announcement reveals that Cavalry will continue to exist as a standalone product, while being gradually integrated into the Canva ecosystem.

MangoAI: AI at the service of marketing performance

With MangoAI, this second acquisition is more discreet but just as strategic. This startup developed reinforcement learning systems, which aim to improve the performance of video ads.

Founded by former Netflix and Roblox executives, MangoAI designed a tool capable of analyzing campaigns, measuring results, and formulating recommendations to optimize future creative work. Its co-founder, Nirmal Govind, becomes Canva's first Chief Algorithms Officer.

Specifically, the technology will be integrated into Canva Grow, the marketing tool recently launched by the company to generate advertising visuals and measure their effectiveness. Looking ahead, Canva's ambition is to go further in video creation, multi-platform development, and in-depth performance analysis.

By the end of 2025, Canva claimed $4 billion in revenue, with 265 million users and 31 million paying subscribers. While Adobe's stock price is falling, Canva's strategy is to capitalize on AI, while strengthening the professional layer that allows users to go beyond automatically generated content…