Canva acquires Affinity suite of creative software

Affinity suite of creative software popular among Mac users

With this acquisition, Canva gains the entire 90-person team

Canva, the popular online template editor app for creating social media graphics and presentations, has made a significant move by acquiring the Affinity suite of creative software, which is particularly favoured among Mac users. This acquisition marks Canva’s largest to date, signaling its intention to challenge Adobe in the creative software market.

The deal, comprising a combination of cash and stock, is estimated to be worth “several hundred million pounds,” according to Canva’s co-founder and chief operating officer, Cliff Obrecht, in an interview with Bloomberg.

With this acquisition, Canva gains the entire 90-person team from Serif, a Nottingham, UK-based startup responsible for developing the Affinity portfolio, which includes photo-editing, publishing, and illustration software.

Founded in Perth, Australia, on January 1, 2013, by Melanie Perkins, Cliff Obrecht, and Cameron Adams, Canva quickly gained traction, amassing over 750,000 users in its inaugural year. By March 2022, Canva boasted more than 75 million monthly active users, cementing its position as a leading platform for graphic design and visual content creation. Notably, on January 11, 2024, Canva expanded its offerings by launching its own version of GPT, available in OpenAI’s GPT Store.

With the acquisition of Affinity, Canva aims to further enhance its suite of creative tools, catering to a broader audience and intensifying its competition with industry giants like Adobe.