Canva, the Australian graphic design platform, has acquired two technology startups, according to company announcements made this week. The acquisitions target firms specializing in animation and marketing analytics, signaling a strategic expansion of Canva’s product suite beyond static design.
The company confirmed the purchase of Kaleido.ai, an artificial intelligence startup focused on video and animation tools. It also acquired the marketing platform Flourish. While financial terms of the deals were not disclosed, the moves are positioned as “acqui-hires,” integrating the startups’ teams and technology directly into Canva’s operations.
Strategic Expansion into Video and Analytics
With these new acquisitions, Canva aims to bolster its position as a comprehensive marketing solution. The integration of Kaleido.ai’s technology is expected to facilitate advanced video creation features directly within the Canva editor. Concurrently, the Flourish acquisition is intended to provide users with more granular measurement and data visualization capabilities for their marketing campaigns.
This development follows Canva’s consistent pattern of strategic acquisitions to accelerate feature development. The company has previously purchased other firms to enhance its capabilities in areas like document collaboration and brand management, steadily evolving from a simple design tool into a broader work platform.
Context in a Competitive Market
The graphic design and digital marketing software sector is highly competitive, with established players like Adobe offering extensive suites that include video and analytics. Canva’s strategy appears focused on making sophisticated design and marketing tools accessible to non-professionals and small businesses, a segment it has successfully captured since its founding in 2013.
Industry analysts note that adding robust video editing and performance tracking addresses two significant gaps in Canva’s current offering. Video content continues to dominate social media and digital advertising, while data-driven decision-making is a cornerstone of modern marketing.
Integration and Future Roadmap
Canva has stated that the teams from Kaleido.ai and Flourish will join its existing product and engineering divisions. The company’s typical approach involves gradually integrating new features into its core platform following an acquisition, rather than maintaining the purchased products as separate applications.
Official timelines for the public release of new video and analytics tools were not provided. However, Canva indicated that users can expect to see the first results of these integrations reflected in product updates over the coming months. The company’s next major product showcase, often held annually, is likely to feature demonstrations of these enhanced capabilities.
Source: GeekWire
