Australian design platform Canva acquires Affinity

Canva Inc., the Australian web-based design company and rival to creative juggernaut Adobe, has acquired the Affinity suite of creative software, its biggest acquisition to date.

The deal, which is made up of a mix of cash and stock, is valued at “several hundred million pounds,” Canva co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Cliff Obrecht said in an interview with Bloomberg on Monday.

Since its inception, Canva’s focus has been on users who don’t have design training and aren’t creative professionals, with the company saying it attracts 170 million monthly global users.

Combine this with Affinity's three million customers around the world, and the purchase is a bold move for Canva, especially as it hasn't previously offered a 'professional' product or offered a dedicated photo editing tool.

Affinity is a fully-featured creative suite with a one-time purchase fee that's made it popular with users, especially those looking to work outside of Adobe’s subscription system.

Available across Windows, Mac and iPad, Affinity’s creative suite includes: Affinity Designer, Affinity Publisher and Affinity Photo, which the company describes as the only fully-loaded photo editor available across MacOS, Windows, and iPad, and offers everything from basic editing to advanced retouching and creating multilayer photo compositions.

Canva was founded in Perth in 2013, and in its first year had more than 750,000 users. Since then, it has acquired a number of companies, including Flourish, Kaleido, SmartMockups, Pexels, Pixabay and SlidesCarnival, and is estimated to be worth in the region of $25 billion in 2024, making it one of Australia's most successful tech startups.