Canva snaps up Leonardo.AI in blockbuster acquisition

Canva has revealed plans to acquire AI startup Leonardo.Ai for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition aims to strengthen Canva’s suite of visual AI tools, which has become a key part of its development strategy since releasing its Magic Studio platform in 2023.

While the companies are remaining tight-lipped on the deal’s price tag, it does follow Canva’s $1 billion acquisition of design software company Serif. Based in the UK, the company’s Affinity product suite is a direct competitor of Adobe’s toolset.

Leonardo.Ai co-founder and CEO JJ Fiasson confirmed to SmartCompany on Tuesday that the full Leonardo team will join Canva, but will operate independently.

“Our teams will collaborate across joint AI efforts, particularly around foundational model development and R&D across both platforms,” Fiasson said in an email.

“We will continue to focus on rapid innovation, [and] research and development that ultimately serves our growing user base of 19 million people around the world. This includes continuing to build out our foundational model, which will now be backed by Canva’s resources and licensed data.”

The acquisition means Canva will also be taking advantage of Leonardo.Ai’s tech, particularly its foundational model, Phoenix.

“It’s still early days but Canva will look to integrate Leonardo’s foundational models into its platform through exploring complementary integration points between the two platforms,” Fiasson told SmartCompany.

“This includes integrating our tech into Canva’s existing suite of Magic Studio products to unlock new tech for Canva’s community of 190 million people globally.”

Leonardo’s plans for its Canva acquisition

Founded in December 2022, Leonardo.Ai has experienced rapid growth, doubling its user base to 19 million in the past four months. It also raised $47 million in December 2023, with participation from major Canva backer, Blackbird Ventures.

The Sydney-based startup initially focused on hyper-realistic image generation for the gaming industry. These roots led the company to build a mammoth community on Discord. To date it has over 1.8 million channel members, making it the third largest Discord server in the world.

Despite its success in the space, Leonardo quickly expanded into other sectors such as marketing, fashion and advertising. The platform is now used by over 1000 businesses in fields like film and entertainment, architecture and interior design. Over the past 18 months, Leonardo has been used to produce more than two billion images.

Die-hard Leonardo fans shouldn’t notice a difference following the acquisition, with Fiasson confirming the company’s user base will continue to be supported independently.

“Our plans to join forces will supercharge our growing suite of products and also marks an exciting new chapter to continue pushing the boundaries of design and visual AI,” Fiasson said.

The startup also recently launched its own enterprise product – Leonardo for Teams. This suite of tools is designed to facilitate creative collaboration by allowing multiple creators to work side-by-side and streamline workflows.

The platform includes features such as a collaborative feed for real-time asset review, private model sharing, and tools developed with full data licensing and copyright indemnification.

According to Leonardo.Ai, the acquisition will have no impact on these products.

“All of our products will continue as is. This acquisition is about developing our platform and deepening our user growth with Canva’s investment. This includes expanding our API business and continuing to invest deeply in foundational model research and development,” Fiasson said.

Canva may have been aligning with Leonardo for a while now

Interestingly, Canva also announced a hard pivot towards enterprise back in May. The unicorn unveiled its first major website redesign in a decade, which it said was geared towards business customers.

This included a “new” enterprise subscription tier designed for larger organisations. While Canva did already have an enterprise tier in the past, the company confirmed with SmartCompany at the time that it was transformed into Canva for Teams.

The website glow-up was accompanied by a suite of new AI-powered products that were also aimed at workplaces.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Leonardo.Ai to Canva — two Australian companies joining forces to bring world-first breakthroughs in AI and creativity,” said Canva co-founder and chief product officer Cameron Adams on Tuesday.

“This field is constantly evolving, and Leonardo’s technical leadership and community impact can’t be overstated. Bringing our worlds together will accelerate each of our teams’ work, taking us from strength to strength, and we can’t wait to get started.”

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