Canva Acquires MangoAI and Cavalry to Boost AI Power in Creative Battle with Adobe and Apple

The global visual communication platform accelerates its aggressive strategy to expand, complementing its burgeoning Creative OS ecosystem with AI capabilities in marketing and motion design.

Early-stage startup based in the US, MangoAI specializes in video advertising optimisation with specialised AI models and closed-loop reinforcement learning techniques.

Canva Expands AI Capabilities with MangoAI Acquisition

The strategy, Canva’s leadership said, will enable marketing and creative teams to create highly tailored, brand-centric content while increasing the effectiveness of campaigns and reducing production time.

MangoAI co-founder Vinith Misra joins Canva as Reinforcement Learning Lead within the company's Research Lab. Cavalry Acquisition Strongifies Motion Design Tools. 

Cavalry Acquisition Strengthens Motion Design Tools

Cavalry — a UK 2D animation and motion design platform, brings powerful professional motion graphics capabilities to Canva’s suite. Previously employed by big-name companies including the likes of Amazon, Meta, Google, Netflix, Cavalry is expected to markedly boost Canva’s popularity with professional motion designers.

Cavalry’s founders — Chris Hardcastle, Ian Waters and Adam Jenns — will also go ahead to become part of Canva after the purchase. It’s Canva’s seventh Europe-based acquisition and the company’s third in six.

Affinity (2024)

Flourish (2022)

Kaleido (2021)

Smartmockups (2021)

Pexels (2019)

Pixabay (2019) 

The Cavalry acquisition follows Canva’s acquisition of Affinity in 2024, which has already gone over 5 million downloads since launch. 

Canva’s Growth: 265 Million Users and $4 Billion Revenue

Canva’s Growth: 265m

Users and $4bn Revenue

Canva now reports: 265 million active users

31 million paid subscribers

Annualised revenue of $4 billion

Revenue growth of 36% compared to last year

They have successfully established Canva AI and Creative OS to be a major player in the professional creative software industry.

Cliff Obrecht, co-founder and COO at Canva, made it clear what he wanted to accomplish with his company, which is to make it easier for people to adopt creative tools without having to consume expensive, complex software packages.

Competing in the “Imagination Era”

The “Imagination Era: Competing It Out”. Creative OS announced for the first time as a service by co-founder and CEO Melanie Perkins represented Canva’s entry into the “imagination era” that was also beginning for the company’s corporate expansion.

 In recent years it has spent a lot of money on enterprise workflows, such as team-based collaboration tools and business-focused AI-powered design systems and processes. 

Canva says that, despite its aggressive drive for AI, it believes artificial intelligence is designed to strengthen — not replace — human creativity.

Before, Liam Fisher, Head of Pro Design Marketing explained that the aim is to maintain craftsmanship and designers’ attention to detail while using AI to create assistance.

What This Means for the Creative Industry

As MangoAI enhances AI-based marketing automation capabilities and Cavalry updates the capabilities of motion design, Canva is setting itself up as a full-stack creative platform — including vector and static design, motion graphics, and AI-fueled advertising.

With competition on the rise with Adobe’s established ecosystem and Apple’s Creator Studio, Canva’s acquisition strategy represents a bold step toward dominating the future of AI-assisted creative workflows.