Canva acquired generative AI content material and analysis startup Leonardo.AI for an undisclosed sum. The Australia-based Leonardo.AI launched lower than two years in the past and boasts 19 million registered customers. Its image- and video-generating instruments are utilized by professionals throughout promoting, advertising, ecommerce and different industries.
Canva will proceed to put money into Leonardo’s standalone platform whereas setting the startup’s 120-person group of designers, researchers and builders to develop Canva’s genAI choices.
The deal surpassed Leonardo.Ai’s final funding spherical valuation of $80 million and could be challenged by the Australian Competitors and Shopper Fee, in line with The Australian Monetary Evaluate.
Leonardo.AI. Based in 2022, Leonardo.AI permits customers to create professional-grade visible belongings in seconds. Its new foundational mannequin, Phoenix, goals at reaching unparalleled immediate understanding and execution.
A take a look at Leonardo.AI’s sizzle reel reveals the genAI’s potential to format pictures and movies in distinct kinds, from photorealism to extra painterly graphic themes. It permits customers to enter easy prompts, sketch new pictures with AI and custom-train fashions for particular tasks.
“Joining the Canva family means we can invest more deeply in scaling our AI research efforts globally, and move even faster to deliver new features and functionality to creatives worldwide,” mentioned JJ Fiasson, Leonardo.AI’s founder and CEO, in a press launch.
Canva’s acquisition journey. In March, Canva acquired U.Ok.-based Affinity, a specialised picture enhancing software for superior customers. In 2022, Canva acquired knowledge visualization platform Flourish. Different key acquisitions consists of Smartmockups (now Canva Mockups) and Kaleido.ai, creator of a one-click background removing software, take away.bg.
“This field is constantly evolving, and Leonardo’s technical leadership and community impact can’t be overstated,” mentioned Cameron Adams, co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Canva, in a launch. “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.”
AI for creators and companies. All advised, Canva’s eight acquisitions since 2018 complement one another as Canva continues to develop its all-in-one suites enabling creators of all talent ranges to make cutting-edge visible belongings and collaborate with group members.
The corporate made a concerted effort in recent times to develop B2B clients amongst enterprises and SMBs. Canva at the moment has over 190 million lively customers and, as of March, had 16 million paying customers. Canva is utilized by individuals at 95% of Fortune 500 firms.
Dig deeper: How Canva is approaching companies with AI instruments
A examine by Canva and MMA World discovered that 30% of CMOs and senior entrepreneurs introduced inventive work in-house within the final yr, and 31% plan to take action within the subsequent yr.
Along with Canva’s Magic Studio AI-powered instruments, the corporate launched work kits geared to particular enterprise groups in addition to adtech apps permitting advertising groups to design digital advertisements in-house.
With its launch in 2013, Canva empowered particular person customers by offering low-cost instruments that anyone may use to create professional-level visuals. Extra sturdy enterprise choices make Canva a direct competitor to Adobe.
On the identical time, widespread platforms for creators like TikTok purpose to make it simpler for creators to edit by means of TikTok’s CapCut app. TikTok mother or father firm ByteDance plans to speculate over $2 billion in an AI hub in Malaysia, although this know-how will seemingly stretch far past video enhancing capabilities to assist bolster advert and consumer expertise.
Why we care. It’s too early to inform how Leonardo.AI’s genAI know-how will floor in Canva’s Magic Studio or in different instruments. Canva goals to be an all-in-one vacation spot for people and organizations. Little doubt Leonardo.AI’s easy prompts and quick turnaround for pictures and movies provides to the benefit of use that permits giant groups of non-specialized customers to collaborate. GenAI instruments are making it straightforward and inexpensive for customers to create pictures and movies at scale. Canva is utilizing AI to chart a center path to compete with Adobe enterprise choices and super-empowered people utilizing TikTok’s native know-how.
