Canva makes largest acquisition to date in an attempt to challenge Adobe

Canva made its largest acquisition to date, acquiring the Affinity suite of creative tools, which is well-liked by Mac users, in an attempt to take on Adobe. The purchase is worth "several hundred million pounds. It consists of a combination of cash and stock. With a recent share sale valued at $26 billion, it is the largest investment made by Australia's most valuable startup to date and represents a significant advancement in the company's efforts to broaden its product offering.

Joining Canva is the entire 90-person team of Nottingham, UK-based Serif, the startup responsible for Affinity's portfolio of photo-editing, publishing and illustration software. Affinity's apps have been featured in Apple Inc.'s presentations of creative products and are the "final piece in our jigsaw," Canva Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Cliff Obrecht said. They will now be used to complement Canva's selection of artificial intelligence-powered tools as the Australian firm bolsters its offering of online workspaces.

Canva has grown into the most capable competitor to Adobe, the longtime dominant provider of software for graphics professionals. Adobe has added AI features throughout its products recently, but its shares have fallen more than 15% this year after a $20 billion deal to acquire Figma fell through in December.

The startup, which has focused on making easy-to-use products targeted at people without formal design training, surpassed $2.1 billion in annualized revenue and has over 175 million users. It added over 90 million new users over the past 18 months, helped by new AI features.