Graphic design platform Canva has acquired Leonardo.AI in a bid to expand its generative AI capabilities.
Running since 2012, and now with over 100 million users, Canva is used as a graphic design platform by both individuals and companies. While it had introduced some of its own in-house generative AI tools with a text-to-image generator, it seems the company is keen to expand on those possibilities down the line, if its recent acquisition is anything to go by.
Australia’s largest privately held technology company announced it had struck a deal to purchase the fast-growing Leonardo.AI, a generative AI platform, on Tuesday (July, 30) This would boost Canva’s AI capabilities ahead of its IPO, expected to happen sometime in 2025. No financial terms of the acquisition have yet been made public.
What is Leonardo.AI?
Founded in December 2022, Leonardo.AI is a relatively new company even for the AI space. The company raised $47 million of local Australian investment in Australia last December, featuring investors like Blackbird Ventures and Side Stage Ventures.
Leonardo.AI boasts 19 million users and is effective enough to compete with big names in generative AI like Midjourney and OpenAI’s Dall E. It was already in the process of raising more funding in a second round before accepting the Canva acquisition.
We’re thrilled to announce our plans to join forces with @Canva, which will supercharge the speed & scale that we’re building https://t.co/LlErGl3jwe. 🚀 pic.twitter.com/l23r3N2reY
— Leonardo.Ai (@LeonardoAi_) July 30, 2024
It’s thought that Leonardo.AI co-founded and CEO JJ Fiassion met Canva co-founder Cliff Obrecht through Blackbird Ventures, with a meeting taking place between the pair of them earlier this year. A major appeal for the acquisition was when Leonardo.AI revealed Phoenix, its own foundation AI model.
The model prides itself on responding to long detailed prompts effectively, creating coherent text (something lots of generative AI tools struggle with), and rapid on-the-go editing using short-form phrases and prompts. This blends well with Canva’s streamlined approach and would likely be easy to incorporate into the graphic design platform alongside its tools. There’s no confirmation from Canva that this is the plan but it seems a likely reason for the acquisition, particularly as competitors like Adobe are ramping up generative AI tools.
Featured image: Ideogram
