Canva to acquire generative AI platform Leonardo.AI

Canva has unveiled their plans to acquire Leonardo.AI for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition of the startup aims to bolster Canva’s suite of visual AI tools.

Presently, the companies remain discreet concerning the numbers surrounding the deal. Notably though, it follows Canva’s billion-dollar acquisition of Affinity, a known competitor to Adobe.

Similarly, the Leonardo team is slated to join Canva while operating independently. This was confirmed by Leonardo.AI co-founder and CEO JJ Fiasson.

Founded two years ago, Leonardo.AI has been subject to a ton of growth in a short span of time. The company has doubled their user base to 19 million in the past 4 months. It has also raised USD 47PHP 2,758INR 3,983EUR 45CNY 342 million in December 2023 with the aid of Blackbird Ventures, a major backer for Canva.

Based in Sydney, the startup initially focused on hyper-realistic image generation for the gaming industry. These roots led the company to build a large community on Discord. Presently, they have 1.8 million channel members, making it the third largest Discord server worldwide.

The company has also expanded into marketing, fashion, and advertising. Currently, their platform is used by over 1,000 businesses in different industries including film and interior design.

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