On Monday, Canva, the innovative platform for design, announced its acquisition of two startups: Cavalry, specializing in animation, and Mango AI, focused on enhancing advertising effectiveness.
Based in the UK, Cavalry excels in 2D motion animation across diverse sectors, including advertising, gaming, and generative art. This acquisition aims to enhance Canva's existing capabilities within Affinity, its professional creative editing suite for photos, vectors, and layouts, which was acquired in 2024.
Canva revitalized Affinity's design last year, making it accessible to all users, which resulted in over five million downloads. The integration of Cavalry's technology will introduce motion editing features to Canva's suite, bridging a critical gap in their offerings.
In a blog post, Canva expressed, "By incorporating Cavalry with Affinity, we are closing the motion editing gap and unlocking a comprehensive professional suite that includes photo, vector, layout, and now motion editing." This strategic move aims to create a full-stack Creative OS tailored for professionals, ensuring depth and control for creative experts.
Alongside Cavalry, Canva has also acquired MangoAI, a stealth startup known for developing reinforcement learning systems to optimize video ad performance. The startup's initial product assists clients in crafting and launching ads while tracking outcomes to refine future strategies.
MangoAI was co-founded by Nirmal Govind, a former Vice President of Data Science & Engineering at Netflix, and Vinith Misra, who has experience as a data scientist at Netflix and Roblox. Following the acquisition, Govind will take on the role of Canva's first Chief Algorithms Officer, while Misra will focus on enhancing Canva's marketing solutions.
This acquisition follows Canva's earlier purchase of marketing intelligence startup Magicbrief in January 2025 and the launch of its growth tool, Canva Grow, aimed at asset creation and performance evaluation.
During a recent discussion at Web Summit Qatar, Canva co-founder and COO Cliff Obrecht highlighted the success of Canva Grow, particularly in generating static content for Meta platforms. He mentioned that while the product is still in its early stages, it has garnered a loyal user base and is gaining traction among major brands.
With these acquisitions, Canva aims to strengthen its position as a leading marketing solution, potentially incorporating video creation and advanced performance measurement tools. The company concluded 2025 with an impressive $4 billion in annual revenue, serving over 265 million users, including 31 million paid subscribers.
