Canva acquires Simtheory and Ortto in a twin deal

This article was published on April 8, 2026 Both companies were built by brothers Chris and Mike Sharkey, who previously co-founded Australian holiday rental site Stayz. Financial terms were not disclosed. Canva will preview what it calls the biggest transformation in its history at Canva Create on 16 April. Canva has acquired two companies simultaneously: Simtheory, an agentic AI collaboration platform, and Ortto, a customer data platform and marketing automation company. Both were built by Australian brothers Chris and Mike Sharkey, who will join Canva in leadership roles across its AI and marketing technology teams. Financial terms were not disclosed for either deal. The Sharkeys are serial founders. Before Ortto and Simtheory they co-founded Stayz, then Australia’s largest holiday accommodation booking site, which was sold to Fairfax Digital in 2006 and subsequently to HomeAway for $225 million in 2013. Ortto itself has an older lineage: it began as Autopilot, a marketing automation company the brothers founded in 2015, rebuilt from the ground up after 2018, and rebranded as Ortto in March 2022. Simtheory grew out of an AI podcast the Sharkeys launched in 2023 to explore new mo