CANVA, Inc. on Tuesday said it will acquire Australian generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) startup Leonardo.Ai to boost its suite of visual tools.

“The acquisition complements Canva’s offering and enhances the company’s vision to build a world-class suite of visual AI tools, marking this as an important milestone in its AI journey,” Canva said in a statement on Tuesday.

Leonardo is the eighth company acquired by Canva alongside Affinity, Flourish, Kaleido, Smartmockups, Pexels, Pixabay, and Zeetings.

The GenAI startup offers features such as creating assets for marketing and advertising campaigns, interior concepts, mockups, and producing videos.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Leonardo.AI to Canva — two Australian companies joining forces to bring world-first breakthroughs in AI and creativity,” said Cameron Adams, co-founder and chief product officer of Canva.

Leonardo’s team of 120 researchers, engineers, and designers will also bolster Canva’s research and development capabilities, the company said.

“This field is constantly evolving, and Leonardo’s technical leadership and community impact can’t be overstated. Bringing our worlds together will accelerate each of our teams’ work, taking us from strength to strength, and we can’t wait to get started,” Mr. Adams added.

JJ Fiasson, founder and chief executive officer of Leonardo.AI, said joining the Canva means it can invest more in scaling its AI research efforts globally and deliver new features and functionality to creatives worldwide.

Leonardo.Ai, founded in 2012, allows its creators to generate images in any chosen aesthetic in seconds with simple prompts, create videos, sketch with AI, and custom-train models with their own datasets.

The company has more than 19 million registered users and is used in various industries such as e-commerce and architecture. — A.R.A. Inosante

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