Canva Advances Its Creative Tools by Buying Up Animation and Marketing Tech Startups

On Monday, Canva, the renowned creator suite provider, revealed its plans to acquire two emerging startups simultaneously: Cavalry, which specializes in animation, and Mango AI, focused on enhancing the performance of digital ads.

Cavalry, headquartered in the UK, develops 2D motion graphics tailored for various industries including advertising, marketing, gaming, and generative art. Canva stated that integrating Cavalry’s tools will expand the functionalities of Affinity, its professional creative editing platform for photos, vectors, and layouts that was acquired in 2024.

Last year, Canva overhauled Affinity’s design and made it available free of charge to all users. The company reported that since then, the software has been downloaded over five million times. Affinity already offers capabilities for photo, vector, and layout editing, and with this acquisition, Canva aims to add motion graphics editing to its suite.

In a blog post, Canva explained, “By combining Cavalry with Affinity, we’re filling the gap in motion editing capabilities and creating a comprehensive professional suite that covers photo, vector, layout, and now motion graphics.” The company added that together these tools form the basis of a full-stack Creative OS designed for professional use, while still preserving the depth and control essential for skilled creatives.

In addition to Cavalry, Canva has also acquired the lesser-known startup MangoAI. According to its website, MangoAI was working on developing reinforcement learning systems designed to improve the effectiveness of video ads. Canva stated that the startup’s initial product enabled clients to create and launch ads, analyze their performance, and use those insights to refine future campaigns.

MangoAI was founded by Nirmal Govind, former Vice President of Data Science & Engineering at Netflix, and Vinith Misra, a former data scientist at Netflix and Roblox. Canva announced that Govind will assume the role of the company’s first Chief Algorithms Officer, while Misra will focus on enhancing Canva’s marketing products.

In January 2025, Canva acquired the marketing intelligence startup Magicbrief. Later that same year, it introduced a growth tool called Canva Grow, which helps users create assets and measure their performance.

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During a recent interview at Web Summit Qatar, Canva co-founder and COO Cliff Obrecht told TechCrunch that Canva Grow is performing exceptionally well, particularly when it comes to creating static content for posting on Meta platforms.

Obrecht explained, “Although it’s still in its early stages, we’re set to launch many additional features related to video creation that will work across multiple platforms. Right now the user base is small but highly loyal, yet several major brands are already investing in the tool, which is driving significant growth for us.”

Through these recent acquisitions, Canva aims to strengthen its position as a comprehensive marketing solution by adding video creation capabilities and more advanced measurement tools. The company concluded 2025 with annualized revenue of $4 billion, serving over 265 million users, including 31 million paid subscribers.