Canva acquires startups working on animation and marketing
Source: TechCrunch
Canva expands its Creative OS with Cavalry and MangoAI acquisitions
On Monday, creative‑suite maker Canva announced the dual acquisition of startups Cavalry (animation) and Mango AI (ad‑performance optimization).
Cavalry – 2D motion animation
UK‑based Cavalry builds 2D motion‑animation tools for verticals such as advertising, marketing, gaming, and generative art. Canva said Cavalry’s tooling will augment the capabilities of Affinity, Canva’s professional creative editing suite for photos, vectors, and layouts, which it acquired in 2024.
After revamping Affinity’s design last year and making it free for all users—resulting in over five million downloads—Canva now aims to add motion editing to its suite.
“By bringing Cavalry alongside Affinity, we’re closing that motion editing gap and unlocking a complete professional suite spanning photo, vector, layout, and now motion editing,” the company wrote in a blog post. “Together, these tools form the foundation of a full‑stack Creative OS for professional work, while preserving the depth and control professional creatives rely on.”
MangoAI – Reinforcement‑learning for video ads
Canva also acquired stealth startup MangoAI, which develops reinforcement‑learning systems to improve video‑ad performance. According to its website, MangoAI’s first product helps clients create, launch, and analyze ads 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 become Canva’s first Chief Algorithms Officer, while Misra will focus on enhancing Canva’s marketing products.
Image: MangoAI co‑founders Nirmal Govind (left) and Vinith Misra (right) with Canva co‑founder and COO Cliff Obrecht (centre).
Recent Canva initiatives
- January 2025: Canva acquired marketing‑intelligence startup Magicbrief.
- Later in 2025: Canva launched Canva Grow, a growth tool for asset creation and performance measurement.
During a sit‑down at Web Summit Qatar, Canva co‑founder and COO Cliff Obrecht told TechCrunch that Canva Grow is “doing incredibly well,” especially for static content on Meta platforms. He added that the product is early‑stage but will soon expand to video creation and multi‑platform deployment, attracting both small loyal users and large brands.
Company performance
Canva closed 2025 with $4 billion in annualized revenue — over 265 million users, including 31 million paid users — as reported by TechCrunch.