Canva Targets Video Animations, AI Expansion With Latest Acquisitions
In Focus
- Canva is acquiring MangoAI and Cavalry
- Cavalry’s acquisition will enable Canva to include animations in its professional creative suite
- The merger with MangoAI will help the graphic design firm to expand its AI application
Canva is expanding its influence in the design industry by acquiring two startups. According to TechCrunch, the creative suite maker is buying out MangoAI, a platform that improves ad performance, and 2D animation firm, Cavalry. Canva’s acquisitions in 2026 will allow the graphics company to introduce video creation to its platform and strengthen its positioning as a marketing solution.
Canva Brings Animation to Affinity
The Canva animation startup deal will enable the cloud-based graphics firm to bring motion to Affinity. According to Canva, the tools offered by Cavalry will support its current Affinity capabilities. Canva acquired Affinity in 2024 and made it its professional creative suite for vectors, photos, and layouts.
Last year, the cloud-based design platform improved Affinity’s design and offered it free to all users. Since then, the software has been downloaded more than five million times. Using Affinity, users can edit layouts, vectors, and photos.
“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. Together, these tools form the foundation of a full-stack Creative OS for professional work,” Canva said as cited by TechCrunch.
Cavalry offers software for developing 2D motion animations and targets different verticals, including generative art, marketing, advertising, and gaming.
The Design Company Pursues AI Expansion
The design software giant appears to be pursuing Canva AI expansion with the acquisition of MangoAI. The AI platform uses learning systems to enhance the performance of video ads. According to Canva, MangoAI’s initial product enabled customers to develop ads, launch them, and monitor results in order to improve future campaigns.
Canva isn’t the only design company that is working to expand AI applications on its platform. In December 2025, Figma introduced new AI image editing features. The update included tools for removing, isolating, and expanding images, saving users the hassle of exporting images for editing, then importing them back to the platform.
MangoAI was developed by the former Netflix VP of Data Science and Engineering, Nirmal Govind along with former Data Scientist at Roblox and Netflix, Vinith Misra. Following Canva’s AI design platform acquisition, Govind is set to join the cloud-based design company as its first Chief Algorithms Officer.
Misra, on the other hand, will support marketing product improvements in Canva. This is the second time that Canva is acquiring an AI firm after it merged with Leonardo AI back in 2024.
Focus on Video Creation Capabilities
The latest acquisition reflects Canva’s wider strategy of making video production tools part of its design suite. Early last year, the company acquired Magicbrief, a marketing intelligence platform. The company later unveiled Canva Grow, a tool for creating assets and measuring performance.
“It is quite an early product, but we’ll soon be launching a lot more things around video creation, deploying across multiple platforms,” Canva Co-founder and COO, Cliff Obrech noted as per TechCrunch.
Canva’s annualized revenue hit the $4 billion mark in 2025. The company has over 265 million users, out of which 31 million are paid-up subscribers.
