Canva buys Cavalry and MangoAI to expand motion design and AI-driven ad tools

Canva has acquired animation startup Cavalry and marketing technology firm MangoAI, extending its push into professional creative tooling and AI-driven advertising products. Financial terms of the deals were not disclosed.

Motion Design Added to Affinity Suite

Cavalry, a UK-based developer of 2D motion graphics software, will bring animation capabilities into Canva’s ecosystem. The technology is expected to be integrated with Affinity, which Canva acquired in 2024. Affinity provides professional-grade tools for photo editing, vector illustration and layout design and was made free to users last year, surpassing five million downloads since the relaunch.

Canva said Cavalry will continue operating as a standalone product while its motion technology is incorporated into both Canva’s core platform and Affinity. The addition addresses a gap in Canva’s professional toolset, which previously lacked advanced native motion editing capabilities.

Cavalry has positioned itself as an alternative for certain animation workflows traditionally handled by Adobe After Effects, and lists customers including major technology companies.

AI Focus on Advertising Performance

The second acquisition targets marketing automation. MangoAI, founded by former Netflix executives Nirmal Govind and Vinith Misra, develops reinforcement learning systems designed to improve video advertising performance. Its tools analyze campaign outcomes and feed performance data back into content creation and optimization processes.

Govind will join Canva as its first Chief Algorithms Officer, overseeing personalization and algorithmic systems across the platform. Misra will work within Canva’s research organization on reinforcement learning applications tied to marketing and creative workflows.

Canva plans to integrate MangoAI’s technology into Canva Grow, its advertising and performance measurement product available through the company’s business tier. The system is designed to help brands create video ads, distribute them across platforms and refine content based on observed results.

The acquisitions follow Canva’s purchase of marketing intelligence startup MagicBrief in early 2025 and reflect a broader effort to connect creative production with measurable outcomes. Executives have described a strategy focused on linking asset creation, distribution and performance analytics inside a unified platform.

Canva reported more than $4 billion in annualized revenue at the end of 2025, representing 36% year-over-year growth. The company said it has over 265 million users globally, including 31 million paid subscribers, and employs more than 5,000 people. It is not currently raising new funding.

As generative AI tools become more capable of producing draft creative assets, Canva executives argue that professional refinement and brand control remain critical. The latest acquisitions suggest the company is investing in both advanced creative tooling and algorithmic optimization as it competes for enterprise marketing budgets in a changing software landscape.