TLDR;
- Canva has acquired MagicBrief, an ad analytics startup, marking its 12th acquisition.
- The move signals Canva’s expansion beyond design into marketing performance.
- MagicBrief’s tech will power a new Canva product launching later this year.
- This deepens Canva’s rivalry with Adobe as both companies pursue AI-driven ad tools.
Canva has acquired Sydney-based MagicBrief, an advertising analytics startup, in a move that marks the company’s most deliberate step beyond its design roots.
As per a Tuesday announcement , while the financial terms of the deal remain undisclosed, the acquisition represents Canva’s 12th to date, aligning with its broader strategy to transform into a full-service marketing platform. Founded in 2022, MagicBrief offers insights on ad spending, engagement rates, and competitor benchmarks, capabilities that will now become central to Canva’s evolving ecosystem.
Cliff Obrecht, Canva’s founder and COO, confirmed that MagicBrief’s tools will be integrated into a new product set to launch later this year. The acquisition also reflects Canva’s ambition to streamline creative and performance workflows for its vast user base, now totaling more than 240 million globally.
✨ We’re welcoming @MagicBrief to Canva! ✨
Together, we want to power creativity that performs, data that inspires, and tools that do both. Here’s how: 👉🏼 https://t.co/5ITU3bRYbD pic.twitter.com/xE7KTM8Ut4
— Canva (@canva) June 17, 2025
Move Intensifies Competition with Adobe
Canva’s latest acquisition adds momentum to its ongoing rivalry with Adobe, which has recently introduced AI-powered ad tools of its own. While Adobe’s Creative Cloud still dominates among professional designers, Canva has gained traction among a broader user base due to its simplicity and accessibility.
Its platform is already used by 90 percent of Fortune 500 companies, and the addition of marketing analytics features could deepen its appeal to corporate and SMB clients alike.
MagicBrief’s technology places Canva in direct competition with Adobe’s growing analytics offerings, particularly in the context of AI-enabled campaign tools. With $3 billion in annual revenue and a valuation of $32 billion, Canva is clearly positioning itself as a serious challenger across the creative software landscape.
MagicBrief Expands Canva’s Marketing Suite
The MagicBrief acquisition further enhances Canva’s efforts to offer a closed-loop marketing system where users can create, deploy, and now analyze their content all within the same platform. By combining intuitive design tools with actionable performance data, Canva is moving toward a model that empowers users to not only produce visual assets but also measure and optimize them in real time.
This acquisition mirrors Canva’s earlier moves, such as its purchase of Zeetings in 2018, which helped the company enter the presentation software market. With more than $1 billion in cash reserves, Canva continues to use acquisitions as a growth lever across new verticals in the software-as-a-service space.
AI Ambitions Shape Canva’s Future
Canva’s push into analytics also supports its larger ambition to lead the AI-driven transformation of creative and business tools. In April, the company launched Canva Sheets, an AI-powered spreadsheet tool aimed at competing with Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets. It also introduced Magic Charts and Canva Code, both driven by generative AI.
MagicBrief’s data analytics technology will complement these AI tools by enhancing how users interpret campaign success and respond dynamically. As Obrecht previously noted, Canva aims to “democratize marketing,” making advanced tools available to a broader range of users without specialized expertise. This acquisition takes the company one step closer to that goal.
