Canva targets professional designers with Affinity acquisition

With the announcement that it’s acquiring Serif – the company behind professional photo and design suite Affinity – Australia’s tech unicorn Canva has stepped up its competition with Adobe.

Canva Co-Founder and COO Cliff Obrecht did not disclose the value of the acquisition, but told Bloomberg the cash-and-stock deal was worth “several hundred million pounds”.

Based in the UK, Affinity’s 90-person team will join a number of other European companies that have become part of Canva, including Flourish, Kaleido, SmartMockups, Pexels, Pixabay and SlidesCarnival.

According to the company, the acquisition bolsters Canva’s “vision to build the world’s most comprehensive suite of visual communication tools”.

“While our last decade at Canva has focused heavily on the 99% of knowledge workers without design training, truly empowering the world to design includes empowering professional designers too,” Obrecht wrote in a blog post.

“By joining forces with Affinity, we’re excited to unlock the full spectrum of designers at every level and stage of the design journey.”

An acquisition with the Enterprise segment in mind

The company also stated the acquisition will help Canva grow its enterprise business where “professional designers can craft designs and templates with Affinity to scale across organizations with Canva”.

“Visual communication is now ubiquitous in the workplace and investing in strategies that enhance our B2B offerings is core to the future of our business,” Obrecht said.

“From sales and marketing, to brand and creative teams, the need to create effective and engaging visual content is on the rise.”

Available across Windows, Mac and iPad, Affinity’s creative suite includes Affinity Designer, Affinity Photo, and Affinity Publisher. Canva said it is committed to continuing to invest in the suite.

“Since the inception of Affinity, our mission has been to empower creatives with tools …We’ve worked tirelessly to challenge the status quo, delivering professional-grade creative software that is both accessible and affordable,” Affinity CEO Ashley Hewson said.

“Canva’s commitment to empowering everyone to create aligns perfectly with those values. We couldn’t be more excited about becoming part of the Canva family and can’t wait to see what we will achieve together.”

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