Canva acquires Leonardo.ai, an AI image generation service with over 19 million users

Online design platform

We're thrilled to announce our plans to join forces with @Canva , which will supercharge the speed & scale that we're building https://t.co/LlErGl3jwe . ???? pic.twitter.com/l23r3N2reY

— Leonardo.Ai (@LeonardoAi_) July 30, 2024

???? Exciting news: Welcome, @LeonardoAi_ ! ????

Since 2013, Canva's mission has been to empower everyone to design. Today, we're thrilled to join forces with Leonardo AI, a leader in generative AI. ????

Leonardo's team and tech will boost our AI capabilities, enhancing our products… pic.twitter.com/qe4wy2ttm3

— Canva (@canva) July 30, 2024

Canva acquires Leonardo.ai to boost its generative AI efforts | TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2024/07/29/canva-acquires-leonardo-ai-to-boost-its-generative-ai-efforts/

Canva is a service that allows you to create various designs on a web browser, and its feature is that anyone can easily create banners and images for social media. In 2023, it will also be equipped with an AI-based image generation function 'Magic Studio' to increase the number of users, and Canva's annual revenue in 2023 will exceed $ 2.1 billion (approximately 330 billion yen), and as of July 2024, it has 180 million monthly active users.

Leonardo.Ai, on the other hand, is a startup founded in Australia in 2022 that is capable of generating AI images for industries such as advertising, fashion, and architecture, and also provides an API that allows users to build their own infrastructure on the platform. Leonardo.Ai's image generation AI is characterized by the fact that users can enter a text prompt and then draw a certain amount of sketches, allowing it to generate photorealistic images in real time based on both text and sketch prompts.

Since its launch, Leonardo.Ai has continued to grow steadily, with over 19 million users at the time of writing and over 1 billion images generated to date.

Canva's acquisition of Leonardo.Ai will see the integration of Leonardo.Ai's technology into Canva's Magic Studio. 'This acquisition will enable us to make our existing Magic Studio tools even more powerful, and potentially bring new generative AI capabilities directly to Canva using Leonardo.Ai's models,' said Cameron Adams, co-founder and chief product officer at Canva. 'Our collaboration with Canva and Leonardo.Ai is just getting started, but we're excited to expand the possibilities for our users with Canva's AI.'

Adams added, 'We are focused on building AI-powered workflows that include generative solutions such as image and design generation. Combining Canva workflows with our new generative capabilities will enable us to offer new possibilities to our growing base of teams and businesses who use Canva while still using Leonardo.Ai's products.'

With this acquisition, all 120 employees of Leonardo.Ai, including the management team, will join Canva. Leonardo.Ai reported, 'While we will be joining the Canva family, Leonardo.Ai will continue to operate as an independent platform, built for its community and with creativity at its core. All Leonardo.Ai tools will be available with the same plans and pricing as before.'

Being part of the @Canva family means just that. We're part of the family - but we'll continue to run as https://t.co/LlErGl3jwe - as an independent platform, building for our community with creativity at our core. ????

— Leonardo.Ai (@LeonardoAi_) July 30, 2024

Canva has not disclosed financial terms or other details of the acquisition, but Adams said it will be a combination of cash and stock.