Online design giant Canva is bolting two more startups onto the mothership, Mango.AI and Cavalry, from the US and UK respectively, as well as adding a “chief algorithms officer” to its C-suite.
The acquisitions take the number of companies Canva’s acquired in the last two years to five, following on from Affinity and Leonardo in 2024, and MagicBrief last year.
Mango.ai is 10-month-old San Francisco marketing algorithm startup that was still in stealth mode. It was cofounded in May last year by Fable CTO and former Netfix data science VP Nirmal Govind, and Vinith Misra, former Roblox and Netflix machine learning (ML) scientist.
The platform uses ML techniques to improve advertising efficiency and outcomes for video ads. It will become part of Canva Grow’s marketing intelligence tools.
Canva cofounder and COO Cliff Obrecht they acquired MangoAI to double down on building new products for marketing and creative teams.
“Building on MagicBrief, MangoAI’s algorithms and learning loops will power the next generation of our AI-driven marketing products, laying the foundations for a new era where performance data continuously improves and adapts creative in real time,” he said.
Chief algorithms officer
Govind will take on the role of Canva’s chief algorithms officer, while Misra will be reinforcement learning lead at Canva’s Research Lab.
“I’m excited to join the team and help shape how data, algorithms, and AI power personalised experiences across the product,” Govind said.
Cavalry is UK-based 2D animation platform used by motion designers. It’s Canva’s seventh Europe-based acquisition since 2019.
Cofounder Chris Hardcastle was running the pioneering motion design studio Mainframe when Martin Vejdarski and Ian Waters came to him with the idea for Cavalry in 2019. The subscriber base now includes Apple, Google, Meta, Amazon, Nike, OpenAI, and of course, Canva and the app was dubbed “the breakout creative tool of 2025”.
Hardcastle, Waters, and cofounder Adam Jenns will join Canva, with the acquisition significantly expanding the platform’s professional design suite.
“We built Cavalry to give motion designers a faster, more flexible creative playground suitable for the demands of modern production,” Hardcastle said.
“Canva’s platform and long-term vision make it a natural next chapter for our technology. Together, we have an incredible opportunity to redefine motion design, bringing smarter workflows that make animation more powerful, and far more accessible, to a new generation of creatives.”
Canva topped $4 billion in annualised revenue last year, and now has 265 million monthly active users. The company is considering going public with a listing in the US later this year.
The business was valued at $65 billion following a secondaries share sale in mid-2025.
