Affinity, formerly Serif, will join Canva’s growing product suite in a deal reportedly worth US$380 million (AU$582 million).
Design juggernaut, Canva, has revealed it’s bought Affinity, a software platform for creative professionals, in a bid to empower more designers – including professionals.
“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,” Canva said 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.”
Co-founder Cameron Adams told Fortune’s Term Sheet he got in touch with the company via LinkedIn, and seven weeks later, the deal was forged. Canva has not confirm the deal amount, which was first reported by Bloomberg.
“We actually very quickly reached an initial agreement before we got into the full contracts. We pretty much sealed the deal, after two days in Nottingham,” Adams said.
Similar to Adobe, Affinity’s product suite is available across Windows, Mac and iPad, and includes vector-based graphics software, a fully-loaded photo editor for advanced retouching, basic editing and creating multilayer photo compositions, and professional page-layout software.
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Background
Canva has embarked on an acquisition spree since 2019, picking up Flourish, Kaleido, SmartMockups, Pexels, Pixabay and SlidesCarnival. But Affinity bolsters Canva’s position against fellow design giant, Adobe.
Affinity said it hopes to leverage the $39 billion design giant’s resources to forge new products for customers. Canva will gain about 3 million users worldwide, and Affinity’s 90-strong team.
“Since the inception of Affinity, our mission has been to empower creatives with tools that unleash their full potential, fostering a community where innovation and artistry flourish,” Affinity said in an announcement. “We’ve worked tirelessly to challenge the status quo, delivering professional-grade creative software that is both accessible and affordable.”
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