Canva Makes Major Move into Pro Design Market, Acquires Affinity Creative Suite

Credit: Canva

Canva, the popular online design platform, has made a bold acquisition to expand its offerings for professional designers and creative professionals. The Australian company has acquired Affinity, the Affinity Designer, Photo, and Publisher applications makers.

While financial terms were not disclosed, reports indicate the deal is valued at several hundred million British pounds. This marks a significant investment by Canva as it looks to challenge Adobe’s dominance in the professional creative software market.

For years, Canva has focused on providing easy-to-use design tools for non-professional users like marketers, social media managers, and general knowledge workers. However, the acquisition of Affinity signals Canva’s ambitions to cater to the professional design community as well.

Affinity’s vector design, image editing, and desktop publishing apps like Affinity Designer, Photo and Publisher have developed a loyal following among creative professionals who appreciate their one-time purchase model as an alternative to Adobe’s subscription-based Creative Cloud.

In a statement as reported by The Verge, Canva highlighted the acquisition will “unlock the full spectrum of designers at every level.” While Affinity’s 90 UK-based employees will join Canva, the companies say the Affinity apps will remain separate products for now, with some lightweight integrations planned initially.

Canva co-founder Cameron Adams told the Sydney Morning Herald: “Our product teams have already started chatting and we have some immediate plans for lightweight integration, but we think the products themselves will always be separate.”

The move pits Canva more directly against Adobe’s creative software dominance. With over 170 million monthly users, Canva’s intuitive design tools are already popular among Gen Z and younger creatives. By bringing advanced tools like Affinity into the fold, Canva can now target professional illustrators, photographers, graphic designers and more.

For creatives frustrated with Adobe’s subscription model and pricing, Canva’s acquisition of Affinity provides a direct alternative suite of pro-level applications. While Adobe remains the industry standard, Canva is positioning itself as a formidable multi-faceted competitor across numerous creative verticals.