Canva leverages generative AI platform Leonardo.AI – AI > Data

Canva, a visual communications specialist with over 190 million monthly active users, has announced its acquisition of Leonardo.AI, an Australian startup specializing in generative artificial intelligence (AI) content and research. Leonardo.AI empowers millions of people to bring their ideas to life with high-quality images and videos. The acquisition complements Canva’s offering and reinforces the company’s vision to develop a suite of visual AI tools, marking a significant milestone in its AI technology journey. For Leonardo, this is an opportunity to push the boundaries of AI innovation while expanding the organization’s reach.

Leading Generative AI Features

Leonardo’s new foundational model, Phoenix, takes creator control to the next level, with unprecedented compliance with guidelines, consistent and accurate text in images, and the ability to generate ready-to-use visuals in one go.

Less than two years after its launch, Leonardo.AI has over 19 million registered users and is used across a wide range of industries, including advertising, marketing, design, entertainment, architecture, fashion, e-commerce and education. The joint effort with Canva will lead to new advancements in AI technology that will not only drive interest but also expand Leonardo’s rapidly growing user base.

From hobbyists to filmmakers, architects and professional graphic designers, Leonardo technology delivers advanced creative control that pushes the boundaries of what’s possible with generative AI, while remaining intuitive and accessible. Its models can generate stunning images in styles ranging from lifelike photos to character portraits, animated, painterly and more, while its AI video generation tools can bring nearly any concept to life in dynamic ways.

Reimagining visual communication

Canva’s recent Visual Economy Report shows that the need for effective, efficient, and compelling visual communication has grown significantly. AI is now playing an increasingly important role in improving productivity and creativity in the workplace. From marketing teams scaling global campaigns by instantly generating ad creative for specific audiences, to graphic designers creating drafts and storyboards, generative AI is changing the way work gets done.

Leonardo’s technology will complement Canva’s Magic Studio, a suite of AI-powered graphic design tools that has been used more than 7 billion times since its launch in 2023. To date, Canva users have enhanced their designs and creativity by using Magic Studio for everything from summarizing documents to creating images to transforming brainstorming whiteboards into real-world presentations.

AI at the service of Canva

Canva will continue to invest in Leonardo’s standalone platform while integrating its technology into the company’s Magic Studio product suite. Collaborating with Leonardo’s team of 120 top researchers, engineers, and designers will also strengthen Canva’s research and development capabilities as it continues to invest in a variety of long-term innovation projects.

Acquisitions have played a significant role in the development and refinement of Canva’s technology over the past decade. Leonardo is the company’s 8th acquisition, joining the acquisition of: Affinity – the only complete photo editing software (2024), Flourish – a chart or map creation solution (2022), Kaleido – the business gateway to web3 (2021), Smartmockups – mockup creation (2021), Pexels – a distributor of royalty-free images and videos (2019), Pixabay – same principle as Pexels (2019) and Zeetings – allows you to enrich presentations (2018).