VCs might be used to cold calls from startups seeking cash, but as takeover offers go, the WhatsApp MagicBrief cofounder George Howes received from Canva’s billionaire cofounder Cliff Obrecht was unexpected.
Howes was at Sydney airport last month ready to move to the UK and launch his advertising tech platform there when the request to meet landed, according to Capital Brief.
So he turned around and went to meet Obrecht for the first time. The Canva COO was in an acquisitive mood once again.
Within hours, a deal was done and Canva had bought out its ninth startup, and its third from Sydney after gobbling up Leonardo.ai in a deal worth at least $300 million 12 months ago, and interactive presentation startup Zeetings in 2018.
Once again Canva has not disclosed the acquisition price for MagicBrief, but it’s a win for a familiar name in the Canva pantheon: VC firm Blackbird, the $49 billion design platform’s biggest investor, as well as backing Leonardo.ai.
Blackbird led a $2 million pre-Seed for MagicBrief two years ago. Archangel Ventures, Vimeo’s Zach Klein, UsTwo’s Matt Miller, Tim Doyle from Eucalyptus, Spriggy’s Alex Badran and Halter’s Craig Piggot also invested.
MagicBrief cofounders Dan Nolan and George Howes
MagicBrief founded by Howes, the former creative director of Eucalyptus, and Dan Nolan, cofounder and CTO of The platform gives marketing teams the tools they need for their creative workflow, from creating storyboards and creative briefs, to saving ads on social media for inspiration, alongside a library of more than 25,000 ads, along with their metadata and copy.
As Startup Daily described it as the time, it “acts like the lovechild of Canva and Pinterest for advertising”. Fenty Beauty, Koala, and Linktree are among its clients.
Canva says the acquisition is a major expansion of its platform, bringing together data, insights, and design to offer a new layer of creative intelligence to Canva’s Visual Suite.
“With MagicBrief joining Canva, we’re entering the next frontier by powering the entire content and marketing workflow, from ideation and creation to deployment, measurement, and now analysis and optimisation,” Obrecht said.
“By combining MagicBrief’s AI-powered insights with Canva’s Visual Suite, we’re giving every team the tools to not just create great content, but drive stronger results.“
MagicBrief, which has a team of 10, mostly in Sydney, will continue operating independently in the near term as the technology and team are integrated into Canva’s core product.
Canva says it now has more than 240 million monthly users and US$3 billion (A$4.6bn) in annualised revenue, with the number of paying subscribers jumping 25% to 25 million in just six months.
Alongside MagicBrief and Leonardo.Ai, Canva’s shopping spree over the last several years has included UK professional graphic design business Affinity in 2024 for an undisclosed sum, estimated to be $1.35 billion; British data startup Flourish in 2022, SlidesCarnival in 2023, Kaleido and Smartmockups in 2021, Pexels and Pixabay in 2019.
While many are hoping Canva will list in the US in 2026, , the company is reportedly looking at a secondary share sale for early employees before the end of 2025.
With many investors hungry for a slice of the action so close to an exit, if the sale goes ahead, expect another jump in Canva’s valuation after it hit $49 billion last year following a secondary sale, perhaps surpassing its peak of $54.5 billion in 2021 before three key investors, local VCs Blackbird, Square Peg and AirTree, agree to lop 36% off that valuation in 2022 amid a broader downturn in the sector.
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