Canva Challenges Adobe’s Digital Design Dominance with Affinity Acquisition

Canva, the web-based design platform, announced its acquisition of the creative software product company, Affinity on Tuesday. Many have already reported that this strategic move heralds Canva’s push to disrupt Adobe’s dominance in the realm of digital design software tools.

With this acquisition, Canva acquired ownership of the UK-based Affinity’s Designer, Photo, and Publisher applications.

While the financial figures for the acquisition were not disclosed by the companies, Bloomberg estimates the deal to be worth “several hundred million pounds.”

Since its launch in 2013, Canva has made numerous acquisitions to expand its foothold in the digital design industry. Despite its claims of attracting more than 170 million users worldwide, the platform has been unable to attract creative professionals like photographers, illustrators, and video editors due to the absence of dedicated design applications.

By acquiring Affinity’s creative suite, a direct competitor to Adobe’s Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign software, Canva hopes to fill this gap and tap the global business-to-business digital design market.

“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,” Cliff Obrecht, Co-Founder and COO at Canva said in the acquisition press release. “By joining forces with Affinity, we’re excited to unlock the full spectrum of designers at every level and stage of the design journey.”

Nearly three million people worldwide use the Affinity suite, which works with Windows, Mac, and iPads. Though its user base is a fraction of Adobe Creative Cloud’s subscriber base, Affinity’s one-time-purchase model has earned it a significant following among professionals seeking an alternative to Adobe’s subscription ecosystem.

Canva co-founder Cameron Adams in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, said that although future integration of both platform offerings cannot be ruled out, Affinity will continue to maintain its distinct identity.

With Affinity’s UK-based team of 90 professionals now part of Canva, it hopes to expand and reach out to the wide spectrum of the design community, particularly users disillusioned with the subscription-based model.