Canva's Latest Move: Acquiring Affinity to Vie with Adobe in the Market

The Affinity suite of applications, including Affinity Photo, Designer, and Publisher, has become an excellent alternative to the Adobe Creative Cloud suite. However, there is a lot happening behind the scenes as Serif, the development company behind the Affinity apps, has now been acquired by Canva for millions of dollars.

Serif and Canva both confirmed this news on Tuesday. Canva stated that this acquisition "accelerates Canva's enterprise ambitions, opening up a future where professional designers can use Affinity to create designs and templates and extend them across their entire organization through Canva."

The Affinity suite currently has over 3 million users worldwide. These apps are available on multiple platforms, including macOS and iPadOS, and have received numerous industry awards such as the Apple Design Award and the Mac and iPad App of the Year. Canva assures Affinity users that they will continue to invest in this creative suite.

Canva will continue to invest in the Affinity suite to ensure that it not only meets the needs of professional designers but also enhances their experience, enabling them to perform at their best. The collaboration between Canva and Affinity will accelerate the achievement of various designers' goals.

The entire Serif team, consisting of approximately 90 people, will join Canva. While the exact value of the deal is unclear due to negotiations involving cash and stock, Bloomberg reports that the transaction is worth "hundreds of millions of pounds."

At least for now, the Affinity apps will not be renamed or undergo significant changes, but there may be some form of integration with the Canva platform in the future. Canva also stated that there are currently no plans to change the subscription model of the Affinity apps, which is a significant advantage compared to Adobe applications.