Canva acquired Australia-based artificial intelligence (AI) startup Leonardo.ai on Tuesday. The AI startup uses its native foundation model Phoenix to generate images, videos, and create visual assets. The platform also offers features such as AI-powered upscaling, inline editing, and real-time image generation. Canva said that the Phoenix AI model will be integrated into its Magic Studio tools as a part of the acquisition. Notably, this is the company’s eighth acquisition, joining Affinity (2024), Flourish (2022), Kaleido (2021), Smartmockups (2021), Pexels (2019), Pixabay (2019) and Zeetings (2018).
Canva Acquires Leonardo.ai
In a newsroom post, Canva announced the acquisition of Leonardo.ai. Despite acquiring the company, Canva will let the AI startup develop its web platform for its users and business customers, similar to Affinity. However, Canva will integrate the startup’s Phoenix AI model into its Magic Studio tools. The model will mainly be used to improve the performance of its image and video generation capabilities. The company will also invest financial resources, expertise, and licenced content from the Canva Creators programme into Leonardo.ai.
Leonardo AI
Leonardo.ai allows users to generate images in various styles, including hyper-realistic, character portraits, anime, painterly styles, and more. It also offers AI-powered image upscaling, real-time image generation, and inline image editing. While the platform has a premium tier with advanced features, free users can also generate a limited number of images and videos.
Canva claimed that Leonardo’s Phoenix foundation model shows a high level of prompt adherence, accurate text generation in images, and can generate production-ready assets in a single attempt. No other details about the model’s architecture or the data it was trained on were shared.
Notably, Leonardo was founded in 2022. In two years, the company is said to have amassed more than 19 million registered users on its platform. Canva says the acquisition will not only improve its offerings but also grow Leonardo’s user base.
