Latest news with #VisualSuite
West Australian
4 days ago
- Business
- West Australian
Tech unicorn Canva picks up Sydney startup MagicBrief
Perth-founded tech unicorn Canva is buying an Australian AI-powered creative intelligence startup as it pushes deeper into the enterprise and marketing sector. Canva said the acquisition of Sydney-based MagicBrief would build out its Visual Suite offering for marketing and creative teams. MagicBrief was founded in 2022. Its creative analytics and research platform uses AI to help marketers better understand and respond to their advertising content strategies, formats, and messages that perform best with audiences. The tools are already being used by thousands of global brands, marketers and agencies to analyse and inform creative development and have to date analysed more than $6 billion in ad spending. The purchase price was not disclosed. Canva co-founder Cliff Obrecht said the deal marked a major expansion of the company — which bills itself as 'the world's only all-in-one visual communication platform' — and introduces a 'powerful' new layer of creative intelligence to its recently upgraded Visual Suite. 'We've spent the last decade empowering millions of teams to create impactful and engaging visual content,' Mr Obrecht said. 'Now, 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. 'In today's visual economy, winning brands are those that know exactly what creative works, where it works, and why. 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.' George Howes, co-founder and chief executive of MagicBrief, said the startup would continue to operate independently while its technology and team integrate into Canva. 'We started MagicBrief to give creative teams smarter tools to move faster and make better work,' Mr Howes said. 'Joining Canva takes that vision to the next level — helping us reach more marketers and turn great ideas into high performing creative.' Canva was launched from a Dianella loungeroom in 2013 by Mr Obrecht and now wife Melanie Perkins, who met while she was studying at the University of Western Australia. Now based in Sydney, the private company which has been backed by some of the world top tech investors, has enjoyed exponential growth to more than 240 million monthly users across 190 countries, with annualised revenue of $US3 billion ($4.6b). The company is now reportedly worth almost $49b — putting it ahead of the market capitalisation of big names such as Rio Tinto, Fortescue, Woolworths and Coles. But its founders has remained tight-lipped on a time frame for long-running rumours of a float in the US. A listing would likely bring in fresh capital that could be used for product development and further acquisitions. Mr Obrecht and Ms Perkins were recently placed sixth on the Australian Financial Review's annual list of Australia's richest people, with an estimated combine et worth of $14.1b.
Forbes
03-06-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Canva AI Tools Freelancers Can Use To Streamline Their Business
A focused young woman with curly hair, dressed in a yellow shirt, working intently on a laptop in a ... More brightly lit home office setting. Canva continues to innovate and push the boundaries of what is possible as an online design studio. In April 2025, Canva unveiled "Visual Suite 2.0" - a slew of updates and features that push it past its creative content origins and into a full AI technology suite. Particular tools could change the game for freelancers who constantly navigate tight budgets, limited time, and multiple clients. This article will explore some of Canva's best AI tools and how they can help streamline freelancers' marketing and business admin. Not a fan of Excel spreadsheets? You are in luck. No more time wasted trying to figure out formulas. Canva Sheets makes spreadsheets more straightforward, user-friendly, and design-led, perfect for time-stretched freelancers. Whether you need to present data such as a monthly report, create a content calendar, present project timelines, or even house your own business accounts, Canva Sheets brings it all together in one platform. You can utilize existing templates or create a new one with the help of AI and use drag-and-drop components to suit your business needs. You can even import data or other existing information from Google Analytics, Microsoft Excel, and HubSpot. Within Canva Sheets is the AI-powered 'Magic Insights', which you can use for data analysis and trend spotting. When used together, you can present data and insights to your clients or stakeholders that are visually-appealing and consistently on-brand with your other marketing collateral. Data visualization is now accessible to everyone - even freelancers who have no experience in the sort. You can instantly turn your data into easy-to-digest and on-brand visualizations like pie charts, line graphs, and bar graphs. This tool can even suggest the best type of visualization for your data. Ready to convert your data from Canva Sheets into an eye-catching document that is easy for clients to understand? You can incorporate your newly made charts and graphs into a visually beautiful and on-brand document, such as an infographic or slide deck. Visual communication is essential for data-driven storytelling in business, so this tool is helpful for freelancers who don't count graphic design as a strength yet need to create documents that make an impact. Within Canva's Magic Studio are a wide variety of AI tools - such as Magic Resize to reformat documents, Magic Edit for photo editing, and Magic Animate to add motion to your designs. These can all help bring your imagery, videos, documents, case studies, digital products, and proposals to life, saving you hours of precious time. Finally, one of Canva's newest tools is Canva Code. It's an AI-powered solution for freelancers juggling design and development within their business and for those with little to no coding experience (which is many of us!). Canva Code makes it easier for freelancers to create a landing page, website, online portfolio, email templates, or even interactive tools like quizzes and calculators in less time than on traditional or separate platforms. In a digital world where speed, automation, and visual impact matter more than ever before, Canva offers freelancers a comprehensive range of AI tools. Whether you're creating reports, data visualizations, documents, or marketing materials, for yourself or your clients, Canva's AI tools empower freelancers to make strategic business moves through a more automated and streamlined workload.
