Canva Acquires Affinity Apps in Multimillion-dollar Deal to Compete with Adobe

The Affinity suite of apps, including Affinity Photo, Designer, and Publisher, has become known as a great alternative to the Adobe Creative Cloud suite. But there's a lot going on behind the scenes: Affinity app company Serif has now been acquired by Canva in a multimillion-dollar deal.

Canva is acquiring Serif, which develops Affinity apps

The news was confirmed by Serif and Canva on Tuesday. According to Canva, the acquisition “accelerates Canva's corporate ambitions, ushering in a future in which professional designers can create designs and templates with Affinity to scale with Canva across their entire organization.”

Affinity currently has over 3 million users worldwide. The apps are available for multiple platforms, including macOS and iPadOS, and have won numerous industry awards, such as the Apple Design Award and Apple App of the Year for Mac and iPad. For Affinity users, Canva says it will continue to invest in the Creative Suite.

Canva will continue to invest in the Affinity Suite to ensure it not only responds needs of professional designers, but also enhances their experience and enables them to do their best work. Together, Canva and Affinity are a powerful combination designed to meet any designer's goals.

The entire Serif team of approximately 90 people will join Canva. While the exact value of the deal is unclear, with both cash and shares involved in negotiations, Bloomberg reports that it is valued at “several hundred million pounds.”

At least for now, Affinity apps will not be subject to rebranding or major changes, but it is likely that some kind of integration with the Canva platform will be introduced in the future. Canva also said it has no current plans to change the subscription-free model of Affinity apps, which is a huge plus over Adobe apps.

More information about the acquisition can be found on Serif's website. .