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Canva has acquiredLeonardo.ai , a generative AI content and enquiry inauguration , as the society look to diversify the scope of its AI tech deal .
The fiscal footing of the hand were n’t disclosed , but Canva cobalt - founder and chief mathematical product police officer Cameron Adams said it ’s a mix of cash and stemma . All of Leonardo.ai ’s 120 employee will be joining Canva , including the executive squad .
“ Leonardo will continue to run severally of Canva with a direction on rapid innovation , research and development , now backed by Canva ’s resources , ” Adams told TechCrunch . “ We ’ll keep offering all of Leonardo ’s exist tools and answer . This accomplishment aims to help Leonardo develop its political program and intensify their exploiter emergence with our investment , include by expanding their API commercial enterprise and investing in foundational modelling R&D. ”
Sydney - based Leonardo.ai , establish in 2022 , was originally stand for to focus on television secret plan plus creation — the inauguration ’s founding father met while ferment at a picture plot fellowship . But then Leonardo.ai ’s team decided to build out the political platform to meet more scenarios , like creating and train AI example for image creation across industries such as mode , advertising and architecture .
Today , Leonardo.ai offers collaboration tools and a individual cloud for models , including television generators , as well as access to APIs that let customers build their own technical school infrastructure on top of Leonardo.ai ’s political platform .
Leonardo.ai severalise itself from other generative AI prowess program by the amount of control that it gift users , carbon monoxide - beginner Jachin Bhasme , J.J. Fiasson and Chris Gillis told TechCrunch in an audience last December . For model , Leonardo.ai ’s Live Canvas feature film enable users to enter a school text prompt and then make a quick sketch of what they want the end result to look like . As the exploiter sketches , Leonardo.ai creates a photorealistic range of a function base on both textbook and sketch command prompt in real time .
It ’s ill-defined how Leonardo.ai trains its in - house generative example , like its flagship model Phoenix . It ’s an important interrogative sentence to ask about any procreative AI service , gift the legal ramifications of education models on copyrighted content sans permission . Leonardo.ai ’s public relations kept it shadowy when we asked for clarification , saying only that the models are trained on “ licensed , synthetic and publicly available / open germ data . ”
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Canva itself has been relatively supportive of creators in take over productive AI , committing $ 200 million over the next several years to pay creators who consent to having their content used to direct the company ’s AI models .
Doubling down on AI for growth
Leonardo.ai has over 19 million read users , and its tools have been used to create more than a billion images .
Adams say Leonardo.ai will help lead to Canva ’s Magic Studio generative AI suite . The troupe had raised over $ 38.8 million in capital from backer include Smash Capital , Blackbird , Side Stage Ventures , TIRTA Ventures , Gaorong Capital and Samsung Next prior to the acquisition .
“ We ’ll look to integrate Leonardo ’s applied science into Magic Studio , which we ’re very excited about , ” Adams say . “ This might include micturate existing Magic Studio tools more powerful , or introducing raw generative AI capableness power by Leonardo ’s model straight off in Canva . It ’s early day , and we ’ll be coming together right away to determine how this looks , but we ’re excited to expand what our users are able to do with AI on Canva . ”
Canva has been gift in generative AI tool since December 2022 , beginning with the copywriting assistantMagic Write . But , eyeing an initial offering , it has ramp up its development efforts in recent months through both internal projects and skill . In February 2021 , Canva acquiredKaleido , which make a drag - and - drop background removal service of process for images and video . Adams order Kaleido laid the foundation for much of Canva ’s more recent generative AI efforts .
Leonardo.ai is Canva ’s eighth accomplishment overall and its second attainment this year , do three months after it bought U.K. design companyAffinityfor an estimated $ 380 million . Canva also owns presentations startup Zeetings , free stock photography sit Pixabay and Pexels , and Czech - based production mockup app Smartmockups .
Canva , constitute in 2012 , has raise more than $ 560 million ( most late at a $ 26 billion evaluation ) , and is pulling in close to $ 2 billion in revenue . It feature over 180 million monthly substance abuser worldwide .
“ It ’s a significant but natural next stride in our drive to progress the most potent , all - in - one optical AI offering , ” Adams said . “ We ’ve placed a strong focus on build an AI - power workflow that includes generative result like image and design generation . Pairing that Canva workflow with new generative capabilities will help us continue to set our AI offering apart , and deliver new possibilities for the growing base of teams and enterprises using Canva . ”
