Aussie tech giant Canva in M&A mode; swoops on UK player

Street Talk understands Canva has agreed terms to buy Affinity, one of the oldest players in the sector with a history spanning nearly four decades. A deal is expected to be announced as soon as Tuesday.

Canva, led by co-founder and chief executive Melanie Perkins, has been one of the biggest successes for Australia’s venture capital sector.Affinity’s developer Serif Europe is a privately owned Nottingham-based software developer and publisher. It is popular with designers and creative professionals, with an interface resembling Adobe Photoshop. A Canva spokesperson declined to confirm the acquisition when contacted by this column.

Affinity traces its history back to 1987, and now sells subscription-based access to a suite of creative products including Affinity Design, Affinity Photo and Affinity Publisher. Canva, which is valued at $US25.6 billion , is no stranger to bolt-on acquisitions. Over the years, it hasThe acquisition comes as Canva has been courting headlines around the world with a $US1.5 billion secondary share sale, which will help early backers turn their paper profits into actual dollars.Quadrant Private Equity was in talks with local venture capital firm Blackbird Ventures to buy a $100 million-plus stake in Canva. The mooted deal is separate from the ongoing secondary sale.

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