Canva Acquires Doohly for AU$30 Million, Expanding Into Digital Out-of-Home Advertising

Canva, Australia's most valuable technology company at an estimated $65 billion, acquired digital advertising startup Doohly in a deal that extends the design platform's reach from the screen to the street. The online graphic design platform is said to have paid $30 million for Doohly, an out-of-home content management system provider.

Doohly specialises in software created to manage and deliver advertising on digital billboards and outdoor screens. More precisely, it is an end-to-end programmatic ecosystem for DOOH advertising that digitises manual processes for managing, scheduling, and tracking ad performance in a cloud-based, data-driven content management system. The company operates in the UK, Australia and New Zealand via large format outdoor screens and retail media at sites like KX Pilates, Mobil, Rebel Sport and Liquorland. That means Canva can now manage a client's branding from design to in-store advertising.

The two companies were not strangers before the deal closed. Doohly last year announced a deal with Canva, giving direct access from within the out-of-home player's platform. "This means you no longer need to access multiple sites and download your designs. You can simply create them within our CMS streamlining the entire process," Doohly said.

The acquisition is part of a strategy to power the "entire marketing and content lifecycle, from ideation and creation to deployment, measurement, and optimisation." Canva said it was "excited to welcome Doohly," adding that "they've built a strong platform loved by customers globally, building on our recent acquisitions of MagicBrief and MangoAI." The company added: "We'll have more to share on this later this year."

The Doohly deal comes just a month after the design giant acquired US startup Mango.AI and the UK's Cavalry. This acquisition is Canva's sixth in two years, following on from Affinity and Leonardo in 2024, and MagicBrief last year. Canva co-founder and COO Cliff Obrecht framed the acquisition spree on LinkedIn when announcing the Cavalry and MangoAI deals: "This builds on our acquisition of MagicBrief and accelerates our goal of powering the entire marketing and content lifecycle," bringing Canva "closer to a world where every piece of content automatically improves based on real performance data."

Doohly co-founders Sean Law and Tom Sawkins built the Melbourne startup with an explicitly democratising vision. Law told Startup Daily two years ago: "We wanted to change the way people display ads in the real world, and make it a tool that not only the big guys can use, but a tool for everyone. What the iPhone did to photography we want to do to the DOOH industry."

The move reflects a broader trend of creative platforms acquiring media buying and distribution companies in an effort to streamline workflows and maximise profitable channels. Although Canva is built on accessible, easy-to-use design tools, it is increasingly targeting larger businesses, adding features allowing for campaign execution at scale.

Canva topped $4 billion in annualised revenue last year and is considering going public with a US listing in late 2026. Canva declined to confirm the financial terms of the Doohly deal, though the AU$30 million figure has been widely reported.