Canva acquires UK's Flourish

Perth startup turned multi-billion-dollar business Canva is continuing to pursue global expansion by acquiring London-based data visualisation platform Flourish.

Founded in 2016, Flourish allows users to turn data into visualisations and interactive stories and is estimated to be used by more than 800,000 people internationally.

The business counts the likes of BBC, Sky, Deloitte and Moody’s as some of its users, which it says rely on Flourish to create engaging and digestible data.

Broadly, Canva says the companies share the same missions to turn traditionally complex design tools into simpler, accessible solutions for users, regardless of their design abilities.

“Data storytelling has emerged as an increasingly critical part of visual communication for teams across almost every industry,” Canva co-founder and chief executive Melanie Perkins said.

“Welcoming Flourish to Canva marks the latest step in our mission to empower the world to design.”

Flourish’s team of 44 will join Canva’s rapidly expanding global team while also doubling down on its expansion across the UK and broader Europe.

Canva already has teams based in Austria, the Czech Republic and Germany.

Flourish co-founder and chief executive Duncan Clark said he was excited for the next step in Flourish's journey. 

"By joining forces with Canva, we can bring the power of data storytelling to the world’s leading visual communication platform, embraced by millions of people across the globe," he said. 

The deal comes as Canva records more than 75 million monthly active users, marking an increase of more than 30 million in the past year.

Canva, which was launched in 2013, has gone on to become the world’s most valuable private software company after completing a $US200 million capital raising in September last year.

The Sydney-based company doubled its staff in 2021 to 2,000 and at the time of the raising, expected to double staff again next year.