Canva acquires Doohly

Canva has acquired Melbourne-based adtech firm Doohly for AU$30 million (US$20.8 million), marking its expansion into the digital out-of-home (DooH) advertising sector. This acquisition underscores Canva's strategy to integrate more deeply across the creative and advertising technology value chains.

Founded six years ago, Doohly specializes in managing the entire workflow for DooH campaigns, from creation to deployment and impact measurement. The company maintains partnerships with regional operators in Australia and New Zealand, such as Work Place Media and Lumo Digital, and is also active in the UK market with clients like Abode. Doohly's platform, while a competitor to Broadsign, integrates with Broadsign's SSP, Place Exchange. Canva, with its expansive user base of 260 million monthly active users, identified Doohly as a strategic addition following a technical integration that allowed Canva's design tools to be used directly within Doohly’s CMS.

For Canva, this acquisition—the sixth in two years—demonstrates its ambition to extend beyond content creation into content distribution and targeted advertising. Having achieved a 35% growth in 2025 and projected revenues of US$3.5 billion, Canva seeks to leverage Doohly’s adtech capabilities to diversify its operational scope and harness the growing investor interest in the DooH and retail media sectors.

The deal positions Canva against other competitors in the adtech space, including Broadsign. By moving into DooH, Canva expands its reach into a sector poised for growth amid increasing digitization of advertising spaces. The acquisition could also strengthen Canva’s market presence as it competes with integrated creative platforms looking to provide comprehensive advertising solutions.

Looking forward, Canva is reportedly eyeing a public listing in the U.S. by late 2026. The integration of Doohly's offerings into Canva’s platform will be a key milestone to watch, as it may shape Canva’s valuation and attractiveness to public market investors. Doohly's founders, Sean Law and Tom Sawkins, secured a significant outcome with the acquisition, having raised a modest AU$500,000 pre-seed round in 2024.