Canva acquires Flourish in a push for UK expansion

Purchased for an undisclosed amount, Flourish’s team of 44 will remain in its London office while its new owner ramps up expansion efforts across the region.

The buy will utilise some of Canva’s vast cash pile after it raised $273 million (USD$200 million) in September, giving the Sydney-based company a valuation of $55 billion.

Founded in 2016 by Duncan Clark and Robin Houston, Flourish is used to transform complex data sets into accessible visualisations.

Used by organisations such as the BBC, Sky and Deloitte, the platform’s userbase of 929,527 has created 9.7 million visuals that have been viewed more than 20 billion times.

Flourish visualisations

As a result of the acquisition, two new features have been introduced. The first allows Flourish users to create visuals privately (which was previously a paid feature) and the launch of a new plug-in that permits visualisations to be included in Canva presentations and designs.  

“We’ve seen the rapid increase in data storytelling firsthand,” Canva co-founder Melanie Perkins said in a recent blog post announcing the acquisition.

“From non-profits and health organizations visualizing public health data to businesses and workplaces bringing presentations and reports to life, millions of people are using all kinds of data in their Canva designs.”

The purchase comes as Canva chalks up more than 75 million monthly active users. Of those, 30 million joined the platform in the last 12 months.

In addition to its UK presence, the company also has teams in the European nations of Austria, the Czech Republic and Germany.

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

“We’re incredibly excited to welcome their talented team as we work together to combine their world-leading data visualization technology with the Canva magic our community know and love.”