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Canva Has Its Work Cut Out for It After Adobe’s Acquisition of Figma

After posing a serious threat to Adobe’s longtime design dominance, Figma is soon to become consumed by its larger competitor. The five-year-old Figma is being acquired by Adobe in a deal worth $20 billion, leaving the digital design software landscape with plenty of open space for Canva. The Australian startup has already grown into a unicorn thanks to its user-friendly, web-based design platform that has won over 75 million users — and at least 5 million paid subscribers.

Unlike Figma, Canva’s platform is in direct competition with Adobe’s Photoshop, the company’s standard-bearing graphic design software. The company’s leadership seems unafraid of facing Adobe head-on, incorporating PDF editing — one of Adobe’s creations — into its simple web interface. It has also released its own word processing product and enhanced collaboration tools, placing it in the same arena as Microsoft and Google.

However, Canva is still missing some significant pieces that preclude it from posing a serious threat to the big tech businesses dominating the office software market, such as email and video conferencing, which are crucial tools for modern offices. But with its popularity, and the audacity of its Australian brain trust, Canva can’t be overlooked any longer.