companies

Leonardo.Ai

Sydney-founded AI image and video generation platform for creators; acquired by Canva in July 2024.

Leonardo.Ai was founded in December 2022 in Sydney, Australia, by JJ Fiasson (CEO), Christopher Gillis (CFO), Jachin Bhasme (COO), Peter Runham (CTO), Sami Ede, and Ethan Smith. The platform lets users generate and edit production-quality images and video using its own foundation models (including Phoenix) as well as fine-tuned community models, and grew to over 19 million users within two years of launch (29 million+ by end of 2024). In October 2023 the company raised an approximately A$47 million (~US$31 million) Series A round from investors including Blackbird Ventures, Sierra Ventures, Smash Capital, TIRTA Ventures, Gaorong Capital, and Samsung Next. In July 2024, design platform Canva announced it had acquired Leonardo.Ai — its eighth acquisition and second that year, following the ~US$380 million Affinity acquisition three months earlier. Terms were not disclosed but involved a mix of cash and stock. All of Leonardo.Ai's roughly 120 employees, including its executive team, joined Canva, and the product continues to operate as part of Canva's Magic Studio / Magic Media AI offerings.

Founded

2022

Headquarters

Sydney, Australia

Sector

applications