Canva scoops up Leonardo.AI with advice from top globals

Allens and K&L Gates have assisted with Canva’s acquisition of local generative AI content platform provider Leonardo.AI. 

Allens co-lead partner Dominic Anderson described the deal as “a significant milestone for Australia's tech sector, highlighting the depth of talent in the domestic start-up landscape”. The acquisition will bolster Canva’s current suite of visual AI and professional design tools.  

“GenAI is no longer an abstract technology with future application, but an asset with real value today”, Anderson explained. 

Co-lead partner Mark Malinas added that this was an “Australian-first transaction” that “brings together two of Australia's great startup success stories with the promise of transforming the future of work and visual communication”. 

K&L Gates confirmed that Leonardo.AI will keep on developing its platform with support from Canva. Leonardo.AI’s co-founder and CFO Chris Gillis said that the company “operated an accelerated process to complete the transaction in record time”. 

“We've always been focused on democratising creativity through generative AI, and joining forces with Canva was the perfect opportunity for us to accelerate this vision”, Gillis said. 

Working with corporate partners Anderson and Malinas to finalise the acquisition were the following Allens lawyers: 

Corporate 

• Jacqueline Downes (partner)  

• Madeleine Hunt (managing associate)  

• Paby Choi (senior associate)  

• Roy Chowdhury (senior associate)  

• Gilad Harel (associate)  

• Luke Livis (lawyer) 

TMT 

• Jessica Mottau (partner)  

• Valeska Bloch (partner)  

• Emily Cravigan (managing associate)  

• Andy Lee (lawyer) 

• Ryan Balkin (lawyer)  

• Brianna Brown (lawyer)  

• Christine Zhong (law graduate) 

IP 

• Miriam Stiel (partner)  

• Tommy Chen (managing associate)  

• Max Jones (senior associate) 

Employment 

• Veronica Siow (partner)  

• Lawrence Mai (associate)  

• Matt Stark (law graduate) 

Real estate 

• Victoria Holthouse (partner)  

• Tom Wilson (senior associate) 

The following members of Canva’s corporate legal team collaborated with Allens on the deal: 

• Todd Carpenter (CLO)  

• Mary Anne Becking (head of corporate legal)  

• Nell Cantrill (legal counsel)  

• Morgan Schwartz (senior legal counsel) 

The K&L Gates team was led by Sydney corporate partners Simon Leslie and Dan Atkin as well as tax partner Stuart Broadfoot. Supporting the partners were senior associates Jacob Blakely and Leon Fung, and lawyers Adina Darbyshire and Beliz Ozturk.  

K&L Gates also tapped lawyers from its San Francisco and Palo Alto offices to provide input on the US law aspects of the deal, notably with regard to tax structuring.