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Advising Serif Group on sale of Affinity to Canva

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Gateley Legal

We have successfully advised the shareholders of Serif Group, the company behind the Affinity platform, on its acquisition by Canva, Inc.

Established in 1987, Serif is the award winning software development company behind Affinity, a low cost suite of photo editing, graphic design and page layout software including Affinity Designer, Affinity Photo and Affinity Publisher targeted towards professional users of Mac, Windows and iPads. Headquartered in Nottingham, the company employs around 90 people with around 3 million users worldwide.

Canva is an online design and visual communication platform employing over 3,500 people in eight countries. Established in 2013, the Sydney-headquartered company has over 175 million users of its products across 190 countries and in more than 100 languages.

This deal is the latest in a series of strategic European-based acquisitions for Canva as it looks to expand its product offering through diversification.

Gateley Legal corporate partner Mark Rutherford led on the deal, assisted by Matt Hussey, Rachael Mitchison, Joe Girgis, Rosie Butler, Gabriel Weeks and Davis Barwell.

Ashley Hewson, CEO of Affinity, said : “Since the inception of Affinity, our mission has been to empower creatives with tools that unleash their full potential, fostering a community where innovation and artistry flourish. We’ve worked tirelessly to challenge the status quo, delivering professional-grade creative software that is both accessible and affordable. Canva’s commitment to empowering everyone to create aligns perfectly with those values. We couldn't be more excited about becoming part of the Canva family and can’t wait to see what we will achieve together.”

Mark Rutherford added: “The addition of Affinity will perfectly complement Canva’s award winning suite of software and enable it to move into an exciting new space. In doing so it will create a new global creative powerhouse. We were delighted to have advised on the transaction which was completed within a very tight timeframe and wish both partners the very best for the future.”

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