Ortto

Ortto is a customer data platform that provides marketing automation, analytics, and AI-powered tools designed to unify customer data and orchestrate personalized customer journeys. The company was originally founded as Bislr in 2011 by brothers Chris and Mike Sharkey. The founders, who are also known for creating the Australian holiday rental site Stayz, which was later acquired by Fairfax Media, developed the platform to make multi-channel marketing automation simple and accessible. The company rebranded from Bislr to Autopilot in 2013, coinciding with a $3.5 million Series A round led by Southern Cross Venture Partners with participation from Tim Draper and Terry Garnett. In May 2014, the company raised a $10 million Series B led by Rembrandt Venture Partners, with participation from Southern Cross, Blackbird Ventures, and Tim Draper. A $7 million strategic investment followed in July 2015, led by Salesforce Ventures and Stage One Capital. In June 2017, the company raised $12 million led by Blackbird Ventures, bringing total funding to approximately $34 million. In 2018, the founders returned to Australia to rebuild the platform from the ground up, aiming to solve data-related challenges for marketers. This led to the creation of a new, unified platform that combines a customer data platform (CDP), messaging, and analytics. The company rebranded from Autopilot to Ortto in March 2022 to better reflect the platform's evolved capabilities beyond its original visual journey builder. In April 2026, both Ortto and Simtheory, another company founded by the Sharkey brothers, were acquired by Canva to enhance its AI and marketing technology offerings. The Sharkey brothers joined Canva in leadership roles following the acquisition. Ortto's business model is based on a subscription service with several pricing tiers, including Starter, Professional, and Enterprise plans, which are priced based on the number of contacts and included features. The platform serves a global customer base of over 11,000 businesses across various sectors, including SaaS, e-commerce, and technology, by enabling them to connect siloed data sources for a complete view of their customers. It allows marketing teams to segment audiences based on demographic, behavioral, and transactional data to create and automate campaigns across channels like email, SMS, push notifications, and in-app messages. Key features include a visual journey builder, a no-code customer data platform, real-time reporting dashboards, lead scoring, A/B testing, and AI-powered tools for content optimization and predictive insights. Keywords: customer data platform, marketing automation, journey builder, omnichannel marketing, customer engagement, data unification, lead nurturing, analytics, AI marketing, personalization, lead scoring, email marketing, SMS marketing, customer lifecycle management, SaaS, e-commerce marketing, Bislr, Autopilot, Canva acquisition, Chris Sharkey, Mike Sharkey.