Who Owns Procreate?

Procreate's origins trace back to 2010 when Australian developer James Cuda and co-founder Alanna Kelly founded Savage Interactive in Hobart, Tasmania. The company was established with a specific vision to create professional digital art tools that harnessed the touch-centric capabilities of the recently launched iPad. After approximately 10 months of development, the first version of Procreate was released on the App Store in March 2011, priced at $4.99.

This initial release, while modest by current standards, introduced several innovations including a custom brush engine designed specifically for touch devices and a layer system that brought desktop-caliber digital art capabilities to the iPad. The app quickly gained traction among early iPad adopters and digital artists seeking mobile creation tools.

A pivotal moment in Procreate's history came in June 2013 when Savage Interactive received an Apple Design Award for Procreate, significantly raising the app's profile within the iOS ecosystem. That same year, the company launched Procreate 2, which introduced 64-bit support, 4K canvas resolution, and a completely redesigned interface optimized for iOS 7. This version established many of the core user experience elements that would define the application in subsequent years.

By 2016, Procreate had entered the top ten best-selling iPad apps on the App Store, and by 2018, it had claimed the position of best-selling iPad app overall, a remarkable achievement for a paid professional application in a marketplace dominated by free and gaming apps. This commercial success enabled Savage Interactive to expand its development team while maintaining its independence and focus on artist-centric development.

In 2019, the company released Procreate 5, which introduced its proprietary "Valkyrie" graphics engine, delivering significant performance improvements and new creative capabilities including animation features and the innovative Dual Brush system. This major update reinforced Procreate's position as the leading professional digital art application for iPad.

The COVID-19 pandemic period (2020-2022) saw accelerated adoption of Procreate as remote work and digital creation surged globally. During this time, Savage Interactive maintained its consistent one-time purchase business model, resisting industry trends toward subscription pricing, which further endeared the brand to its core user base of professional and hobbyist artists.

In late 2022, Procreate 5.3 introduced 3D painting capabilities, allowing artists to import and texture 3D models directly within the app. This expansion into 3D workflows represented a significant evolution beyond Procreate's 2D illustration roots and opened new creative possibilities for users.

A major milestone came in April 2024 with the release of Procreate Dreams, the company's second major application focused on 2D animation. This expansion demonstrated Savage Interactive's commitment to growing beyond its flagship product while maintaining its artist-first development philosophy.

In January 2025, Procreate 6 launched with the addition of AI-assisted tools branded as "Creative Intelligence," carefully designed to enhance rather than replace artistic workflows. These features included style-based brush generation, perspective correction, and enhanced masking tools that maintained the company's focus on augmenting rather than automating creativity.

Most recently, in November 2025, Savage Interactive released Procreate Vision, a specialized version of their flagship application optimized for Apple Vision Pro, featuring spatial computing capabilities and gesture-based interaction that reimagined digital art creation in mixed reality environments. This continued the company's tradition of early adoption of Apple's new platforms and technologies, while expanding their product ecosystem to three distinct applications serving different creative needs.