Canva has announced a major restructure that will affect 1,271 roles. That is 22 per cent of the design company’s global workforce, in the first redundancy round of its 13 year history. Co-founder and chief executive Melanie Perkins told staff about the cuts on 4 November.
Perkins attributed the decision to a difficult year. Growth at the company slowed this year for the first time in a decade, prompting the shake up. She described it as the company’s hardest year yet. In her letter to staff, she called it the hardest moment in the company’s thirteen-year history. She also said she had concluded that small changes would not be enough.
Canva reportedly downgraded its revenue growth forecast by a third, to 20 percent this year, after sales grew 38 percent in 2025 and 45 percent the year before. Its largest venture capital backer, Blackbird, cut its valuation of the company by 17 percent in August. Blackbird, which owns about 10 percent of Canva, said it backed the decision.
The restructure goes beyond headcount. The Product, Growth and Platform teams are being combined into one product organization, and Sydney becomes the primary home for more product teams. Some staff will lose their roles while others are asked to relocate to centralized hubs. Information Age reported that the rise of AI tools is also changing the skills Canva requires and how it structures its teams.
Canva has outlined support for those affected. Impacted staff will receive at least six months’ salary, inclusive of entitlements, and a year of continued healthcare coverage. The package also removes the one year equity vesting cliff, and a new Canva Collective Fund will let departing staff apply for US$10,000 grants to start their own ventures.
The announcement follows smaller reductions. In 2025, 10 of Canva’s 12 technical writers lost their jobs, and earlier this year it cut 32 roles in its finance division. For Canva, the restructure marks a shift from a company that long described itself as well insulated from tech sector layoffs to one resetting its structure after slowing growth. Whether the changes restore momentum will depend on how the merged teams perform and how the company adapts its product strategy in a market increasingly shaped by AI.
