Canva restructures 22% of its workforce, 1,271 roles, as growth slows for the first time in a decade
What happened? Canva is restructuring in a way that affects 1,271 people, about 22% of its workforce. In a memo to staff on Wednesday 4 November (Sydney time), co-founder and CEO Melanie Perkins said some employees will have their roles changed or be asked to relocate to central hubs, and others will lose their jobs. She called it "the hardest moment in our thirteen-year history".
Why now? Perkins told staff that 2026 has been Canva's "hardest year yet" and that growth has slowed for the first time in a decade. Business Insider reports that in August the company cut its 2026 revenue growth forecast from 30% to 20%. Perkins framed the changes as a need to "refound Canva" around small, empowered teams with fewer handovers and layers.
What changes: Canva will merge its Product, Growth and Platform teams into one product organisation and remove management layers. Sydney becomes the primary home for more product teams, and from January most hybrid staff will be expected in the office two to three days a week. The ABC reports the cuts are not about replacing people with AI, but about setting the company up to build AI products.
For those leaving: Everyone affected gets at least six months' salary, including statutory entitlements, wherever they are based. Canva is also removing the one-year vesting cliff for people who joined in the past year, so recent hires keep their equity. Departing staff get 12 months of continued healthcare where Canva already provides it, 12 months of its employee assistance programme Canva Care, extended to family members, one-on-one career coaching, interview preparation and a year of LinkedIn Premium, with part of Canva's talent acquisition team helping with CVs and interview practice. They can keep their Canva MacBooks "as we know not everyone has a personal laptop", and can join an opt-in alumni talent directory that Canva says it will share with investors, partners and industry contacts.
A fund for founders: A new Canva Collective Fund offers US$10,000 grants to departing staff who want to start a business or a community project, with Canva taking no ownership or equity. Applications close on 14 December. The package drew wide praise online: one post summarising it passed 1.5 million views and 37,000 likes within hours, and Pitch and Wunderlist founder Christian Reber called it "extremely generous".
The signal: Canva is one of the world's most valuable private software companies and a long-time IPO candidate. A cut of this size at a company that was growing fast until this year is a sharp sign of how much pressure AI is putting on established software businesses to reorganise.
Read more: The Next Web, Livemint, Shweta Kukreja (X), Sydney Morning Herald, Business Insider (full memo), ABC News, Capital Brief, Forbes Australia
Image: Canva co-founders Cameron Adams, Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht at Canva Create. Credit: Canva / Forbes Australia
