Canva Restructures 1,271 Roles, 22 Percent of Its Staff, as Growth Slows for the First Time in a Decade

Canva, the Sydney company whose drag-and-drop design tools are used by hundreds of millions of people, told staff this week that 1,271 of them, about 22 percent of the workforce, will lose their jobs, change roles or move to central hubs. Co-founder and chief executive Melanie Perkins called it the company's hardest year yet and said growth had slowed for the first time in a decade, TechCrunch reported on Wednesday.

The announcement, first reported by Bloomberg on Tuesday, is not a straightforward layoff. Canva has not said how many of the 1,271 roles are being eliminated outright, and Perkins framed the exercise as a rebuild of the company's structure rather than a cost cut alone. But the memo's tone, and the numbers behind it, mark the end of a long run in which Canva was the Australian tech success story that did not stumble.

What is changing at Canva?

The product, growth and platform divisions are being merged into one organisation with fewer layers of management, a move Perkins said would reduce friction in communication. The company is also cutting what she called subspecialisation, meaning employees will be asked to take on broader responsibilities, and more product development is moving to Sydney. From next year most hybrid staff will be expected in the office two to three days a week depending on local rules, TheDesk reported. Departing workers get severance, post-employment benefits and job placement support, and are allowed to keep their company MacBooks. An all-staff meeting on 11 November is to set out the longer-term plan.

Why has Canva's growth slowed?

Earlier this year the company cut its revenue growth forecast to about 20 percent from 30 percent, citing rising AI costs, and early investors marked its valuation down to roughly US$35 billion. Canva has been shipping its own models to reduce its reliance on third-party AI providers, but it now competes with general-purpose chatbots whose image generation can produce a poster or a presentation without a design tool at all. The pitch that made Canva, that anyone can design, is exactly the pitch the chatbots now make. Perkins wrote that success in the company's first chapter does not guarantee success in the next.

What does it mean for users and for a listing?

Nothing in the memo suggests the product is being wound back; the reorganisation is meant to ship faster, not less. For the Australian tech sector the symbolism is awkward: the company that defined the country's start-up ambitions has, for the first time, done the thing every other large software company did in 2023 and 2024.

The 11 November meeting will show whether the restructure comes with a new product story to match. Until then, 1,271 people are waiting to learn which of the three outcomes, a new role, a move or an exit, applies to them.