Canva says its reorganization will affect 1,271 staff via role changes, relocations and job cuts

Canva said 1,271 employees, or 22% of its staff, will be affected by a reorganization that includes role changes, relocations and job cuts, according to a memo from co-founder and CEO Melanie Perkins posted on the company’s website on Tuesday, Nov. 3. The memo does not say how many of the 1,271 will leave the company, so the 22% figure is not a layoff count.

“For some people, this will mean changes to their roles or being asked to relocate to centralised hubs. Sadly, it will also mean saying goodbye to teammates and friends who have helped build Canva into what it is today,” Perkins wrote. Bloomberg and the BBC also described the figure as covering people who will lose their jobs, change roles or relocate.

Perkins called it “without doubt the hardest moment in our thirteen-year history.” She wrote that “our growth has slowed for the first time in a decade” and that “New technology is transforming what people can create, how they create it, and what they expect from the products they use.”

The memo does not cite AI costs. The BBC, without naming its sources, said Canva’s value had reportedly fallen over the past year amid concerns about AI’s impact on its business and the cost of building the technology into its platforms, and that Canva reportedly cut its own internal valuation amid soaring AI expenses. TechCrunch reported that Canva cut its 2026 revenue growth forecast to 20% from 30% to address ballooning AI costs; Business Insider said the forecast change came in August. TechCrunch also reported that Canva faces growing competition from AI startups and general-purpose chatbots such as ChatGPT and Gemini, whose image tools let people put together posters and presentations. OpenAI updated ChatGPT Images in September.

Canva has been building its own models. In October it introduced Craft, which it called its first image generation model, developed and trained by Canva Research and available in Canva and through its public API. Canva said two upcoming faster variants are designed to generate images “at a fraction of the cost of leading frontier models.”

The memo says Canva will bring its Product, Growth and Platform groups into one Product Org, reduce subspecialisation and layers, and make Sydney the primary home for more product teams. From January, most hybrid staff are expected in the office about two to three days a week.

Departing employees will receive at least six months of salary, inclusive of statutory entitlements, regardless of location, 12 months of continued healthcare where Canva already provides it, and access to US$10,000 grants for those starting their own ventures, the memo says. Canva has staff in 37 countries, the BBC reported.

Canva says its reorganization will affect 1,271 staff via role changes, relocations and job cuts

Sources