Canva Reshapes Workforce, Cutting 1,271 Roles After Growth Slows

Canva is reorganising 1,271 positions, representing 22% of its staff worldwide. The moves comprise job losses, reassignments for certain employees, and transfers to central offices.

On Wednesday, co-founder and chief executive Melanie Perkins informed employees of the Canva restructure in a memo. She did not disclose how many of the affected workers will be let go.

Canva Layoffs and Relocations Affect 1,271 Positions

Perkins stated that Canva experienced its first deceleration in expansion over a decade. She determined that minor changes would not suffice to address the issue.

“To set ourselves up for the next decade, we need to refound Canva, getting back to our roots of small, empowered teams with the freedom to make decisions, take ownership and focus on what matters most for our community,” she said.

As part of that plan:

• Product, Growth and Platform will be consolidated into one product organisation.
• Canva will also reduce management layers and merge specialised roles into broader functions.
• Sydney will serve as the primary hub for additional product teams.

The memo credits newer technology for shifting what users anticipate, though it never references AI. However, Canva’s August briefing to shareholders explains why the company's growth expectations have declined.

Canva’s Valuation Declined Before the Job Reductions

In August, Perkins informed investors that Canva had lowered its 2026 revenue growth projection from 30% to 20%. She told Fortune that demand for new AI capabilities had significantly exceeded the firm's forecasts.

“Rather than broadly rolling out a product before the underlying economics were ready, we decided to slow the rollout while we rebuilt the architecture, reduced unit costs and strengthened the business model,” she noted.

Meanwhile, Blackbird reduced its valuation of Canva by 17%, bringing it from $42 billion down to $34.9 billion. US asset managers T. Rowe Price and Franklin Templeton also cut the value of their Canva holdings.

Canva's job cuts are part of a broader trend across the software industry. Atlassian cut 1,600 jobs in March, and WiseTech Global announced 2,000 redundancies. In the US, Microsoft and Disney have also trimmed their workforces recently.

Figures from Layoffs.fyi indicate that 344 technology firms have dismissed 139,004 workers during 2026 so far.

Perkins is set to address workers at a company-wide meeting on November 10. Whether the streamlined structure boosts expansion could influence the timeline for a Canva initial public offering, which currently has no fixed date.