Canva has announced a restructuring affecting 1,271 employees, or 22% of its workforce. The Australian design-software company will cut some jobs, change other roles and ask certain staff to relocate as it reshapes its product operation.
Co-founder and CEO Melanie Perkins told employees about the changes, as first reported by The Register. Perkins said Canva’s growth rate had slowed for the first time in a decade and argued that the company needed smaller teams with greater autonomy and fewer overlapping responsibilities.
Canva will merge product-facing teams
The company plans to fold its product, growth and platform teams into a single Product organization. That structure puts functions that build Canva’s tools, bring in users and support the underlying service under one umbrella, while reducing duplicated work across departments.
Canva also expects some product groups to move closer to its Sydney headquarters. The company has requested relocation from some employees, adding a geographic change to a reorganization that already affects more than one-fifth of its staff.
Workers who leave will receive at least six months of pay and 12 months of health insurance. Canva will also let departing staff keep their company-issued MacBooks and provide job-search support, including a one-year LinkedIn Premium membership.
The changes carry weight for an Adobe competitor
Canva competes with Adobe in digital design software, where product development and user growth directly shape its ability to hold customers and expand its audience. A slowdown after ten years of growth makes the internal overhaul significant for a privately held company that has built its position by making design tools accessible to a broad range of users.
Canva has not specified how many of the 1,271 affected employees will lose their jobs rather than switch roles or relocate. The company also has not set out an implementation timeline or disclosed the total cost of severance and relocation, and its announcement did not identify artificial intelligence or financial pressure as a direct reason for the restructuring.
This article was produced with AI assistance from multi-source reporting and is published under our editorial standards.
