Canva to cut more than 1000 jobs in ‘hardest moment’ of its history

Canva will cut more than 1000 jobs in a major restructure in response to slowing growth at the graphic design giant.

Co-founder and chief executive Melanie Perkins told staff on Wednesday the Sydney design software maker needed to “refound Canva” and return to small, empowered teams after its growth slowed this year for the first time in a decade. The shake-up will affect 1271 jobs, or 22 per cent of its workforce, with some staff members to lose their roles and others asked to relocate to centralised hubs.

“This is without doubt the hardest moment in our thirteen-year history,” she wrote.

“After exploring a wide range of alternatives, I’ve come to the difficult conclusion that small changes won’t be enough. 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.”

Canva will merge its product, growth and platform teams into a single product organisation and cut management layers. Sydney will become the primary home for more product teams, and hybrid staff will be expected in the office two to three days a week from January.

Founded in 2013 by Perkins, her now-husband Cliff Obrecht and Cameron Adams, Canva makes online design software used by more than 265 million people a month to make everything from school posters and birthday invitations to work presentations and social media posts.

‘This is without doubt the hardest moment in our thirteen-year history.’

Canva CEO Melanie Perkins

The company has workers in 37 countries, and Perkins said the timing of conversations with affected employees would vary to meet local requirements. Those leaving will keep access to the company’s Slack and Gmail until the end of the week.

Perkins did not directly link the cuts to the rise of artificial intelligence, though she wrote that new technology was transforming what people create and what they expect from the products they use.

The shake-up comes as investor fears that AI will undercut software businesses have hammered design companies. Shares in rival Figma have plunged 44 per cent this year despite strong revenue growth.

This is Canva’s first-ever company-wide redundancy round, but it has made smaller cuts before. In 2025, 10 of its 12 technical writers lost their jobs; earlier this year, it cut 32 jobs in its finance division.

The restructure comes amid a torrid year for the local tech sector. Atlassian culled 1600 jobs in March, the same month that WiseTech Global announced it would slash 2000 jobs, nearly a third of its workforce. The very same day, the Commonwealth Bank confirmed 300 job cuts, with technology workers bearing the brunt of the cuts.

With the global AI headwinds for software makers, Blackbird, Canva’s biggest venture capital backer, cut its valuation of the company by 17 per cent to $US34.9 billion ($50.1 billion) in August, down from its $US42 billion price tag in a share sale that Canva arranged last year. Another venture capital investor, Airtree, followed suit.

Canva itself slashed its own valuation of its business to $US31 billion as it downgraded its revenue forecast by a third to just 20 per cent this year. Sales grew 38 per cent in 2025 and 45 per cent the year before. It also delayed the rollout of its biggest AI-led software update because the cost of running AI for its more than 200 million free users was eating into its profits.

“Historically, the cost to create a design cost us essentially nothing,” Obrecht said in August. “The cost of goods to serve a user has gone from cents per month to many, many more cents.”

Canva had long been seen as a candidate for a sharemarket float, which would let staff and early investors cash in their stakes. Instead, it has run private share sales in each year from 2022 to 2025, and an IPO once expected for 2027 has reportedly been shelved. Canva has said it will list when it makes sense, and that with more than $US1.5 billion in the bank, it is in no rush.

The wait is weighing on its backers, however. In August, Airtree asked its investors to extend the life of its first fund, raised in 2014, to July 2028 in the hope that Canva floats or offers another exit before then. Blackbird, which owns about 10 per cent of Canva, has said it still plans to hold on to its shares until a float. Most of Canva’s staff also hold shares in the company.

A Blackbird spokeswoman said the firm backed Canva’s move to downsize the business.

“Decisions like this are never easy, but we back Canva’s decision to make the changes needed to set the company up for its next chapter,” the spokeswoman said. “We’ve backed Canva since the very beginning, and we remain optimistic about its future and long-term potential.”

Departing staff will receive at least six months’ salary, 12 months of healthcare where Canva provides it, and they can keep their work MacBooks. They can also apply for $US10,000 grants to start their own ventures.

Perkins will address staff at a company-wide meeting on November 10.

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David Swan is the technology editor for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. He was previously technology editor for The Australian newspaper.Connect via X or email.