Sydney design company Canva told staff on Wednesday that 1,271 people, or 22% of its workforce, will be affected by a restructure. Some will lose their roles, and others will see their roles change or be asked to relocate to centralised hubs. Sydney will become the primary home for more of its product teams, and most hybrid staff will be expected in the office two to three days a week from January.
Co-founder and chief executive Melanie Perkins set out the changes in an email to staff seen by The Aussie Corporate. Canva also published her note on its newsroom. "This is without doubt the hardest moment in our thirteen-year history," she wrote.
Perkins wrote that "our growth has slowed for the first time in a decade" and that "small changes won't be enough". She wrote "we need to refound Canva, getting back to our roots of small, empowered teams".
What changes
Canva is bringing its product, growth and platform teams together into one product organisation, and it is "simplifying layers, consolidating overlapping responsibilities", according to the email. Capital Brief reported that Perkins cited fragmented ownership, excessive handovers and the difficulty of bringing teams in different places together.
From January Canva expects most hybrid staff "to spend around 2 to 3 days in the office each week", the email says.
What people leaving get
According to the email, everyone leaving will receive "at least six months of salary, inclusive of statutory entitlements, regardless of location". The support also includes
- the one-year vesting cliff removed for those who joined in the past year
- twelve months of continued healthcare coverage in countries where Canva provides it now
- twelve months of Canva Care, its employee assistance program, extended to family members
- career support with one-on-one coaching, interview preparation and a year of LinkedIn Premium
- an opt-in alumni talent directory that Canva will share with its investors, partners and wider industry network
- their Canva MacBook to keep
A person made redundant at Canva told The Aussie Corporate that many people are angry that annual leave is counted inside the six months. The email does not mention annual leave.
Canva is also launching the Canva Collective Fund, with US$10,000 grants for departing staff "who want to start something of their own". People leaving have until 14 December to register their interest, and Canva says "we won't take any ownership or equity in what they create".
Those affected will receive a calendar invite for an individual meeting with a senior leader in their area, the email says. A person at Canva told The Aussie Corporate that staff were told in the email whether their role was affected.
What the email leaves out
The email does not say how many of the 1,271 roles are in Australia, or how many people will lose their jobs and how many will be asked to relocate or change roles. Canva has teams in 37 countries and will follow different local requirements in each, it says.
The valuation
The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Blackbird, Canva's biggest venture backer, cut its valuation of the company by 17% to US$34.9 billion in August, and that Airtree made the same cut from the US$42 billion set in a 2025 employee share sale. The Herald also reported that Canva's own internal valuation fell to US$31 billion. It said investor fears that AI will undercut software businesses have hit design companies, with shares in rival Figma more than halving in 2026 to the end of April.
B&T reported that The Australian Financial Review's Street Talk column said confidential internal data showed Canva's annualised revenue, excluding tax, at about US$3.69 billion near the end of October, around the same as the start of the year. B&T also reported that monthly active users fell about 12 million from a year earlier. In February co-founder Cliff Obrecht told TechCrunch that annual recurring revenue reached US$4 billion by the end of 2025.
How the news broke
On Tuesday Capital Brief reported that two Canva employees said rumours were circulating inside the company about another round of redundancies in November or a possible hiring freeze. That evening a person at Canva told The Aussie Corporate that staff would hear about redundancies on Wednesday morning and that Canva was planning a cut of about 20%, as we reported.
Capital Brief also reported that Canva cut 32 jobs in its finance division in January. In March this year Capital Brief reported that Canva had confirmed it had no plans to lay off staff. In 2025 ten of Canva's 12 technical writers were made redundant, Information Age reported.
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