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By Ben Shimkus
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Canva is laying off or changing responsibilities for nearly 1,300 employees. Alisha Jucevic/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Canva has announced a major restructuring.
On Tuesday, the design software company's CEO, Melanie Perkins, published a memo sent to employees titled "An important update on our team." In it, she said that 1,271 employees, roughly 22% of the workforce, will be affected by a reorganization. Some employees will see their roles change or relocate, she said, while others will lose their jobs.
It comes after Canva lowered its growth expectations. In August, the company changed its 2026 revenue growth forecast from 30% to 20%. In Tuesday's memo, Perkins said that this year has been the company's "hardest year yet" and that "growth has slowed for the first time in a decade."
Canva has also faced fresh competition from AI tools, including OpenAI's and Google's image-generating models.
Read the memo:
Hi everyone,Today, I have some profoundly difficult news to share.After months of thinking through how to set Canva up for the next chapter, we have made the incredibly hard decision to make significant changes to how we're organised, where some of our teams are based, and the roles and skills we need for the future.This means 1,271 people, or 22% of Canva, will be impacted. 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.This is without doubt the hardest moment in our thirteen-year history. Behind every decision is someone we care deeply about, and I know the consequences will be very real for those directly affected, their families, friends and teammates.I'm deeply sorry for the pain and disruption this will cause for everyone affected. While nothing can make this news easier, we will do everything we possibly can to support everyone affected. I want to explain as openly as I can why we're making these changes, how we reached these decisions, and, most importantly, how we will care for the people affected today.Why we're making these changesWe've spoken a lot about how quickly the world is changing. New technology is transforming what people can create, how they create it, and what they expect from the products they use.Over the past thirteen years, we've turned a dream in a pitch deck into a platform used by hundreds of millions of people. None of it would have been possible without the talent, imagination and care of every single person who has been part of this journey. Yet success in our first chapter doesn't guarantee success in the next. This has been our hardest year yet, and as we shared earlier this year, our growth has slowed for the first time in a decade.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.It also means making some of the hardest decisions we've ever faced, including saying goodbye to people who have helped make Canva what it is today. For that, I am deeply sorry.What we're changingWe're making three changes to bring more of what has made Canva special back into how we work.#1. We're simplifying how we come together to build CanvaAs we've grown, more of our work has become organised around team structures and narrow areas of ownership. Improving one part of our product often requires navigating between Product, Growth and Platform, with more handovers and coordination than necessary. This has made it harder to take ownership of bigger problems and to build a deeply unified product for our community. We've tried many ways to solve this over the years, but it's become clear we need to revisit our underlying structure.To do that, we're bringing Product, Growth and Platform together into one Product Org and changing the way we work to provide clearer ownership, greater autonomy and flexibility to tackle our most important goals. We want to get back to spending more time building, and less time navigating how work gets done.#2. We're reducing subspecialisation and collapsing layers to broaden ownershipOver time, we've divided work across more and more subspecialties and teams. While this has helped us build valuable expertise, it's also fragmented ownership and made it harder to see the full picture, with different teams responsible for many pieces of the same work.We're reducing this fragmentation and incorporating narrower subspecialties into broader roles so teams have more ownership of goals from start to finish. We're also simplifying layers, consolidating overlapping responsibilities, and ensuring teams have the right mix of skills and experience for the chapter ahead.#3. We're co-locating closely connected teams and increasing in-person collaborationWorking across countries has brought enormous benefits and talent, but it's also made it harder to bring the right people together to solve complex problems. We'll continue investing in our global team, particularly where being close to our community, customers and markets matters most.At the same time, Sydney will become the primary home for more of our product teams, as well as roles in other Specialties where shared context and close collaboration are especially important. We know relocating is a big decision for those being asked to consider it, and we're committed to making the process as smooth as possible with comprehensive support.We also want to bring more teams together in person to build trust, learn from one another and strengthen the connections that make Canva special. From January, we expect most Hybrid Canvanauts to spend around 2 to 3 days in the office each week, depending on what makes sense in your area.How we approached these decisionsI know many of you will have questions about how we made these decisions. We began with one question: what does Canva need to do to succeed in the chapter ahead?We started with our mission and future goals, then considered the structures, skills and locations needed to achieve them. Only then did we look at what this would mean for individual roles. While understanding how we reached these decisions won't make them any less painful, I want to emphasise that they are not a reflection of the talent, care and dedication people have brought to Canva, their skills or the enormous contributions they've made along the way.Supporting those who are leavingWe know everyone's circumstances are different, and while nothing can make today's news easy, we've tried to reflect those different needs in the financial, career and wellbeing support we're providing to everyone affected:Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know
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Ben Shimkus is a reporter for the Business News desk. He writes about cars, transportation, retail, and jobs. Ben's reporting has appeared in Rolling Stone, The Verge, Automotive News, USA Today, AutoBody News, LGBTQ Nation, TopSpeed, and Out Magazine. He's also held staff writing positions at The U.S. Sun and the Daily Mail. He graduated from NYU with a Master's in journalism in 2024. Email Ben at bshimkus@insider.com or message him privately on Signal at bshimkus.41.