Canva announced on Wednesday that 1,271 employees ,22% of its global workforce will lose their jobs, have their roles changed or be required to relocate, as the Australian design platform confronts its first growth slowdown in ten years.
In a note posted on the company's website, CEO and co-founder Melanie Perkins described the move as the "hardest moment in our 13-year history" and framed the overhaul as a need to "refound" Canva ahead of its next decade. Perkins said that small changes would be insufficient and that the business needed to shift back to smaller, more empowered teams.
The restructure will merge Canva's Product, Growth and Platform divisions into a single product organisation, reducing what Perkins called narrow subspecialisation. Sydney will become the primary hub for product teams, requiring some staff to relocate from Canva's 37 global offices. From January, most hybrid employees will be expected in the office two to three days a week, a marked shift from a policy that had previously required only two office days per quarter before that requirement was dropped entirely.
Canva pointed to slowing growth and the impact of "new technology" on how people create and use products. The company did not explicitly name AI as a cause of the job cuts, though the announcement follows a reduction in its projected annual revenue-growth rate from 30% to 20% in August, after unexpectedly high costs associated with serving its AI features led it to slow their rollout.
Departing employees will receive at least six months of salary, a year of healthcare coverage and their company MacBook. Canva is also launching a Canva Collective Fund offering grants of up to US$10,000 for affected staff who want to start a new venture. A company-wide meeting is scheduled for 10 November to discuss the changes.
Source : bloomberg
