Canva axes 1,271 jobs as CEO calls it the hardest moment in 13 years

Canva is slashing 1,271 jobs — 22 per cent of its workforce — in the biggest restructure of its thirteen-year run. Co-founder and chief executive Melanie Perkins broke the news to staff on Wednesday, telling them the Sydney design giant has to tear itself down and rebuild.

The plan, in Perkins' words, is to 'refound Canva'. The company will fold its product, growth and platform teams into one product organisation and strip out management layers. Sydney becomes the main home for more product teams, and hybrid workers will be expected in the office two to three days a week from January. Some staff will be asked to relocate to centralised hubs.

Perkins didn't soften it. 'This is without doubt the hardest moment in our thirteen-year history,' she wrote, adding that after weighing alternatives she concluded small changes wouldn't cut it. Growth slowed this year for the first time in a decade — the trigger for a reset she framed as a return to small, empowered teams with the freedom to make decisions and take ownership.

The backdrop is brutal for design software. Investor anxiety that AI will gut software businesses has pounded the sector, and Canva's listed rival Figma saw its shares more than halve across 2026 through the end of April, even with revenue growing strongly, according to The Age.

Canva's private backers have been marking it down too. Blackbird, its biggest venture investor, cut its valuation by 17 per cent in August, putting it at $US34.9 billion, while Airtree made the same cut from the $US42 billion set in a 2025 employee share sale. Canva's own internal valuation slid to $US31 billion.

For those leaving, the package is unusually generous: at least six months' salary, twelve months of healthcare where Canva provides it, and their work MacBooks to keep. They can also apply for $US10,000 (about $14,500) grants to launch their own ventures. The next test comes in January, when the leaner Canva shows whether the refounding sticks.