'Hardest moment': Canva announces 1,271 jobs will be cut or relocated in the Australian design giant's first mass layoff

Canva CEO Melanie Perkins told staff the restructuring — affecting 22% of its global workforce across 37 countries — was driven by slowing growth and soaring AI costs that forced her to "refound" the business. The Australian design firm, which has more than 265 million monthly active users, wrote down its internal valuation by $7.9 billion in August after trimming its 2026 revenue growth target from 30% to 20%.

Product, growth and platform will be merged into a single organisation at Canva, with management layers reduced in what is the company's first redundancy round.

Staff who leave will receive a minimum of six months' salary, 12 months' healthcare, the right to keep their MacBooks, and a $10,000 grant to start their own company.

The restructure comes weeks after rival Squarespace cut 19% of its own staff, signalling a wider AI-driven shake-out across the software sector.