Canva cuts or relocates 1,271 jobs in 22% restructure of its workforce

Canva is cutting or relocating 1,271 jobs — 22% of its global workforce — in a restructure its chief executive calls "without doubt the hardest moment in our thirteen-year history." Melanie Perkins broke the news to staff in an email on Wednesday, confirming that a company long touted as Australia's next blockbuster Nasdaq listing is now part of the same wave of technology layoffs that has hit Atlassian, Block and WiseTech Global.

The scale is stark for a company that has spent a decade building a reputation as one of Australia's most successful startups. The restructure affects 1,271 people, according to the company, and Perkins did not specify the exact number of outright job losses versus relocations.

What did Melanie Perkins tell staff?

Perkins framed the changes as a drive to simplify how Canva operates. The company says it is focusing on "collapsing layers" and bringing "more teams together in person" at centralised hubs.

"For some people, this will mean changes to their roles or being asked to relocate to centralised hubs," Perkins wrote in the email to staff. "Sadly, it will also mean saying goodbye to teammates and friends who have helped build Canva into what it is today."

She acknowledged the human cost of the shift toward in-person work. "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," Perkins said.

The email lands thirteen years into Canva's history. That the CEO describes this week as the company's hardest moment says something about how sharply the operating environment for software businesses has changed, even for a platform that helped define the consumer design category.

What are departing employees getting?

Canva has attached an unusually generous severance package to the cuts. The terms include:

• At least six months of salary for those leaving the company.
• Healthcare coverage retained for a further 12 months, in countries where workers receive that benefit.
• The option to keep their laptops.
• US$10,000 (A$14,000) grants available to departing staff who want to start their own ventures.

The startup grants stand out. Most tech layoffs come with severance and little else, and a cash grant explicitly designed to spin departing employees into founders signals that Canva wants to part on good terms with people it describes as having "helped build Canva into what it is today."

Why does this matter beyond Canva?

The restructure mirrors a broader pattern across the technology sector. Established software companies are fighting to stay competitive against cheaper artificial intelligence disrupters while aggressively embedding AI tools into their own products, and many have responded by cutting staff or overhauling their business models.

The Australian tech sector alone illustrates the trend. Atlassian, the software company, has made 1,600 redundancies. Block, the owner of Afterpay, has cut jobs. WiseTech Global, another software company, has also shed staff. Canva now joins that list, and its 22% workforce reduction ranks among the largest single restructures in the group.

There is a running debate in the industry about whether AI poses an existential threat to traditional software companies. The term "SaaS-pocalypse" describes the idea that AI becomes so advanced that specialised software becomes redundant. Established players have publicly rejected that framing, but their actions — restructures, redundancies and rapid AI adoption — suggest they are not ignoring the pressure either.

Is AI the reason for the cuts?

Here Canva breaks from its peers in one notable way. Atlassian, Block and WiseTech have all tied restructuring announcements to the shifting technology landscape. Canva did not mention AI at all in its restructure announcement.

That silence leaves room for interpretation. The company's stated rationale — collapsing layers and bringing teams together in person — points to organisational design rather than a direct response to AI competition. But the timing is hard to separate from the sector-wide context in which cheaper AI tools are pressing on software companies' pricing and product assumptions, and Canva itself has been aggressively embedding AI features into its design platform alongside its peers.

For a company valued as a candidate for a blockbuster Nasdaq listing, the optics of cutting 22% of staff while holding a potential IPO in reserve will draw scrutiny from investors watching how software businesses position themselves for the AI era.

What comes next?

The immediate question is how many of the 1,271 affected roles end in departures versus relocations, a figure Canva has not disclosed. Employees asked to move to centralised hubs now face what Perkins herself calls "a big decision," and the company has promised comprehensive support through the process.

The longer arc matters more. Canva has spent thirteen years growing from an Australian startup into a global design platform, and this week's cuts mark the sharpest contraction in its history. Whether the flatter, more in-person structure that Perkins describes produces a leaner company ready for a public listing — or simply the latest entry in the tech sector's AI-era restructuring wave — will define Canva's next chapter.