Canva conducts mass layoffs, over 1200 workers potentially impacted

Canva is conducting its first mass layoff, which will potentially impact up to 1271 people. Co-founder and CEO Melanie Perkins announced today that the company will undergo a significant restructuring, with 22 percent of its staff to be affected.

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

Canva’s browser-based design platform of the same name has become a popular tool for businesses, educators, students, and anyone else interested in easily creating visually appealing documents and presentations. Launched in 2013, the Australian company now has teams across 37 countries, and has claimed over 265 million monthly active users.

However, Canva’s growth notably slowed this year, with reports that its monthly active user count was 208 million in July. In August, the design software company revised its revenue growth expectations from 30 percent down to 20 percent — almost half the 38 percent growth it saw last financial year. Canva further wiped $7.9 billion from its own internal valuation later that same month, taking it from $38.9 billion to $31 billion. Two of Canva’s backers similarly reduced their valuations of the company, reducing it by 17 percent from $42 billion to $34.9 billion.

Canva has previously pointed to the cost of AI as a significant factor driving its lowered revenue projections. While Perkins told investors in August that there is strong demand for its AI products, implementing them has been more expensive and taken longer than initially planned. In April, Canva launched Canva AI 2.0, a platform allowing users to create designs using conversational text prompts. Perkins had stated that Canva’s cost per AI task had fallen by 90 percent since Canva AI 2.0’s implementation; however, this apparently wasn’t enough to prevent the company from lowering its revenue growth forecast.

“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,” Perkins wrote to staff. “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.”

In practice, this means that Canva will be consolidating multiple teams and giving broader roles to those with subspecialties. Sydney will now be the primary base for more of Canva’s product teams, with some workers being asked to relocate to the city, while hybrid workers everywhere will be expected to spend two to three days a week in the office from January.

“We started with our mission and future goals, then considered the structures, skills and locations needed to achieve them,” said Perkins, explaining how Canva came to the decision to restructure. “Only then did we look at what this would mean for individual roles.”

Canva co-founders COO Cliff Obrecht, CEO Melanie Perkins, and CPO Cameron Adams.
Credit: Alisha Jucevic / Bloomberg via Getty Images

Employees impacted by Canva’s mass layoff will receive a minimum of six months’ salary and be allowed to keep their work MacBook. Canva is also waiving the one-year vesting cliff for new workers, as well as offering 12 months of access to its employee assistance program and healthcare in relevant countries. Perkins stated that those laid off will be given support to find new roles elsewhere, including one-on-one coaching and a one-year subscription to LinkedIn Premium.

Further, Canva is establishing a Canva Collective Fund to provide $10,000 grants to laid-off workers interested in establishing their own venture. Applications for grants close Dec. 14, with Perkins stating that Canva will not take any ownership or equity in funded projects.

“This is without doubt the hardest moment in our thirteen-year history,” Perkins wrote.

Workers at Canva have been given today off, with further information about the restructuring to be provided at a company all-hands meeting on Nov. 10.