In November 2026, Canva announced a large-scale restructuring affecting 1,271 employees, or 22% of its workforce. The affected group includes people facing role changes, location moves, and departures, but the company has not said how many will actually lose their jobs. It is important to note that not all 1,271 people are being laid off.
As part of the restructuring, Canva will merge its product, growth, and foundations teams into a single product development organization and consolidate narrowly specialized roles into broader ones. It also plans to concentrate key hubs, including product teams, in Sydney. CEO Melanie Perkins explained that growth has slowed for the first time in 10 years. Beyond adjusting headcount, the company aims to reduce the cross-team handoffs and coordination that have increased as the organization has grown, and to make product development more efficient.
Restructuring Affects 1,271 People; Number of Layoffs Not Disclosed
According to Canva's official statement, the 1,271 affected employees include those facing role changes, location moves, and departures. However, the company has not disclosed how many people fall into each category, nor a breakdown by job function or country. It is also unclear whether some employees are affected by more than one change. The 22% figure therefore describes the scope of the restructuring's impact and cannot be treated as a headcount reduction rate.
| Measure | What is changing | What has not been disclosed |
|---|---|---|
| Reorganization of teams and roles | Merging the product, growth, and foundations teams and consolidating specialized roles into broader ones | Number of employees whose roles change; breakdown by job function |
| Hub consolidation | More teams, including product teams, will be based primarily in Sydney | Number of employees relocating; breakdown by country |
| Departures | Some employees will leave the company as part of the restructuring | Number of layoffs; breakdown by country and job function |
Fewer Cross-Team Handoffs for More Efficient Product Development
Canva's main focus in this restructuring is reducing the coordination burden between teams in product development. According to the company, under the previous structure, even improving a single feature involved handoffs and coordination among the product, growth, and foundations teams. As the organization grew, areas of expertise and responsibilities became more fragmented, adding to the burden of getting development done.
In response, Canva will combine the three teams into one product development organization and streamline overlapping responsibilities and layers of management. On the role side, it plans to merge narrowly specialized positions into broader ones, reducing the number of times work is handed off between people. Rather than simply redrawing the org chart, the company aims to review the scope of each employee's responsibilities and move to a structure that makes product development easier.
Canva is also revisiting its location strategy, increasing the number of teams, including product teams, based primarily in Sydney. At the same time, it says it will continue to invest in regions where proximity to customers and markets matters. The policy is not a uniform reduction or withdrawal from locations around the world. That said, the slowdown in growth and the coordination burden between teams are, for now, Canva's own explanation, and whether the restructuring actually improves development speed will need to be judged by future results.
Canva's In-House Image-Generation AI "Craft" and the Organizational Merger
One useful reference for considering how the restructuring may affect product development is Canva's in-house image-generation AI, "Craft." According to Canva's official newsroom, on October 22, 2026, the company announced Craft as the first image-generation foundation model developed in-house by its AI research organization.
According to the official Craft announcement, image generation is divided into two broad stages: first planning the composition, the relationships between elements, text, and so on, and then generating the image. The company also envisions integration with "Magic Layers," which converts generated images into editable elements.
Features like these require coordinating multiple steps: AI model research and development, image generation, and post-generation editing. What matters to users is not only the ability to generate images but also being able to edit the results as they are and carry them into their design work. As a result, how well features work together affects usability alongside the performance of each individual feature. Canva's goal of reducing cross-team handoffs may therefore be relevant to product development that spans multiple technical areas like this.
However, Canva has not said that it carried out the restructuring for the purpose of developing Craft. Nor has it presented concrete measurements of faster development or cost savings from the organizational merger. How much effect it will have on improving AI features will have to be judged through future product releases.
Changes to Office Attendance and Support for Departing Employees
Alongside the restructuring, Canva is also revisiting its working arrangements. From January 2027, it plans to ask most hybrid workers to be in the office two to three days a week, depending on local circumstances.
Departing employees will receive at least six months of pay regardless of location, including statutory entitlements. Healthcare coverage will be extended for 12 months, but only in countries where the company already provides it. The employee assistance program "Canva Care" will also be available to departing employees and their families for 12 months.
On equity compensation, Canva will remove the vesting cliff for employees with less than one year of tenure. Departing employees can keep their work MacBooks and will also receive support for finding new jobs.
Canva is also setting up the "Canva Collective Fund" to support people who start independent ventures or community initiatives after leaving. The program offers US$10,000 grants, and Canva says it will not seek ownership or equity in the recipients' ventures. The deadline to register interest is December 14, 2026, but the grants are not paid unconditionally to all departing employees.
Because the restructuring spans 37 countries, specific procedures and timing will vary according to each country's rules. Canva has also said it will hold an all-hands meeting on November 10, followed by team-level meetings starting the next day, November 11.
The key question going forward is how the restructuring changes actual product development. If handoffs and coordination decline, and improvements that cut across research and development, image generation, and editing reach users, that would be evidence the merger has paid off. It will be necessary to keep watching not only the scale of the impact on employees but also the post-restructuring development structure and how the products evolve.