Technology1 min read

Canva lays off over 1,200 people amid slowing growth

By · Via TechCrunch · Published by Everything Blog

In short

Canva is shedding nearly a quarter of its workforce as rising artificial intelligence costs and increased competition impact business performance. In response to decelerating expansion, the company is merging its product, growth, and platform units to eliminate internal communication barriers. Surviving employees will face broader job responsibilities to curb subspecialisation and must report to physical offices several days each week under a new hybrid framework. Additionally, the company has deployed proprietary AI models to decrease dependencies on costly third-party vendors.

Key points

  • Merging product, growth, and platform teams will force remaining employees to take on bro…: Merging product, growth, and platform teams will force remaining employees to take on broader duties beyond narrow subspecialisations.
  • Staff members are being transitioned to a mandatory hybrid schedule requiring in-person o…: Staff members are being transitioned to a mandatory hybrid schedule requiring in-person office work several days each week.
  • Canva is actively deploying in-house AI models to lessen external reliance and counter im…: Canva is actively deploying in-house AI models to lessen external reliance and counter image-generation alternatives from ChatGPT and Gemini.

Sources checked by our analysis pipeline: 1

Design software maker Canva is cutting 22% of its staff, amounting to 1,271 people, amid a growth slowdown.

The company’s co-founder and CEO, Melanie Perkins, in a note to employees said while Canva has scaled so far, it needs to change to address slowing growth.

“Over the past thirteen years, we’ve turned a dream in a pitch deck into a platform used by hundreds of millions of people. None of it would have been possible without the talent, imagination, and care of every single person who has been part of this journey. Yet success in our first chapter doesn’t guarantee success in the next. 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.

Canva is reshuffling its organizational chart and merging its product, growth and platform teams to reduce communication friction. The company is also reducing “subspecialisation,” which means its employees might be asked to take up more responsibilities. The company is also moving towards hybrid work and asking people to work…

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