Canva Offers $10,000 Grants to Departing Employees in Restructuring

Canva is offering $10,000 grants to departing employees who want to start businesses amid a restructuring affecting 1,271 workers and changing its product teams and office policies.

The affected group represents about 22% of Canva’s workforce, but the figure does not mean all 1,271 employees will lose their jobs. Some will be laid off, others reassigned, and some may be asked to relocate to major offices such as Sydney. Canva has not disclosed the planned layoff count. The company’s broader restructuring plan also changes how its product teams are organized.

Canva CEO Melanie Perkins described 2026 as the company’s toughest year to date and said growth had slowed for the first time in a decade. She pointed to new technology changing what people create and what they expect from products, and said smaller adjustments would not be enough. The letter did not name artificial intelligence as a cause of the restructuring.

Canva plans to bring its Product, Growth and Platform groups into a single product department. It will also combine narrower specialty roles into broader jobs, reduce management layers and consolidate overlapping responsibilities. Sydney will become the main office for more product teams. Starting in January 2027, most hybrid employees are expected to work from an office two or three days a week.

Canva said demand for its newer AI tools exceeded expectations. Since Canva AI 2.0 launched in April, the cost per AI task has fallen nearly 90%, while users have created three times as many designs as with the prior version.

Employees who leave will receive at least six months of pay, including statutory severance. In countries where Canva provides health insurance, coverage will continue for 12 months. Departing employees and their families will also have access to an employee assistance program for a year. Canva is offering career coaching, interview preparation, a year of LinkedIn Premium and access to an alumni talent directory; employees can keep their company-issued MacBooks. The company also removed the one-year service requirement for first equity awards for employees who joined within the past year.

Departing employees who want to start businesses can register for $10,000 grants through the new Canva Collective Fund. Canva will not take equity in those businesses, and registration closes Dec. 14.