Canva-Umbau trifft 22 Prozent der Belegschaft & US-Wähler bremsen Rechenzentren

Canva cuts 22 percent of staff as growth slows

Funding and deals

• fal. Offers image, video, audio and 3D models through one API and raised a $1.3bn Series F led by Bessemer at a $16bn valuation.
• Ceconomy. MediaMarkt-Saturn parent Ceconomy was cleared for a €2.2bn takeover by China's JD.com, the first Chinese buyer approved under the foreign subsidies rules.
• Pliant. Berlin fintech for B2B payments and corporate credit cards raised an $80m Series C with Citi Ventures among the investors.
• Marble Cognition. Munich AI startup whose co-workers learn processes from work data raised $3.75m pre-seed from Hardcore Capital and Seedcamp.

Guest interviews

• Felix Rösner, Co-Founder and CEO of Marble Cognition. Rösner says Marble's co-workers learn company processes directly from work data, replacing forward deployed engineers, so AI transformation happens without interviews or whiteboards.

News

• Canva cuts 22 percent of staff. The design platform's biggest restructuring affects 1,271 people, including its Vienna office, with some losing jobs and others moved to central hubs. First slower growth in 10 years, and Blackbird cut the valuation from $42bn to $34.9bn.
• Voters curb data centers after Democratic midterm sweep. Democrats took the Senate and House, and voters in over 30 municipalities across 9 states backed moratoria or restrictions on data centers. AI and chip stocks fell, SoftBank lost 8%, and banks now treat local resistance as credit risk.
• Oracle cancels $7bn Tencent chip deal. The Financial Times reports Oracle ended a five-year contract worth about $7bn that would have given Tencent 100,000 AI chips in Southeast Asia, after US government concerns.
• Sequoia closes London office after six years. The firm will cover European founders from Silicon Valley, shuts its Arc accelerator and scout program, and is raising $10bn in parallel.
• Stark plans 24-metre drone boat for 2027. The Berlin defence startup wants an unmanned surface vessel to protect undersea cables and track Russia's shadow fleet. The Bundeswehr starts training on Stark and Helsing attack drones in November, with contracts near €270m each.
• Google drops AI-free search for US schools. School accounts in the US no longer get a search option without AI features, so schools that ban all AI lose Google Search too. Senator Bernie Sanders calls it extortion.
• BaFin extends Solaris commissioner's mandate. The German regulator keeps its special commissioner at the Berlin fintech with conditions attached, so CEO Steffen Jensch does not get free rein for now.