TeePublic, the online e-commerce platform that serves as a marketplace for independent artists to sell apparel with their designs, has been acquired by RedBubble, an Australian company in the same space. The transaction is for $41M in an all-cash transaction.
“The TeePublic team is excited and energized to be combining with Redbubble at such an important stage of our respective growth trajectories. We look forward to partnering with Redbubble to bring more creativity into the world, leveraging our shared capabilities to support the artist and designer community. Redbubble’s experiences in growing its own business and developing its technology platform are a great fit for supporting TeePublic on the next steps in our journey, ” said Adam Schwartz, TeePublic’s COO and Cofounder.
TeePublic was founded by Schwartz and Josh Abramson, both serial entrepreneurs. Abramson cofounded College Humor and the duo started the holding company Connected Ventures, which owned and operates BustedTees and Vimeo. Connected Ventures and its properties were was acquired by IAC in 2006. TeePublic was originated from Busted Tees, which Abramson and Schwartz bought back in 2011 from IAC. TeePublic had not raised an venture financing. “Our vision was to build a profitable business independently, which meant we had to find a way to hire, scale and acquire customers profitably against constraints as a philosophy, in a market landscape that’s placed a premium on venture capital,” remarked Schwartz.
Publicly traded on the Australian Stock Exchange, RedBubble will continue to operate the two businesses in tandem and Abramson will stay on through at least the end of the year. It appears as though Schwartz will stay on indefinitely. RedBubble will hold a private placement to fund the acquisition. RedBubble currently has a market cap of $252M USD. TeePublic is expected to do $25M in revenue this year with an EBITDA of $3.3M.
“TeePublic and Redbubble together are well-positioned to take advantage of the significant market opportunity that lies ahead of us, and create the world’s largest marketplace for independent artists. As we’ve seen in both our businesses, the potential for personalized content to be disruptive in mainstream consumer retail globally – in particular in the apparel and home sectors – is huge, and we are excited to pave the path forward together,” said Barry Newstead, CEO of Redbubble.
