Articore Group – the Australian parent company of print-on-demand marketplace Redbubble and TeePublic – is set to continue investing in its Dashery platform after launching it earlier this year.
The Dashery platform allows creators to set up their own branded storefronts for selling print-on-demand merchandise.
Speaking on the platform at its FY25 market briefing, Articore CEO and managing director Vivek Kumar said Dashery is a “measured strategic bet”. He said the initiative leverages its established artists and creator cohort via Redbubble and TeePublic, alongside its experienced and cost-efficient sales team and global fulfilment network.
To Kumar, it is an important defensive move in the company’s ecosystem.
“With Dashery, we are re-engaging high-value creators who have left one of our marketplaces – or are considering it – to set up their own stores,” the CEO said.
“Our sales team is also reaching out to new creators who have large followings, such as podcasters and influencers. As these creators have their own following and promote their own designs, they are able to make a higher margin than on our marketplaces.
“In FY25, we invested $3.2 million in Dashery, and we expect a similar investment in FY26 to allow us to continue developing the platform based on user feedback.”
Dashery was initially launched in January this year by the then-group CEO and Redbubble co-founder Martin Hosking, who called it an additional revenue stream.
Kumar said the feedback so far on the new platform has been positive. While the company hasn’t shared figures specific to Dashery in FY25, the group did report $413,000 in marketplace revenue (MPR) in its ‘other’ segment, excluding Redbubble and TeePublic, for the year ending June 30, 2025. It is assumed that this includes Dashery, as no MPR was noted in the ‘other’ segment for FY24.
The launch and scale of Dashery comes as Redbubble suffers marketplace revenue declines, with its FY25 MPR declining by 19 per cent for the year. Despite the revenue slip, Redbubble’s operating EBITDA was largely in line with FY24.
Articore interim CFO Curtis Davies said this is a result of the improvements made to its unit economics, increased paid marketing efficiency and a 17 per cent reduction in operating expenses.
“We are confident that the issues at Redbubble are surmountable,” Davies said. “We know what needs to be done to turn this business around, and we are already beginning to see progress.”
Meanwhile, Articore’s other subsidiary TeePublic recorded a 1 per cent lift in MPR for FY25 to $184 million, nearing Redbubble’s annual MPR of $194.6 million.
“Over the past three years, TeePublic has maintained revenue growth via expanding margins, which gives us confidence that our new leadership team can turn around Redbubble’s performance,” Kumar said.
Last week, the company revealed a new fee structure for artists on the Redbubble marketplace, which Kumar said is designed to reward commercially valuable artists and to help cover the costs of hosting accounts and their content. Kumar added that the fees will support better shareholder returns while keeping the platform competitive for artists. The new fees will take effect from September 1, in two weeks.
For FY26, Redbubble is targeting a GPAPA margin of 27 per cent to 29 per cent. This was down 7 per cent in FY25 compared to FY24. The company also expects to deliver positive EBIT between $2 million to $8 million, and positive underlying cash flow between $5 million and $12 million for the full year.
“For EBIT, this will be the first year in five years that we have delivered a positive result,” Kumar said. “The executive team is well-equipped to face the challenges and opportunities ahead, and we are committed to delivering sustainable value for all shareholders.”
Amid all this, the Articore board is also fielding an attack from former CEO and founder Hosking and former Redbubble chair Richard Cawsey, who are both calling to replace the entire board with new members, with their own plans in place to scale the business to its former glory. An executive general meeting is to be held later this week on August 22.