Personalised print marketplace Redbubble has grown buy almost a third in the past financial year, generating revenue of $182.8m for FY18, up 29.7 per cent from $141m the year before, or 30.4 per cent on a constant currency basis.

Redbubble’s EBITDA were at a loss of $7.3m, down 9.8 per cent from the year before, when it was a loss of $8.1m.

The company says it expects to maintain growth rates at, if not higher than 30 per cent on a constant currency basis for the next financial year, with an operating EBITDA in the range of $2-4m.

The results come as Redbubble CEO and cofounder Martin Hosking is stepping down, with the company’s COO Barry Newstead soon to replace him in August.

Redbubble’s gross transaction value (GTV) was $231.3m for the financial year, up 31.9 per cent from $175.4m in FY17. It also saw a gross profit of $63.9m, up 27.5 per cent from the pcp, along with a gross profit margin of 35 per cent, slipping by 1.7 per cent from 35.6 per cent in FY17.

Operating expenses were 19 per cent higher in FY18, at $50.8m from $42.7m the year before.

[Related: Redbubble founder CEO to step down]

In the fourth quarter, the company had revenue of $41.6m, increasing by 34.5 per cent or 32.9 per cent in constant currency terms from $30.9m for the prior corresponding period (pcp).

For the fourth quarter its EBITDA was at a loss of $4.1m, a 19 per cent change from the loss of $3.4m in the pcp.

Redbubble says it expects improving gross margins and continued low cost of customer acquisition to result in further gross profit after paid acquisition growth rates aligning more closely with growth in revenue.  

In the fourth quarter, Redbubble saw its customers increase by 39.2 per cent to around 980,000 compared to 700,000 in the pcp, and for the full year it grew by 38.1 per cent to 3.97 million for the full year, from 2.88 million.

Selling artists increased by 35.4 per cent to 182,400 in Q4 compared to 134,800 in the pcp and to 298,700 for the full year, up by 28.2 per cent from 233,000 in the prior year.

[Related: Redbubble considers leaving Aus]

Visits to the Redbubble site in the fourth quarter increased by 35.3 per cent to 66 million, from 48.8 million in the pcp. Site visits were at 258.8 million for the full year, up 37.4 per cent from 188.4m the year before. Mobile represented 54.2 per cent of total visits for the full year, with mobile sales growing at 61.9 per cent, now delivering 42.4 per cent of the GTV.

Redbubble says growth in visit numbers drove GTV growth across all markets and most product categories. European markets in particular were attributed for strong contributions, with the company saying its sales in Germany grew 80 per cent, Spain at 71 per cent and France at 91 per cent for the last quarter, compared to the pcp. The countries saw similarly high growth rates for the full year, Germany at 88 per cent, Spain at 93 per cent and France, 63 per cent.

Hosking launched Redbubble in 2007, with two other friends from Melbourne, with the company going on to be one of Australia’s biggest tech growth stories, and has been CEO since 2010. The company is an online portal matching artists with consumers wanting personalised print on t-shirts, caps, cups and the like.

Earlier this year, Redbubble was considering moving its operations out of Australia, fearing vulnerability to litigation with a new copyright amendment bill passing the Senate.

Redbubble has already had two copyright lawsuits in the past year, with Hell’s Angels and Pokemon. Hosking said the new laws, which aim to protect servicers, would contrarily leave Redbubble open to more litigation and affect its manufacturing jobs in Brisbane and Melbourne.

The company has around 220 staff.

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