Who Owns Displate?

Displate was founded in 2013 in Warsaw by Karol Banaszkiewicz, Jacek Swigost, and Edward Ruszczyc, who wanted to create a new format for wall art that did not require nails or damage walls. Their solution was printing on thin steel plates that mount with a magnetic system, a product so novel at launch that the founders initially printed plates in a small tin shed.

Early growth was slow until the company found its model: an on-demand marketplace where independent artists upload designs and Displate manufactures and ships them. The marketplace structure let the catalog scale without the company commissioning art directly, and by 2020 it offered more than 1.5 million designs.

A breakthrough came in 2017 when Displate signed a licensing agreement with The Walt Disney Company, gaining access to Star Wars and Marvel properties. That deal validated the model commercially and opened the door to more than 200 official collections including DC Comics, Netflix, One Piece, and other franchises. The combination of licensed pop culture art and independent artist work created a dual revenue stream unusual in wall decor.

Mid Europa Partners acquired a majority stake in December 2020, and the company expanded its US presence with an office in Seattle. By the mid-2020s Displate employed roughly 360 to 400 people, manufactured in Poland, and generated approximately $120 million in annual revenue as of FY2023, with EBITDA of roughly $14 million.