Last December, Henri-Charles Machalani gave control of Mistplay, one of Quebec’s most promising young companies, to an American fund. Since then, Mistplay has doubled in size and its founder invests in other local businesses.
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Launched in 2016, Mistplay is a loyalty platform for mobile video game players. Mr. Machalani came up with the idea while he was working at Microsoft.
Over the past year, Mistplay sought financing and faced several offers, some of which involved selling the entire company to outsiders.
“We were a bit scared there was going to be a market crash and we thought it was time to turn a profit for our investors and our employees. At the same time, the company was doing very well, so we didn’t want to sell it entirely,” says Mr. Machalani, who remained a Mistplay shareholder alongside other early investors.
Mistplay’s fate is not unique: dozens of other young Quebec companies have been acquired by foreign investors in recent years. This phenomenon is observed all over the world.
He sold at the top
Henri-Charles Machalani could hardly have chosen a better time to sell. The stock markets have been in free fall since the beginning of 2022. Despite this slump, Mistplay continued to grow.
“We’ve doubled our income and we’ve more than doubled our workforce, which is now nearly 140,” says Mr. Machalani.
“We believe that with their help, Mistplay will appreciate three times as much as it would if we had stayed alone,” he adds, speaking of executives at GrowthCurve Capital, Mistplay’s acquirer.
With his new financial resources, the 33-year-old young entrepreneur has become an “angel investor” and supports other start-ups.
Other than that, he says very little has changed in his life, he who is still CEO of Mistplay.
“I haven’t really made any big purchases,” he says. I haven’t changed my house, I haven’t changed my car. »
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