Mind Candy avoids bankruptcy with new loan terms

Mind Candy has renegotiated an existing loan and raised $1.5 million in new funding, critical moves that helped the Moshi Monsters studio avoid bankruptcy.

The $1.5 million funding round was led by Accel Partners and LocalGlobe, with several existing investors also contributing, CEO Ian Chambers told Bloomberg. Mind Candy also secured a two-year extension of its $8.1 million loan from TriplePoint Capital, which required the investor to markdown the value of the loan by $2 million.

Bloomberg's report frames these deals as vital to Mind Candy's ongoing existence, plainly stating that it might have been forced into bankruptcy" were it not for the new loan terms. TriplePoint COO Sajal Srivastava accentuated the positive, though, pointing to Mind Candy's "significant operational progress during 2016, which has led us to support the business with an amendment to their outstanding loan.

"We believe the company has the necessary vision, team and intellectual property to deliver on their growth plans."

Mind Candy's current strategy blends digital and physical entertainment: Petlandia allows users to create pet avatars online and buy personalised books, with Ian Chambers confirming that 40,000 books had been purchased at $30 each in Q4; the company also has a new free-to-play Moshi Monsters game, Egg Hunt, which has 500,000 players, all of whom can order books based on the characters they create.

Referring to the $1.5 million in funding, Chambers said "this isn't a situation where hope is our strategy... This company has been through a lot and has a lot to prove ahead of itself, but we think it is on the right track with the right team and the right plan."

Chambers was appointed CEO of Mind Candy in February 2016, following a period in which the company had struggled to adapt to the switch from desktop to mobile. Bloomberg said that the company's revenue declined from £47 million in calendar 2012 to £7 million in 2015.