BILLIONAIRE-TO-BE

Meet the Angry Birds investor whose net worth has taken flight.

Kaj HED WAS already a successful entrepreneur in Finland when, around 2005, he gambled on an idea from his son, Mikael: investing in a gaming studio. Mikael and his partners called the company Rovio, Finnish for “bonfire,” and its first 51 titles— well, they crashed and burned. During that period, Mikael had departed after an apparent feud with his father, but he returned in time to develop No. 52: Angry Birds, a physics-oriented slingshot mobile game featuring a flock of fowl and their adversaries, an army of menacing green pigs. A viral hit, Angry Birds soared to the top of the charts in 2010 with the velocity of one of its far-flung characters.

But before the Heds could take Rovio public, the company’s net profit plunged from $73 million in 2012 to $37 million in 2013, the result of an expansion spree that included developing a cartoon series and theme parks. A year later, Mikael left as CEO, and by 2015, the business was in the red and going through two rounds of layoffs.

Kaj, 62, stayed on as a director—serving as chairman until last June, when he became vice chairman—and helped guide Rovio out of its free fall. IPO plans are back on after The Angry Birds Movie, a surprise hit last year, grossed $350 million. The announced preliminary price range for the listing will give Rovio a market capitalization between $960 million and $1.1 billion, making Kaj’s 69% stake worth at least $650 million.