Dallas PC Gaming Hardware Company Glorious Gets New CEO Following Francisco Partners Investment

Glorious started out by making mousepads after finding most gaming equipment to be low-quality and high-cost. Its product lineup now includes ultra-lightweight gaming mice, custom keyboards, and other accessories. Now, with its first strategic growth investment, it plans to continue building its gaming peripherals, grow into adjacent product categories, and grow its geographic footprint.

As a result of the deal, Glorious’ founder and CEO, Shazim Mohammad, will move to a "significant" equity holder role as Glorious' chief visionary. New CEO Pat Wachendorf comes from a previous COO post at a Danish gaming peripherals company that sold for $1.25B this year.

Bootstrapped since it was founded in 2014, Dallas-based Glorious has landed its first strategic growth investment.

The PC gaming hardware company received the investment from California private equity firm Francisco Partners, it announced yesterday, adding that the investment closed last month.

Shazim Mohammad, Glorious’ founder and former CEO, said the new investment “will allow us to accelerate innovation and increase the breadth of our product offering. Glorious was founded to democratize access to high quality gaming products, and this new investment will enable Glorious to better serve the gaming community at large.”

Pat Wachendorf is named new Glorious CEO

Pat Wachendorf

While terms of the deal were not disclosed, Francisco Partners says it pursues investments with transaction values between $20 million and more than $3 billion.

As part of the move, Mohammad will step down from the top exec role while remaining a “significant” equity holder “deeply involved” with the company as its chief visionary, leading product design and development. In addition, he’ll guide Glorious’ “long-term vision for product innovation.”

Stepping into the CEO role is Pat Wachendorf, who most recently served as the COO of Danish gaming peripherals and accessories manufacturer SteelSeries, which was acquired by GN Store Nord at the beginning of the year for around $1.25 billion.

Prior to that, Wachendorf served as the VP of enterprise optimization and transformation at Ferrara Candy Company.

“The team at Glorious has built an extraordinary company under Shazim’s visionary leadership,” Wachendorf said in a statement. “It’s a privilege to join this talented group and help drive forward Glorious’ mission to bring market leading products to the gaming and enthusiast community.”

Glorious looks to ‘build and scale’

Glorious started out by making mousepads after finding most gaming equipment to be low quality and high cost. Its product lineup now includes mice, keyboards, and other accessories.

The company’s growth accelerated rapidly beginning in 2019, it said, with the introduction of its Model O gaming mouse, which features an innovative, ultra-lightweight design. Other products include its “GMMK PRO” mechanical keyboard, which makes hobbyist-grade custom mechanical keyboards accessible to the general market.

With the new funding, the company said it plans to continue to build its gaming peripherals, grow into adjacent product categories, and grow its geographic footprint.

As of 2020, Glorious had a team of around 30 employees, designing and manufacturing products in house. The company’s website currently lists four open positions in areas like shipping and receiving, product development, and social media management.

“Shazim has done an exceptional job building Glorious’ brand and has shown an impressive dedication to understanding the needs of its enthusiast customers,” Francisco Partners’ Alan Ni and Kevin Wei said in a joint statement. “We’re thrilled to welcome Pat onboard at Glorious, and partner with the entire team to build and scale Glorious going into the future.”