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Grand Games, a local mobile game company, received a pre-seed investment of 3 million dollars under the leadership of Earlybird, which made the first game industry investment after Peak Games.

One of the latest investment news in the Turkish entrepreneurship ecosystem came from the gaming industry. Grand Games, a local mobile game company, received a pre-seed investment of 3 million dollars under the leadership of Earlybird Digital East Fund. The investment round, in which Laton Ventures was among the participants, was Earlybird's first investment in the gaming industry in Turkey after Peak Games.

"We will differentiate with innovation and quality production"

Grand Games, founded by Bekir Batuhan Çelebi, Mustafa Fırtına and Mehmet Çalım, who previously worked in leading game companies such as Good Job Games and Moon Active and held leading positions in games such as Zen Match and Wonder Blast, set out with the goal of developing long-lasting mobile games that will be played by millions of people.

Stating that the number of companies in the game industry has increased a lot in the last 5 years, but the number of successful games has decreased, Grand Games Co-Founder Bekir Batuhan Çelebi said, "Although the game industry is on the rise, innovative and quality productions are very rare. As Grand Games, we will develop high quality games that focus on chance and social competition with our emotion-oriented approach. We are confident that we will be successful with our team and strategy, which includes highly experienced people from sub-disciplines such as software, product development, art and marketing."

First game released, new games on the way

Believing in the power of producing fast and getting fast feedback from users, Grand Games announced that they have released their first games. Magic Sort!, which is available on iOS and Android platforms, was soft launched in the USA and brought its first games to gamers. Bekir Batuhan Çelebi, who also gave hints about new games: "After focusing on puzzle games in our first months as Grand Games, we plan to publish our flagship game, which will take social competition and interaction to a completely different point, in early 2025."

Earlybird's second game investment in Turkey

Laton Ventures also participated in the pre-seed investment round led by Earlybird Digital East Fund. Targeting technology innovators in Europe, Earlybird had previously invested in Peak Games, Turkey's first unicorn, which was sold to Zynga for $1.8 billion in June 2020. Grand Games investment was Earlybird's second gaming investment in Turkey.

Oğuzhan Özer from Earlybird Digital East Fund stated that Turkey has a very successful history in developing mobile games that have pushed the top of the app stores and are popular worldwide, "We have witnessed the development of the gaming ecosystem in Turkey for more than a decade and especially after the acquisition of Peak Games, it has become a global centre. As a selective investment firm that also knows the challenges of the industry, what makes Grand Games different for us is the quality and vision of their team. We are delighted to support them on this exciting journey."

Laton Ventures Founder Görkem Türk, who is among the participants of the investment round, said: "As Laton Ventures, which was established with the support of the leading names of the gaming industry, we are confident that Grand Games, founded by visionary founders who grew up with the culture of companies that have achieved success on a global scale, will write new success stories."

"Our goal is to create a new unicorn from Turkey"

Stating that they will use the investment they received to build a team of people who are passionate about changing the gaming ecosystem like themselves, Grand Games Co-Founder Bekir Batuhan Çelebi concluded his evaluations with the following statements:

"Our goal is to be among the companies that have achieved unicorn status in the gaming ecosystem, such as Peak Games and Dream Games. We would like to thank our pre-seed investors who believed in and supported us on this journey."