Grand Games, a mobile gaming company based in Istanbul developing social games, has scored $3 million in pre-seed funding. In addition to this, the company has soft-launched its first game just four months after inception.
The funding round was led by Peak Games investor Earlybird Digital East Fund (which backed Proofs and FintechOS) with participation from Laton Ventures.
The Turkish startup plans to use the investment to grow their team size and launch its initial titles. It also continues to search for passionate people that share the desire to reshape the gaming landscape across all functions including product, marketing, art and development.
Oguzhan Ozer from Earlybird Digital East Fund, said: “It’s been a great pleasure to closely witness the stellar development of Turkey’s gaming ecosystem for more than a decade, to become a leading global hub, especially after Peak’s exit. We are quite selective investors, and knowing the challenges of the market with the insider view, have approached it cautiously. What set Grand Games apart and convinced us was the team quality and their vision, and we are very excited to support them in their journey.”
Görkem Türk from Laton Ventures stated: “As Laton Ventures, we have full confidence that Grand Games, with a visionary founding team that has developed successful games on a global scale, will write new success stories. We are very excited about being a part of and helping this unique journey.”
Gaming market in Turkey
The country has become a global hub in mobile gaming, boasting one of the strongest ecosystems with several large exits and success stories including Dream Games, and Peak Games, Turkey’s first unicorn, which was sold to Zynga for $1.8 billion in June 2020.
What does the company do?
Revolutionising this space is Grand Games, which was founded by Mustafa Fırtına, Mehmet Çalım and Bekir Batuhan Çelebi, who have held leading roles in the development of successful games such as Zen Match and Wonder Blast at companies like Good Job Games and Moon Active.
The company uses AI to build up to 30% of each game’s codebase, and uses platforms like Midjourney to generate the art concepts for its products, reducing the time it takes to create and publish titles and allowing them to build, test, and iterate faster than their competitors.
By shortening the feedback loop from the players, Grand Games aims to be the fastest learning and iterating company in the industry.
In addition to the accelerated execution, it brings luck and social competition features to new games and genres, allowing gamers to build deeper emotional connections with titles and ultimately improving the experience for all players.
Portfolio of games
Grand Games’ first title Magic Sort! is now in soft launch in the US and available for download on both iOS and Android.
It’s second game, Car Match, is expected to soft launch this month. The company will shift its focus to its flagship title, which will be focused on social interaction and is expected to debut in early 2025.
“We saw how fragmented mobile game development had become and took the opportunity to build a radically different company to what we were seeing in the market. The majority of mobile games created now are often poorly executed copies of successful titles, and we see an opportunity to build a billion-dollar business made possible by adopting the latest AI technology which is helping us build and iterate games faster. Swift execution combined with innovation will be what separates us from other companies,” said Bekir Batuhan Çelebi, Co-Founder and CEO.
What do we think about Grand Games?
Grand Games, leveraging AI to revolutionise mobile game development, shows strong potential with its $3M pre-seed funding. The team’s experience and innovative approach, including rapid game development and deep social engagement features, position it well in Turkey’s vibrant gaming ecosystem. As it expands its team and launches new titles, Grand Games could become a significant player in the global gaming market.
