Grand Games secured $70 million in Series B funding led by Balderton Capital, raising total funding to $103 million. Founded in 2024, the Istanbul studio’s games have surpassed 50 million downloads globally and reached the top of US iOS charts.
Istanbul-based mobile gaming startup Grand Games has closed a $70 million Series B round led by Balderton Capital’s Growth Fund, bringing the company’s total funding to $103 million. Founded in 2024, the studio has completed three funding rounds in under two years, making it one of the fastest-scaling gaming startups to emerge from Turkey’s increasingly dominant mobile ecosystem.
Valuation Nearly Sixfold in Just Over a Year
According to CEO and co-founder Batuhan Çelebi, Grand Games’ valuation increased roughly six times compared to its previous round in early 2025. Existing investors Bek Ventures, Laton Ventures, and angel investor Mert Gür also participated. Balderton had previously led the company’s $30 million Series A, which itself was one of Turkey’s largest Series A rounds ever.
Balderton partner Rana Yared described the follow-on investment as a clear decision, citing the team’s “exceptional execution speed, product differentiation, and company culture” within the competitive mobile gaming space.
How Did Grand Games Grow So Fast?
Grand Games was founded by Batuhan Çelebi, Mehmet Çalım, and Mustafa Fırtına, all former developers at Good Job Games where they worked on Zen Match, a leading title in the tile-sort casual puzzle subgenre. That deep experience in casual puzzle mechanics and user acquisition gave the founding team a significant head start.
The company operates a multi-studio model with five autonomous internal studios. Each development team maintains significant ownership over product decisions, while shared infrastructure, data pipelines, and production systems are centralized. This structure enables faster iteration and stronger creative ownership, a deliberate design choice aimed at making hit creation repeatable rather than accidental.
50 Million Downloads and Over $1 Million in Daily Revenue
Grand Games currently runs six live titles played across more than 200 countries, with total downloads surpassing 50 million. The company reported fivefold year-over-year revenue growth and daily revenue exceeding $1 million.
Its flagship title Magic Sort reached the number one spot on the US iOS free games chart. Block Out, another title in the portfolio, climbed to number two on the same chart. The revenue model blends in-app advertising with in-app purchases, a hybrid monetization approach that has become the gold standard in the fast-growing hybrid casual segment.
What Is Hybrid Casual and Why Does It Matter?
The hybrid casual category sits between hypercasual and traditional casual gaming. It combines the accessibility and broad appeal of simple puzzle mechanics with deeper monetization layers typically found in mid-core titles. In 2024, hybrid casual games saw 37 percent year-over-year growth in IAP revenue, making it one of mobile gaming’s hottest segments.
Magic Sort is widely regarded as the first successful hybrid casual adaptation of the water-sorting puzzle format. While numerous water sort clones exist with tens of millions of downloads, most rely entirely on ad monetization and have low production values. Grand Games identified that gap and filled it with near-Royal Match-level polish, robust live operations, and sophisticated user acquisition strategies.
What Will the Funding Be Used For?
The $70 million will primarily support user acquisition, marketing expansion, team growth, and the launch of new titles. Grand Games currently employs around 75 people, all based in Istanbul. The company plans to continue scaling its global player base while expanding its pipeline of upcoming games.
Laton Ventures co-founder Görkem Türk praised the studio’s ability to make hit creation repeatable: “Building a successful hit game is hard; making that process repeatable is what truly sets a company apart.”
Turkey’s Mobile Gaming Ecosystem: A Global Powerhouse
Grand Games’ raise is the latest milestone in Turkey’s remarkable rise as a global mobile gaming force. The country’s domestic gaming market surpassed $1 billion in 2025, growing 25 percent year-over-year. Turkey’s total global gaming revenue reached an estimated $3.33 billion, with a five-year compound annual growth rate of 33 percent, capturing approximately 4 percent of global mobile gaming revenue according to Sensor Tower.
The scale of recent Turkish gaming deals tells the story clearly:
| Company | Deal | Value | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Peak Games | Acquired by Zynga | $1.8 billion | 2020 |
| Dream Games | CVC Capital investment | $5 billion valuation | 2025 |
| Loom Games | Majority stake by Scopely | $1 billion+ valuation | 2026 |
| Grand Games | Series B funding | $103 million total raised | 2026 |
Istanbul now ranks as the world’s second-largest gaming hub by studio density after London. Turkish publishers lead comparable ecosystems in Finland and Israel for mobile IAP revenue outside their home market, and they achieve this with remarkably lean teams.
What Makes Turkey’s Gaming Success Unique?
Several structural advantages underpin Turkey’s position. First, an export-first mindset: Turkish founders build for US and Tier-1 Western audiences from day one, rather than optimizing for the domestic market. Second, extraordinary capital efficiency: the average revenue per employee among top Turkish publishers exceeds $1 million, far surpassing international benchmarks. Dream Games generates billions in annual revenue with fewer than 400 employees, while comparable studios like King and Moon Active employ thousands.
Third, substantial government incentives: Turkey’s government covers 60-70 percent of international marketing expenses, offers 50 percent refunds on app store fees for overseas revenue, and provides significant R&D tax advantages. These subsidies give Turkish studios a meaningful edge on ROAS and customer acquisition cost calculations.
Fourth, a self-reinforcing “mafia” ecosystem: Peak Games alumni have reportedly founded over 65 new startups, including Dream Games, Spyke Games, and Ace Games. Exits generate capital that gets recycled into new ventures, while experienced founders mentor the next generation. Grand Games itself emerged from this pattern, with its founders coming from Good Job Games.
Risks and the Road Ahead
Despite the momentum, Turkey’s ecosystem faces structural concentration risks. Nearly every major Turkish studio operates in the same narrow segment: mobile casual puzzle publishing for Western audiences. Royal Match alone accounted for 49 percent of all Turkish publisher IAP revenue in 2025 and roughly 44 percent of the entire industry’s estimated global revenue.
The next chapter will test whether Turkey can diversify beyond mobile casual into PC, console, B2B gaming tools, and new platforms. Studios like TaleWorlds Entertainment (Mount & Blade), Nokta Games (Supermarket Simulator), and Curve Animation (Liar’s Bar) show early signs of broader platform reach, but the mobile casual segment still overwhelmingly dominates.
For the global gaming industry, Turkey’s trajectory offers a blueprint: build for export, partner with government on meaningful incentives, celebrate exits and recycle capital locally, and treat user acquisition literacy as a core competitive advantage rather than a supporting function.
Key Questions About Grand Games and Turkey’s Gaming Boom
How much has Grand Games raised in total?
Grand Games has raised $103 million across three rounds: a $3 million pre-seed in 2024, a $30 million Series A in January 2025, and a $70 million Series B in May 2026. All three rounds included Balderton Capital, Bek Ventures, Laton Ventures, and angel investor Mert Gür.
What games does Grand Games make?
The studio operates six live titles, including Magic Sort (a water-sorting puzzle game rated 4.6/5 with over 656,000 reviews), Block Out, and Car Match. Magic Sort and Block Out both reached the top two positions on the US iOS free games chart.
How big is Turkey’s gaming industry?
Turkey’s domestic gaming market hit $1.01 billion in 2025. Global revenue from Turkish publishers reached an estimated $3.33 billion. The sector is projected to grow at 7-8 percent annually, potentially reaching $4.48 billion by 2029.
Why do investors keep betting on Turkish mobile gaming?
Turkish studios combine global-first product design, exceptional capital efficiency, government-subsidized user acquisition, and a deep talent pool shaped by successive waves of billion-dollar exits. The result is a uniquely favorable environment for building high-margin mobile gaming businesses at scale.
For a deeper look at Turkey’s rise as a gaming powerhouse, see GamerMarkt’s analysis of Turkey’s billion-dollar gaming ecosystem.
