Published by Jessica Weisman-Pitts
Posted on July 15, 2024
Founded in Istanbul, a globally known gaming hub, the company has announced the soft launch of its first game, Magic Sort! just four months after its inception
Istanbul, July 15th 2024, 11AM EEST: Grand Games, a mobile gaming company pioneering a faster way to develop social games using the latest technology, has raised $3m in pre-seed funding and soft-launched its first game, just four months after inception. The funding round was led by Peak Games investor Earlybird Digital East Fund, with participation from Laton Ventures.
Grand’s founders Mustafa Fırtına, Mehmet Çalım and Bekir Batuhan Çelebi 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 and are together responsible for acquiring over 1 billion installs at their previous organizations.
“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.
Grand 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, dramatically 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 this accelerated execution, Grand is bringing 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. With this strategy, Grand Games aims to quickly outclass smaller, less sophisticated publishers and secure a leading position in the fragmented mobile gaming industry, currently valued at over $100bn.
Grand’s first title, Magic Sort!, is now in soft launch in the US and available for download on both iOS and Android. Grand Games’ second game, Car Match, is expected to soft launch in early July. Then, 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.
Turkey 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. The investment in Grand Games marks Earlybird’s first gaming investment since Peak.
Oguzhan Ozer from Earlybird Digital East Fund, said about the investment: “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.”
Grand Games plans to use the investment to grow their team size and launch their initial titles. Having grown the team from four to thirteen full-time employees in just five months, Grand Games continues to search for passionate people that share the desire to reshape the gaming landscape across all functions including product, marketing, art and development.
About Grand Games
Grand Games brings together decades of game development experience with deep marketing know-how to create mobile games that are more personalised for users, at faster rates as a result of using AI in the development process.
About Earlybird
Earlybird is a venture capital investor focused on European technology companies. Founded in 1997, Earlybird invests in all growth and development phases of a company and supports its portfolio companies with financial resources, strategic support, as well as access to an international network and capital markets. Earlybird invests out of a family of focused and independently-managed funds: Digital West (Western Europe), Digital East (Emerging Europe), Healthcare, UNI-X (University spinoffs), and Growth Opportunity. With EUR 2 billion under management across all fund streams, 8 IPOs, and 30 trade sales, Earlybird is one of Europe’s most established and active venture capital firms.
Discover more about Earlybird and the portfolio on Twitter or LinkedIn.
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