The investment round, in which Laton Ventures was also among the participants, was Earlybird’s first investment in the gaming industry in Turkiye after Peak Games.
Founded by Bekir Batuhan Çelebi, Mustafa Fırtına and Mehmet Çalım, who previously worked at leading game companies such as Good Job Games and Moon Active and held leading positions in games such as Zen Match and Wonder Blast, Grand Games 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 gaming industry is on the rise, innovative and high 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 very experienced people from sub-disciplines such as software, product development, art and marketing.
Grand Games Co-Founder Bekir Batuhan Çelebi
We will make a difference with innovation and quality in our production.
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 game. Magic Sort!, which is available on iOS and Android platforms, was soft launched in the USA and brought its first games to gamers.
After focusing on puzzle games in our first months as Grand Games, we plan to release our flagship game in early 2025, which will take social competition and interaction to a whole new level
Grand Games Co-Founder Bekir Batuhan Çelebi
Earlybird’s second game investment in Turkiye
Laton Ventures also participated in the pre-seed investment round led by Earlybird Digital East Fund. Earlybird, which targets technology innovators in Europe, had previously invested in Peak Games, Turkiye’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 Turkiye.
Oğuzhan Özer from Earlybird Digital East Fund stated that Turkiye has a very successful history in developing mobile games that push the top in app stores and are popular worldwide:
We have witnessed the development of Turkiye’s gaming ecosystem over more than a decade and its evolution into a global hub, especially after the acquisition of Peak Games. As a selective investment firm that understands the challenges of the industry, what sets Grand Games apart for us is the quality of their team and their vision. We are delighted to support them on this exciting journey.
Early Bird Digital East Fund – Oğuzhan Özer
Laton Ventures Founder Görkem Türk, who was among the participants of the investment round:
As Laton Ventures, founded with the support of the leading names of the gaming industry, we strongly believe that Grand Games, founded by visionary founders who grew up with the culture of globally successful companies, will write new success stories.
Our goal is to create a new unicorn from Turkiye.
Laton Ventures Founder Görkem Türk
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 for believing in and supporting us on this journey.
Grand Games Co-Founder Bekir Batuhan Çelebi
