Grand Games, one of the prominent startups in the gaming industry, made a strong start to 2025 by signing one of the largest Series A investment rounds in Turkiye.
This round brought together Balderton, the investor of Dream Games, and Bek Ventures, the investor of Peak, two of the industry’s giant investors who had previously raised two unicorns in Turkiye. Grand Games’ existing preseed investor, Laton Ventures, and angel investor, Mert Gür, also participated in the investment round led by Balderton.
Two giant investors in the mobile game industry came together
Founded in 2024 by Bekir Batuhan Çelebi, Mehmet Çalım, and Mustafa Fırtına, Grand Games, which completed its pre-seed investment round in February, achieved a first in Turkiye with the speed with which it completed its Series A round.
This round brought together Balderton, the investor of Dream Games, and Bek Ventures (formerly known as Earlybird Digital East Fund), the investor of Peak Games, two of the industry’s giant investors who had previously raised two unicorns in Turkey.
Grand Games stands out with its studio (cell) based working model that differentiates it from its competitors in the industry.
The team consists of autonomous and independent teams that take responsibility for each game. The company strategically aims to create large and innovative game genres by focusing on unexplored areas instead of focusing on popular games in the industry.
Bekir Batuhan Çelebi, Co-Founder and CEO of Grand Games, congratulated his team, stating that Magic Sort! and Car Match games have entered the top 1% in player retention and revenue generation metrics and reached more than 1 million dollars in revenue per month. He continued:
“We developed 2 casual games in 10 months with a team of only 14 people. We completed one of the largest investment rounds in Turkiye in our first year. We owe this extraordinary success to our team culture and strategy.”
Bekir Batuhan Çelebi, Co-Founder and CEO of Grand Games
Grand Games plans to build new studios and publish new games worldwide
Sharing his evaluations about the investment, Grand Games Co-Founder and CEO Bekir Batuhan Çelebi also announced his future plans:
“With 2 successful games in different genres so far, we have taken the first steps of our vision to create a multi-studio entertainment center that focuses on emotions rather than specific mechanics. We will use this investment to build studios that will create new big game genres and publish our games worldwide.”
Bekir Batuhan Çelebi, Co-Founder and CEO of Grand Games
Suranga Chandratillake, Partner at Balderton, who led the investment round:
“Istanbul is home to some of the most successful game studios in the world. Grand Games stands out in this ecosystem with its strong team culture and vision to create new types of world-class casual games. The culture they have built and the two successful games they have released in as little as a year clearly demonstrate their talent and determination. With their passion for games and boundless ambition, we are excited to work with the Grand Games team.”
Suranga Chandratillake
Oğuzhan Özer from Bek Ventures said:
“While investing in Turkiye’s rapidly growing gaming ecosystem, we have been highly selective, as we are in every sector. As a result of this approach, Grand Games became our first gaming investment after Peak Games. They have once again reinforced our confidence in them with their performance in this short period after our seed-stage investment. It is a great pleasure for us to continue to support them on their journey.”
Oğuzhan Özer
Laton Ventures Founder Görkem Türk said:
“We are delighted with the success of Grand Games, one of our first investments. As we emphasized our belief in its strategy in the pre-seed round we participated in, we believe that Grand Games is on its way to becoming the new unicorn of Turkiye with this Series A investment round, which is a first in terms of speed in Turkiye, and the rare gaming metrics it has achieved.”
Görkem Türk
Grand Games will expand its team with passionate people
Bekir Batuhan Çelebi, Co-Founder and CEO of Grand Games, emphasized that the speed of Grand Games’ transition from a $3 million pre-seed investment round to a $30 million Series A investment round is a first in Turkiye and concluded his evaluations with the following statements:
“Our goal is to create another unicorn from Turkiye by creating new game genres. We invite everyone who shares the same passion with us to join Grand Games to redesign the mobile gaming world.”
