Paxie Games, which was founded in 2021 by Direnç Çelik, Hüseyin Anıl Özmen, Refik Anıl Bulut, and Sare Başel, produces mobile games with its founding team, which has software, growth, visual design, and product development experience.
The team produces mobile games which have a hybrid revenue model in the casual category. Their first game, Merge Studio, has already passed 7 million downloads and has been listed at the most downloaded games list in more than 100 countries worldwide.
The team received its pre-seed investment from Ludus in 2021 and raised 1 million dollars in the first investment round. Having achieved remarkable success with Merge Studio, the Paxie Games team has also launched their second casual puzzle game in addition to this success.
Co-founder and CEO Direnç Çelik stated, “In a short period of 1.5 years, we developed a casual puzzle game that achieved great success worldwide, bringing both the game and the company to a profitable point, and finally, we launched our second casual puzzle game. Our game production skills are exceptional, and we are extremely motivated to create high-quality games. This year’s goal is to grow our team and continue to develop and market Merge Studio, which has already reached millions of players. We believe that we will also achieve great success by continuing to develop our new game Tile Star, which we see a tremendous potential for the year. In addition, we are happy to progress in this investment round with Ludus Ventures, who has been with us since the beginning of our journey and ensures that all our focus is on game production.”
Regarding their investment, the General Partner of Ludus Ventures, İsmet Gökşen, said, “Even though we have been more selective in our investments compared to previous years, the most critical factor for us is still the team. We’re looking for fast teams that can create a differentiation point. Unfortunately, it’s no longer enough for teams to produce good games, but their ability to launch and grow their games is critical for the follow-on investments. Paxie is a team that has impressed us in every way, and we are thrilled to have made the first investment of this year in this team.”