Grand Games: Balderton Backs $70m Series B as Türkiye’s Hybrid Casual Momentum Accelerates
Türkiye-based mobile gaming company Grand Games has raised $70m in a Series B round led by Balderton Capital’s Growth Fund, with participation from existing investors Bek Ventures, Laton Ventures, and Loop Games founder & CEO Mert Gür as an angel investor. The round brings Grand’s total funding to $103m, with the company’s valuation increasing approximately 6x since its Series A, completed just over 16 months prior, on single-digit dilution. Capital will be deployed primarily toward marketing to scale existing titles and support a pipeline of upcoming releases.
Grand’s fundraising trajectory has been rapid, even by the standards of Türkiye’s fast-moving gaming ecosystem. Founded in 2024, the company raised $3m in a pre-Seed round in Jul’24 led by Earlybird Digital East Fund, with Laton Ventures participating. In Jan’25, Grand secured $30m in a Series A led by Balderton Capital, with Bek Ventures and Laton Ventures following on. The Series B marks Balderton’s continued backing of Grand Games. For the first time, Balderton deploys its Growth Fund alongside the studio, having previously backed the studio’s earlier rounds through its Early Stage Fund. As stated by Rana Yared, General Partner at Balderton: “Having invested in the mobile gaming space for many years, we know what exceptional teams look like in this category, and Grand is unquestionably one.”
Grand currently operates six live titles across five autonomous studios, with approximately 75 people based in Istanbul. The portfolio’s 2025 growth was driven primarily by Magic Sort!, a water-sorting casual puzzle, and Car Match: Traffic Puzzle, a traffic parking puzzle, both launched in 2024 with modest initial IAP revenues of $2.8m and $46k, respectively. In 2025, both titles scaled rapidly: Magic Sort! reached $45m in net IAP revenue and Car Match: Traffic Puzzle ~$13m, driving the portfolio total to $58m, a ~19x year-over-year increase, according to AppMagic. Downloads grew in parallel, expanding 33x to 33 million over the same period, with cumulative portfolio downloads reaching 73 million as of May’26.
Grand Games’ three titles account for the entirety of cumulative portfolio net IAP revenue since launch, per AppMagic. Magic Sort! leads with $79.4m, representing ~74% of the portfolio total and 58 million downloads. Car Match: Traffic Puzzle follows at $21.3m (~20% revenue share) and 10.3 million downloads, with Block Out! – Color Sort Puzzle contributing $7.2m (~7%) and 4.6 million downloads. Magic Sort! and Block Out! recently ranked #1 and #2 on the US iOS most downloaded games chart. The concentration in Magic Sort! underscores its role as the company’s primary commercial engine, while Car Match and Block Out! provide meaningful revenue diversification within the casual puzzle genre.
Grand Games’ raise reflects broader capital conviction in Türkiye’s mobile gaming sector. Over 2025–2026 YTD, the country attracted $335m in private mobile gaming investment across 35 rounds and 29 companies, representing 45.6% of global mobile gaming capital raised in the period ($735m), with seven of the ten largest global rounds originating from Türkiye. By total funding raised, Grand Games leads Türkiye’s mobile studio rankings at $100m across two rounds, followed by Good Job Games ($83m, two rounds), TaleMonster ($37m, two rounds), Cypher Games ($30m), and Bigger Games ($25m). The ecosystem’s depth extends beyond individual rounds: Türkiye’s studios combine deep talent density, ownership-led operating models, and a growing base of gaming-specialist capital, as Grand Games’ own multi-studio structure exemplifies. We will continue to monitor Grand Games’ expansion as it scales its platform.
