Ludus Ventures invests $1M in Turkish studio Midas Games | Pocket Gamer.biz

Ludus Ventures has led a $1 million investment into fledgeling mobile games developer Midas Games as the studio prepares to spread its wings and launch its first games.

Due to release in the second half of the year, the debut titles are expected to be skill-based and competitive. These games will come from the collective minds and experience of its founders Hikmet Duran, Mert Ulutaş, Emre Öztürk, Selçuk Korateş, Fatih Karadeniz and İlkim Ülgen.

A wealth of experience

Three of Midas’ founders – Duran, Ulutaş and Öztürk – previously worked together at Gigantic Games and helped the company reach 25 million installs. Now they form the skeleton of Midas’ game production crew, hoping to turn their own titles into gold with the “legendary Midas touch”.

Korateş, meanwhile, holds CEO duties at Midas after senior roles at Pepsi, Coca Cola and Zynga subsidiary Rollic.

Karadeniz has more than two decades’ experience in software development and is therefore in the CTO role at Midas, with his background including leading technical infrastructure development on Turkey’s largest mobile marketing platform.

Finally, Ülgen has a background in IT and mobile game law, and therefore oversees Midas’ legal field.

“We aim to give our players the best gaming experience by rewarding skill, strategy, and perseverance in our games. We are very aware of the potential in the market, we are at the beginning of the period when many things will change in the gaming industry,” said Korateş.

“Our business partner, Ludus, helps us in every aspect, ensuring that our focus remains solely on game development and adding momentum to our business. We are happy to cooperate with Ludus to achieve our goals.”

The $1 million investment marks Ludus Ventures’ first investment of the year and its first-ever from its second fund. Ludus partner Mehmet Ayan commented:

“As Ludus Ventures, we are excited to make the first investment of our second fund to Midas, which is one of the most important factors in the Turkish game industry’s prominence in the international market, strengthening its young and dynamic team structure with experienced members that we had the opportunity to work within different projects in previous years, to support its adventure to bring its innovative ideas to game lovers all over the world.”

We spoke with Ludus Ventures’ İsmet Gökşen last year to get an investor’s view of the mobile market in Turkey.