Former Zen Match devs raise $3m in pre-seed funding round for new studio Grand Games

• The investment round was led by Earlybird Digital East Fund with participation from Laton Ventures
• The studio is utilising AI tech to help develop its titles

New Turkey-based mobile games studio Grand Games has raised $3 million in a pre-seed funding round.

The investment was led by Earlybird Digital East Fund with participation from Laton Ventures. The financing coincided with the soft launch of the developer’s first title, Magic Sort, a puzzle game designed around matching colours.

Plenty to play

Grand Games founders Mustafa Fırtına, Mehmet Çalım, and Bekir Batuhan Çelebi all previously worked at Good Job Games, where Fırtına and Çalım led development on Zen Match.

Now reunited under Grand Games, the studio aims to use this funding round to help grow the team and launch more titles. The number of full-time employees has already risen from four to 13 since the studio was founded just four months ago.

As well as soft-launching Magic Sort, the studio is set to follow that title up with Car Match later this month. The company’s “flagship title”, meanwhile, is expected to launch in early 2025 with a focus on social interaction.

The team credited the fast release cycle of its first two games to its use of AI. Every Grand Games title currently in development has used the tech, whether utilising Midjourney for concept art or harnessing AI at a codebase level. In fact, up to 30% of each game’s codebase has been made with AI.

A “billion-dollar business”?

“We saw how fragmented mobile game development had become and took the opportunity to build a radically different company to what we were seeing in the market,” said Çelebi.

“The majority of mobile games created now are often poorly executed copies of successful titles, and we see an opportunity to build a billion-dollar business made possible by adopting the latest AI technology which is helping us build and iterate games faster.

“Swift execution combined with innovation will be what separates us from other companies.”

Earlybird Digital East Fund’s Oguzhan Ozer commented: “It’s been a great pleasure to closely witness the stellar development of Turkey’s gaming ecosystem for more than a decade, to become a leading global hub, especially after Peak’s exit.

“We are quite selective investors, and knowing the challenges of the market with the insider view, have approached it cautiously. What set Grand Games apart and convinced us was the team quality and their vision, and we are very excited to support them in their journey.”

Earlybird Digital East Fund invested in Peak Games well over a decade ago – back in 2011 – during an $11.5 million round. That studio, which was acquired by Zynga in a $1.8 billion deal, has released major hits like Toon Blast, which recently surpassed $2.5 billion in earnings through a newfound revenue surge.