Turkey has gained a well-earned popularity as a veritable cauldron of cell video games startups, resulting in the rise of VCs devoted to the sector. The most recent to hitch this coterie is Laton Ventures, a brand new gaming-focused VC that has raised a $35 million fund. Founding Associate — and Solo GP — Görkem Türk says he’s aiming to construct a bridge between the Turkish gaming ecosystem and the remainder of the world, investing within the pre-seed and seed phases. The fund is legally domiciled within the Netherlands.
As an rising market with a younger inhabitants, Turks have eaten up cell video games as quick as they are often produced, giving rise to over 740 gaming startups. More than 48% of the 86 million individuals in Turkey are beneath the age of 30 and over 92% of web customers play video games in Turkey in comparison with the world common of 82%.
Certainly, between 2018 and 2022 Turkish gaming start-ups raised greater than $1 billion in funding.
Admittedly, Laton has some competitors. There are actually at the least 25 VC funds that put money into video video games startups based mostly out of Turkey. That mentioned, most put money into different tech sectors as properly.
Türk, who’s a former gaming and startups trade supervisor at Google, defined to me in a name that Laton plans to face aside by emphasizing operational advisory to its portfolio corporations.
“We’re positioning as a bridge between the Turkish gaming ecosystem, which is booming, and the international gaming ecosystem. Secondly, we will double down on operational support in areas like user acquisition, game design, cohort analysis, development, and so on. We’re backed by over 20 exited founders. That really sets us apart,” he mentioned.
The fund has already invested in 5 corporations up to now six months: Two in Turkey, two in Europe and one within the U.S., and plans to leverage its veteran trade advisor community.
To that finish, Laton’s LPs embrace Mehmet Ecevit, Co-Founding father of Gram Video games; Mert Gür, Founding father of Loop Video games; Mert Can Kurum, Founding father of Ruby Video games; Fırat İleri, Managing Associate of Hummingbird Ventures; Nevzat Aydın, Founding father of Yemeksepeti and Eric Kress, Founding father of Gossamer.
