Grand Games

Grand Games is an Istanbul-based mobile gaming studio that builds high‑quality, genre‑defining casual games and has quickly scaled from a small team to a venture‑backed studio after breakout hits like Magic Sort and Car Match.[6][4]

High-Level Overview

Grand Games is a consumer-focused mobile games company that designs and publishes casual titles with strong product differentiation and polished production values; its early commercial success and venture funding have positioned it as a rapidly scaling studio in Türkiye’s growing gaming cluster.[6][3]
For a portfolio-company style summary: it builds polished casual mobile games (notably Magic Sort and Car Match) that serve global mobile players and app-store audiences, solving the problem of low‑quality, undifferentiated casual titles by offering more original, higher‑production gameplay experiences; its growth momentum includes rapid revenue generation from initial titles and a $30M Series A led by Balderton Capital following a fast pre‑seed-to‑Series A timeline.[6][3][4]

Origin Story

Grand Games was founded in early 2024 by industry veterans including Bekir Batuhan Çelebi (aka Batu), Mustafa Fırtına, and Mehmet Çalım, who previously worked together at the studio Good Job and built the new company around giving product teams ownership to ship great games.[3][4]
The idea emerged from those founders’ conviction that decentralizing decision‑making to empowered teams (inspired by studios like Supercell) would unlock productivity and creativity; early traction came quickly — Magic Sort entered Apple’s top casual charts and the studio’s first two titles generated multiple millions in gross monthly app revenue, which helped attract Bek Ventures at pre‑seed and a $30M Series A led by Balderton less than a year later.[4][3]

Core Differentiators

• Product & Design focus: Targets underserved casual genres with high‑quality production values and original concepts rather than copying prevailing hypercasual formulas.[1][3]
  - Team‑centric operating model: Empowers small, autonomous teams with ownership and decision rights to accelerate iteration and creativity, a cultural choice founders cite as a primary differentiator.[4]
  - Rapid commercial traction: Early titles achieved strong revenue performance (collective millions in monthly gross revenue shortly after launch), supporting fast fundraising and scaling.[3][4]
  - Access to regional talent & investor network: Based in Istanbul, benefiting from the city’s emerging cluster of successful game studios and follow‑on investors familiar with local hits.[4][3]

Role in the Broader Tech Landscape

Grand Games is riding the continued globalization and maturation of mobile casual gaming, where higher production values and smarter product teams can break through on global app stores.[4][3] The timing matters because investor appetite for well‑executed casual titles remains high and Türkiye has produced several internationally successful studios, making talent, operating experience, and investor follow‑on support more available locally.[4][3] Market forces in its favor include large, expanding mobile user bases worldwide, strong app monetization channels, and investor interest in studios that can combine creative autonomy with measurable early monetization.[3][4] By demonstrating that Istanbul studios can rapidly produce commercially viable, genre‑defining casual games, Grand Games reinforces and amplifies the region’s reputation as a talent hub and may influence other founders to adopt team‑owned product models.

Quick Take & Future Outlook

Expect Grand Games to focus on scaling its lineup of genre‑defining casual titles, expanding into major markets (including the U.S.), and growing headcount as it executes on a flagship release roadmap for 2025 and beyond—backed by its $30M Series A.[3][4] Trends that will shape its journey include continued investor preference for studios with repeatable game‑building processes, increased use of AI and tooling to accelerate content production (which the team has cited), and the competitive pressure to sustain retention and monetization against large incumbents.[4] If Grand Games sustains its team‑centric model while delivering repeat hits, it could become one of the next internationally recognized studios to emerge from Türkiye’s gaming ecosystem, reinforcing the opening claim that it’s a fast‑scaling, genre‑focused mobile games studio from Istanbul.[6][4]