Istanbul’s Agave Games garners $7 million in seed round

Istanbul-based casual puzzle game studio Agave Games has raised $7 million in a seed round led by Balderton Capital, the same firm that participated in now unicorn Dream Games’ seed round, and counts Codemasters, Big Fish Games, Mojiworks, Natural Motion, and Wooga amongst its portfolio.

While still working on its first casual puzzle game for iOS and Android, Agave plans to use the capital to triple the staff size over the next 18 months, primarily onboarding game developers and artists.

Despite Turkey’s ongoing economic woes, the mobile gaming industry appears to be the country’s jewel in the crown. According to research firm Sensor Tower’s The State of Mobile Gaming report, “Turkey stands out as the fastest growing market in Europe, generating $160 million in consumer spending, a 36 percent increase Y/Y.” Additionally, the report found that “Turkey surpassed Italy in Q2 2021 and became the fifth biggest market in Europe.“ Good times.

With 184 gaming startups located in Istanbul, you might think that the bus is getting a bit crowded, and that standing apart from all the others may be a bit of a challenge. And for what it’s worth, I’d agree with you.

However, while the company’s founders, Alper Oner, Burak Kar, Ali Baran Terzioglu, and Oğuzhan Merdivenli all possess the de rigueur gaming industry background experience(s), the CVs go a bit deeper and include positions at Deloitte, PWC, and Beghou Consulting. In other words, collectively, the Agave Games founding team cut their teeth helping create some of the fastest-growing casual puzzle games, reaching over 2.5 billion installs worldwide through various titles

In addition to Balderton’s lead, the seed round saw participation from existing backer 500 Startups, and marking their first investment in Turkey, Felix Capital. 

“To have the backing and support of Rob and the Balderton team, as well as Julien and Felix Capital, who all have so much experience and faith in mobile gaming, means so much to us. There’s no doubt their help will inspire and guide us as we look to build our market-leading game in the next 12 to 18 months,” commented Agave Games’ CEO Alper Oner.