Venture capital firm Laton Ventures has raised $35 million to invest in games companies.
The VC firm will focus on pre-seed and seed stage funding in startups with the potential to “scale into massive companies”. Investing in both Turkey and the wider global games industry, it aims to become a “vital link connecting Turkish and global gaming ecosystems”.
As well as funding, Laton Ventures will also provide operational advisory services in areas including user acquisition, game design, development and analytics.
While its team has a background in mobile gaming, its investment strategy will also cover other platforms. Laton Ventures has already invested in five companies over the past six months.
Key backers
The fund was founded by former Google and startups industry manager Görkem Türk. It has backing from over 20 industry and tech experts, including Gram Games co-founder Mehmet Ecevit, Ruby Games founder Mert Can Kurum, and Gossamer founder and Deconstructor of Fun’s Eric Kress.
Supercell is also an investor in the firm, alongside financial institutions such as the VC arm of Turkish private bank İşBank.
Speaking to PocketGamer.biz Türk said Laton had been able to raise the large fund in part due to its connections to Turkey’s bustling games industry that includes the likes of Gram Games, Dream Games, Rollic and more.
“Capitalising on Turkish gaming heritage was one of the biggest influences in raising this level of a fund,” he said.
“Turkey has the second most number of studios in EMEA and became one of the global hubs of the games industry over the past few years, not only by being one of the top countries in attracting early-stage investments, but also showing a strong traction with remarkable exits.
“The country has experienced talent in gaming with a proven track record. Gaming is one of the main industries where the brightest talent fresh out of university go to. Studios operate with high analytical, lean and efficient teams who are on top of all the market developments and executing very fast at a very high bar of quality.”
"Ever-evolving industry"
Despite the current challenges the industry faces and a general decline in investments in the sector over the past year, Türk said he believes there remains big opportunities in the space.
“Gaming is an ever-evolving industry where not only experience and know-how of the talent in the industry is at an all time high, but also the number of global game players are also at an all time high.
“We think there are big opportunities in many fronts from social-first experiences to better executed genres by stellar teams. We think more penetration and deeper engagement is inevitable, where also AI will lead to exciting paradigm shifts.”
During the recent Pocket Gamer Connects San Francisco conference, Games from Turkiye advisory board head Tugbek Olek discussed Turkey’s tax relief and incentives for the games industry, including a lack of capital gains tax. Türk said such measures and support helped derisk investments in the industry.
“It has not directly impacted fundraising, however robust government support does enable Turkish gaming startups to be more profitable and have a longer run-way in testing period which decreases risk of early stage investing and increases appetite,” he said.
