Leus Capital founder: Build your data and capital strategy together from day one

Pocket Gamer Connects, the leading international conference series for the global games industry, returns to London on January 19th to 20th, 2026. 

The must-attend conference will bring together 3,000 delegates from 70+ countries, including decision makers from key international games hubs across the globe. Companies set to join the show include Supercell, Epic Games, Duolingo, CD Projekt Red, Tencent, PlayStation, EA, AppLovin, TikTok and many more.

PGC London will host 32 tracks across two days, including at the Apps Business Summit (January 19th) and the Beyond Games: Transmedia Summit (January 20th).

One of the speakers set to join the conference is Leus Capital founder and MD Halil İbrahim Özdemir.

The company is a data-driven UA financing and analytics partner for mobile game and app studios. Leus provides flexible UA financing together with ROAS & LTV prediction, competitor and trending creative analysis, and growth benchmarks

Before founding Leus, Özdemir worked at companies such as AdColony and Rollic, focusing on software engineering and data analysis for mobile products in global markets.

Özdemir will be hosting a talk entitled 'Future of UA: Creatives, Predictions & Funding' on the Monetiser track.

We caught up with Özdemir ahead of the show to discuss UA financing and why the key KPI is the UA payback period.

PocketGamer.biz: Please give us a summary of what you’re speaking about and why it’s important.

Halil İbrahim Özdemir: My talk will cover how Leus helps high-potential studios use their data to unlock the UA financing they need to reach the revenue they truly deserve.

We combine UA capital with up to 52-week ROAS predictions (with up to 98% historical accuracy), competitor and trending creative analysis, and market benchmarks to support studios not only financially, but analytically throughout their growth journey.

I’ll explain how our process works end-to-end, the different UA financing models we offer, the impact of our analytics tools, and why this non-dilutive model can be a stronger alternative to traditional VC or publisher deals for many teams.

What’s the most common mistake you see being made in the games sector?

The biggest mistake I see is treating the game and UA as two separate worlds. Many teams scale spend before their LTV/ROAS and payback math is clear, or they do the opposite and miss the growth window because they don’t trust their own data - and then end up giving away more ownership or control than they should.

If you could give other mobile games companies one piece of advice, what would it be?

My one piece of advice would be: build your data and capital strategy together from day one.

If you can clearly explain cohort LTV and payback with a simple model, you sit at the table much stronger with UA partners, investors, publishers and financing partners like us.

Where are the next big opportunities in the mobile games market?

I believe the next big opportunity isn’t “more budget” but smarter budget. Hybridcasual and deep-retention casual/casino games that combine strong systems with the right creatives, good prediction and flexible UA financing have a real chance to become global hits

What’s the most important key performance indicator (KPI) for you - and why?

For me the key KPI is the UA payback period (based on predicted ROAS). That single number rolls up almost everything that matters: retention, monetisation quality, creative performance and cashflow. It also tells us how aggressively we can finance a studio while still staying safe on risk.

What is your biggest aspiration/goal in mobile gaming? 

My goal is to make non-dilutive UA financing and high-level analytics a standard option for strong studios. I want more teams to scale globally while keeping real ownership of their games and companies. Leus is simply the vehicle I’m building to make that possible.