Turkish gaming companies continue to attract the focus of investors, with Spyke Games having announced on Monday that it raised $55 million (TL 774.38 million) in a seed investment round, led by gaming venture capital firm Griffin Gaming Partners.
The investment will be used to make casual and social mobile games as well as grow the startup's team.
"With two decades investing in gaming and entertainment, Griffin Gaming Partners provides Spyke with the best experience and connections in the industry resulting in significant growth opportunities. We’re inspired by Griffin’s confidence in our team and initial game as well as their willingness to jump in and help us take our venture to the next level," Rina Onur Şirinoğlu, Spyke Games CEO said in the company statement.
The company currently has a team of 30 people and is chaired by Şirinoğlu, who was part of Peak Games, which Zynga acquired in June 2020 for $1.8 billion. Apart from Şirinoğlu, Spyke Games’ co-founding team members include four other gaming industry leaders – COO Remi Onur, CPO Barkın Başaran, CTO Fuat Coşkun and CMO Mithat Madra – all of whom have built teams and developed many of the world’s top-grossing global mobile titles, collectively amassing 9.5 million daily active users and $1 billion in revenue to date.
"Spyke Games’ phenomenal team came together after working at companies like Peak Games, Zynga and Riot Games, where we identified significant opportunities emerging over the past 12 years in the social, mobile casual-games genre. We’re creating world-class games that connect and delight people, title after title," Şirinoğlu said.
"And we know we can achieve this through our company culture, relentless focus on quality and inspiring joyful, emotional experiences."
Spyke Games received a $5 million pre-seed investment at a $25 million valuation from Griffin Gaming Partners in February 2021.
It released its first game, Royal Riches, for Android and iOS a few months ago.
Griffin's previous investments include initiatives related to the mobile gaming industry such as Discord, AppLoving, N3twork and Skillz.
The country's Industry and Technology Minister Mustafa Varank also said on Twitter: "The Turkish gaming industry, whose games are played by billions of people, continues to grow day by day. Proud of our entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem."
The Griffin Gaming Partners was founded by Peter Levin, Phil Sanderson and Nick Tuosto. The firm is founder-friendly, cares deeply for the gaming industry and brings decades of investment, advisory and operational experience. It previously made notable investments in Discord, Forte, AppLovin, Overwolf and WinZO.
"Spyke has the perfect combination of a deeply experienced team with proven success developing games and an unwavering focus on execution," said Phil Sanderson, Griffin Gaming Partner’s managing director and member of Spyke’s board of directors.