Laton Ventures, a venture capital company focused on games and applications founded by Görkem Türk, closed its first fund with $ 50 million.
Istanbul’s venture capital fund is the largest fund focused on games and applications in Türkiye, which has become one of the world’s main centers in the game industry, Türk said in a statement.
Laton Ventures Will invest around the world in pre-series and seed startups, while supporting non-game application companies. In April, when he announced the fund, he raised $ 35 million.
Distinguished by its discretionary practical operational support model, has experienced significant growth and traction in almost half of the companies in which it has invested in its first year.
During his first year, Laton Ventures made five investments in the seed and seed phase in game companies in Türkiye, the United States and Europe. Two of these companies have reached important steps, increasing series of series series.
One of them, Grand Games which is a Turkish mobile games company, obtained a session of $ 30 million in a financing round in a record nine months after its creation. The second portfolio company which has also raised a series of series A is not disclosed for the moment.
Laton Ventures ranked among the first 10 top 10 the games of the game VC in the most active seed phase during his first year. The Laton portfolio includes a diverse business of businesses, from advanced mobile game studios to innovative social game platforms.
The company has made five investments to date. Three of these founders are in Türkiye where companies were founded by Turkish founders. For the fund, three people work full time for the fund and five work part -time.
Laton Ventures is supported by more than 40 founders of released and veterans from the industry covering more than 10 countries. Among them, founders or former leaders of renowned companies such as Peak, Gram, Loop and Huuuge. The fund’s investors also include high-level companies such as Supercell, the creator of successful games like Clash of Clans and Tibas Ventures, the İş Bankası, the largest private banking in Türkiye. In addition, the fund is supported by institutional investors and family offices from various parts of the world.
The founding partner Türk said in a press release: “We believe in talented teams with exceptional vision, by developing innovative games, applications and new generation entertainment platforms. We are passionate about the mobile platform and its future evolution, motivated by the rear wind of the AI and the integration of social elements. »»
Türk said: “We are proud of the achievements of our portfolio companies and the progress made during our first year, which testifies to the strength of our targeted investment strategy. We feel privileged and delighted to support the best founders of game and applications through Türkiye and the globe. »»
Before founding Laton, Türk was director of the game and startups industry at Google, where he managed partnerships and growth advice with game / applications and ecosystem partners. Türk has also occupied various roles in companies such as P&G and Value Partners Management Consulting throughout his career.
Questioned in what the company would invest, Türk said: “Although we are a category or an agnostic platform, we are passionate about the mobile platform and its future evolution, motivated by the rear wind of the AA and the integration of social elements. We will focus on categories with a very large audience base in mobile games. Likewise, we will focus on non-Garden applications with use cases that appeal to a very general public. »»
He said Laton would not invest in web3 commercial models and linked to the crypto for this specific fund.
