Istanbul has a gaming startup. Dream Games, the casual games developer behind the hit game Royal Match, is announcing a $255 million Series C that values the startup at $2.75 billion.
Makers Fund, IVP, funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, Kora and Balderton Capital are all participating in the Series C. The funding will be used to continue investing in and developing Royal Match, and to work on its next launch, which is expected later this year.
The funding shows that games are coming into their own when it comes to venture funding and the growth and approach of startup companies, and that is important for this story.
Just six months ago Dream Games raised $155 million at a $1 billion valuation, and one day after another Istanbul games startup, Spyke, announced a $55 million seed round.
Both Dream and Spyke were founded by people who were either founders or senior members of the team at Peak Games, another gaming startup that was acquired by Zynga in 2020.
Royal Match is one of the top grossing mobile games. If Dream Games follows it up, it will be worth watching. In the past, the company has said that it would follow up on the success of the franchise with more games in rapid succession, but today it is more likely that it will be in the form of spacing out new developments over a period of years with less pressure to produce new titles over months
In an interview in June, co-founder and CEO Soner Aydemir said they believe in Pixar. When Pixar started, it was a movie every few years, but eventually the rate increased. It will be the same for us. We need to focus on Royal Match but if we can create other games, we will.
Dream sees the entertainment industry as a bigger threat than games developers, as it sees the TikTok's of the world as its big competition. They too can publish games and build brands, but they are after the same amount of leisure time as Dream.
Dream Games has a track record of gaining audience.
Stephane Kurgan, the partner who led the investment and the former chief operating officer at King, said that the success and growth of Royal Match exceeded all of their expectations. Royal Match is one of the most played mobile games of the year. Dream Games has assembled one of the best teams in the industry, with a rare combination of creative talent, engineering expertise and relentless work ethic. We are excited to see where they go next, as they have already shifted the norms around what counts as excellence in mobile gaming.
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