One of the reasons I started TRVC was simple: I wanted to help document the story of Turkey’s venture capital and startup ecosystem. There are a lot of interesting things happening here that people outside Turkey know very little about. And sometimes I think we don’t do a particularly good job of telling the story ourselves.
Gaming is perhaps the best example. Turkey is number one in the world in mobile gaming. That is an extraordinary achievement. And it isn’t something we say loudly or often enough.
My guest on the latest episode of TRVC, Görkem Türk, is someone I particularly appreciate for being a consistent voice on this. He doesn’t shy away from pointing out just how successful Turkey has become in gaming—and backing that conviction with investment.
Görkem spent years at Google working closely with many of the people building Turkey’s gaming ecosystem before founding Laton Ventures in 2023. What Laton has accomplished since then is remarkable for a first-time fund.
Laton started with a relatively small first close and has grown to around $70 million across its fund and related vehicles. It was an early investor in Grand Games, investing at the idea stage, and has continued backing the company through subsequent rounds. More recently, it invested in Rotate Lab, the Gaziantep-based team behind Cube Land.
Turkey has developed a real cluster of expertise in mobile gaming: founders who have built global companies, employees who have learned how to scale them, investors who understand the economics, and a growing number of new teams taking that accumulated knowledge and starting again.
Peak helped establish what was possible. Dream Games followed. Now companies such as Grand Games and Rotatelab are adding another generation to the story.
And global capital has noticed. Görkem shared a remarkable statistic during our conversation: roughly 75% of external global gaming VC investment over the previous 12 months had gone into companies in Turkey. Whatever way you look at it, the concentration of international attention on Turkish gaming is striking.
This matters beyond gaming, because success creates its own flywheel. International investors who initially come to Turkey looking at gaming discover founders and opportunities in other areas. People who learn user acquisition, product development and data-driven growth inside gaming companies take those skills elsewhere. Successful founders become investors and mentors to the next generation.
That is how ecosystems develop. Part of building an ecosystem is also identifying the things that are working exceptionally well, understanding why they worked—and celebrating them. That is also part of what I hope TRVC can contribute.
I want these conversations to become a record of how the Turkish venture ecosystem developed: the people who built it, the investors who financed it, and the areas where Turkey became genuinely successful. (Ok, we’ll also point out the challenges along the way too.)
Gaming is one of those success stories. And Görkem and Laton are now very much part of its next chapter I hope you enjoy the conversation.
🎙️ TRVC 36: Inside Turkey’s $Billion Gaming Boom | Görkem Türk, Laton Ventures
(Youtube } Spotify)
This is episode 36 on my road to at least 100 conversations with Turkish VC investors. If you like what I’m doing with TRVC, as always, please share this with someone who might enjoy it too. Thanks!
Yunus