Gaming has moved to the centre of Türkiye’s startup capital market—but the headline numbers require careful interpretation.
| Measure | Q1 2026 value |
|---|---|
| Gaming deal value | $534.5m |
| Loom Games transaction | $500.1m |
| Gaming value excluding Loom Games | About $34.4m |
| Loom share of gaming deal value | About 94% |
KPMG Türkiye and venture-capital firm 212 counted 42 startup investments and acquisitions worth $559.2 million in the first quarter of 2026. Gaming produced only four of those transactions, yet accounted for $534.5 million, or roughly 96% of the country’s disclosed deal value.
The decisive transaction was Scopely’s acquisition of a 50% stake in Istanbul-based Loom Games for $500.1 million. That deal gave Loom a reported valuation above $1 billion and represented almost nine-tenths of all Turkish startup transaction value recorded during the quarter.
Two financings supplied most of the remaining gaming total. TaleMonster Games raised $30 million in an early-stage round backed by Arcadia Gaming Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst and Point72 Ventures. Vento Games secured a $4 million seed round led by Makers Fund with Arcadia participating. A fourth, much smaller gaming transaction completed the sector’s $534.5 million total.
Why It Matters
The quarter should not be read as evidence that funding conditions suddenly improved for every Turkish game studio. Excluding acquisitions, total startup investment across all sectors was $50 million—down from $65 million in the first quarter of 2025. Thirty-five seed rounds were completed, but they represented only 3% of aggregate deal value.
Capital origin tells the same story. Local investors participated in 40 transactions worth a combined $55 million. Foreign investors appeared in only two, but those deals contributed $504 million, or 90% of total value. The market’s scale was therefore created by a small number of international cheques rather than a broad increase in domestic capital availability.
Loom Games alone accounts for about 94% of the gaming total. Removing that transaction leaves approximately $34.4 million across the sector’s other three deals. That is still meaningful, particularly because TaleMonster raised a substantial institutional round, but it produces a very different picture from the unadjusted $534.5 million headline.
What Changed
Concentration does not make the signal irrelevant. KPMG’s quarterly work has repeatedly identified gaming as one of the Turkish ecosystem’s strongest channels for attracting international capital. The 2026 report describes Loom’s acquisition as further evidence that specialised local expertise can command interest from global buyers.
Türkiye has built a recognisable pipeline in mobile games: studios develop globally oriented products, foreign publishers and funds provide scale capital, and successful businesses become acquisition targets. The first quarter shows all three parts of that structure—seed investment, growth funding and a major studio exit—even if the largest deal overwhelms the aggregate.
What to Watch
- The next quarterly report’s deal count and value excluding the Loom Games transaction.
- Repeat investments or exits involving TaleMonster, Vento and other studios, which would show whether the pipeline extends beyond one acquisition.
- The share of foreign and domestic capital in later rounds, and whether funding broadens from mobile development into publishing or other platforms.
