Circle Games raises $7.25 million in its latest funding round

Circle Games has announced the successful acquisition of $7.25 million during its recent fundraising campaign.

This investment round, spearheaded by Bitkraft Ventures and including participation from a16z Speedrun, Play Ventures, e2vc, and APY Ventures, will be directed towards the development of the game Sort Express and other future projects. The Istanbul-based company also plans to use these funds to expand its staff.

"We aim to enhance our team and expand our debut title," said CEO Gokturk Balıkcı to GamesBeat. "Circle is focusing on the casual puzzle genre, where players demand higher-quality visuals and user experiences due to increased competition compared to a decade ago. The game needs to meet players' skill expectations."

Balıkcı highlighted that "Turkey’s most popular games come from the mobile puzzle category, so there's relevant talent available... We are innovating in later game stages by introducing new mechanics, which we believe are crucial for long-term player retention."

Jasper Brand, a partner at Bitkraft Ventures, commented, "Circle Games stands out as one of the most promising seed-stage studios. They blend profound domain expertise with a strong sense of gaming, rapid development, and a solid grasp of how to succeed in the current mobile gaming environment. We think their advancements in progression systems, adaptive difficulty, and playable ad strategies position them well to become Turkey's next big name in casual gaming."