The mobile game studio behind the innovative puzzle title Match Valley will use the new investment to scale its category-creating casual game.
TaleMonster Games, an Istanbul studio founded by former Peak Games veterans, has raised $30 million in Series A funding led by Arcadia Gaming Partners and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), with participation from Point72 Ventures and General Catalyst. The new round comes roughly eight months after the company closed a $7 million seed round.
The company’s first game, Match Valley, combines traditional puzzle mechanics with elements from hero and tower defence genres. The game has shown strong early performance, including high user engagement and extended average playtime.
Irem Sümer, CEO and co-founder, said the team is focused on expanding what casual games can offer:
Today’s players are far more experienced than before. Having played mobile games for years, they now seek greater depth in their games. We see a significant opportunity to meet this shift in expectations at scale.
While the global casual gaming market serves a very large audience, meaningful differentiation, particularly in the puzzle segment, has become increasingly limited due to common design approaches. TaleMonster’s strategy is to address this by developing games that offer broad appeal while introducing deeper and more distinctive gameplay.
The Istanbul-based studio was founded by developers who previously worked on globally recognised titles such as Toon Blast and Toy Blast at Peak Games, which was acquired by Zynga for $1.8 billion. Sümer added:
We are a team brought together by a passion for product and a deep love for games. Our mission is to create games that surprise players, challenge them, and evolve alongside them.
Commenting on the investment, Akın Babayiğit, Founder and Managing Partner of Arcadia Gaming Partners, said that while early-stage companies often perform strongly in only a few areas, TaleMonster shows strength across multiple dimensions, including monetisation and retention.
The company plans to use the new funding to continue developing and expanding its game portfolio.