How a 5-Particular person Crew Raised $30 Million for Their Gaming Business

On October 3, Irem Sumer signed a doc that group leaders of nerdy crews worldwide dream of inking: a time period sheet that raised $30 million in Series A funding for her Istanbul-based sport firm, Talemonster Games.

Less than 24 hours later, Sumer, the startup’s CEO, was signing one other necessary doc — her marriage license.

“It was the most chaotic two weeks of my life,” Sumer instructed Business Insider, including that at one level, she instructed her then-fiancé that wedding ceremony planning could be left to him, and he or she’d simply present as much as get married.

That day in October capped off two years of labor on the sport “Match Valley,” the sport title. The funding spherical was led by Arcadia Gaming Partners and Andreessen Horowitz with participation from Point72 Ventures and General Catalyst.

This comes after a seed funding spherical final February, when Talemonster Games’ 5 cofounders raised $7 million to make their sport and take it to market.

“I wasn’t planning to fundraise in September because I believed it was a bit too early for us. But the metrics were good, and there was a lot of strategic interest in our company,” Sumer stated.

Quitting collectively, staying collectively

Sumer, a civil engineer by coaching, labored at Pfizer and Google earlier than becoming a member of Peak Games as a product specialist in 2020. She labored there for simply over three years, the place she met colleagues who would later resign from the corporate alongside her to start out Talemonster Games.

“I wanted to be in tech, and gaming was my passion, but I never thought that I could make money from it,” Sumer stated.

The five-member founding crew give up the identical week, Sumer stated, and resolved to dedicate 100% of their time to creating what would grow to be “Match Valley.”

Sumer estimates that her group performed “hundreds of games” throughout their first month of market analysis. They then constructed the sport collectively, pulling 18-hour shifts on most days to construct its ranges.

“It took us around three months to come up with this idea and lots of prototypes,” Sumer stated.

“Match Valley” is constructed on fundamental puzzle-solving mechanics, very like “Candy Crush,” the place players have to match objects to progress in ranges. It’s additionally built-in with tower protection and has a forged of hero characters with distinctive talents.

Talemonster Games

The group launched the sport in August after its seed spherical, once they had a secure model of the sport at 200 ranges. Then, they began to “suffer from success,” Sumer stated.

“People consumed all our content in 10 days, and then they turned away from the game,” Sumer stated. “We had to stop everything and start building more levels. I designed levels myself, too, and also we had to grow the team.”

“Match Valley’s” present engagement metrics, Sumer says, helped satisfied traders that their small startup is value pouring cash into.

“The game’s core audience is still female dominant, but they are spending one and a half hours on average per player in the game,” she instructed Business Insider. On common, gamers spent two and a half hours of their first day in-game, she stated.

The sport makes cash from its in-app buy mannequin, Sumer stated.

Sliding into the LinkedIn DMs

Talemonster Games

Sumer stated she and her cofounders managed to get investor Josh Lu and his group at A16z Speedrun on board with Talemonster after a message on LinkedIn. Sumer says she slid into Lu’s LinkedIn DMs after a publish he made about being looking out for attention-grabbing video games.

“I thought, he’s basically describing our prototype, that can’t be a coincidence. So we reached out to him with a cold text, and he just fell in love with the prototype,” Sumer stated of her trade with Lu.

In a press launch asserting the Series A funding, Lu praised Sumer and her group for by no means taking “the easy route.”

“They’ve built an original product and a culture that isn’t afraid to challenge the industry,” stated he added.

The $30 million funding spherical will go to rising “Match Valley,” and constructing a brand new sport that they plan to launch this 12 months. TaleMonster has 32 workers, working throughout engineering, artwork, product administration, stage design, and advertising and marketing.

“I don’t plan to hire too many people,” Sumer stated, including that she likes “lean, high-responsibility teams.”

Tips to construct a gaming startup

Sumer instructed Business Insider she has three items of recommendation for individuals trying to construct a gaming startup.

“When you are starting from scratch, I think it’s on you to be brave. You have nothing to lose,” she stated.

Secondly, it is necessary to choose the fitting companions.

“The team you create, the culture you create, the investors you accept, they have to share the same vision with you,” she stated. “And it’s a painful process because you have to say lots of nos.”

And lastly, she stated to rejoice wins, regardless of the every day nervousness of working a brand new firm.

“You are always in this grind mode, and you always have to think about your next goal, and the next after that,” Sumer stated. “I think you have to stop and say, ‘I mean, we are achieving great stuff, so we have to celebrate it together.'”