Turkey’s Spyke raises $55M in a seed round to bring a social twist to casual mobile games

techcrunch.com:

Istanbul has become a city to watch when it comes to casual gaming startups, boosted by the likes of Peak (acquired by Zynga for $1.8 billion) and Dream (valued at $1 billion in a funding round last year). Now, a new startup is announcing a major round of funding to make its own mark on the space. Spyke Games, which hopes to bring a new dimension to casual games by using multiplayer functionality and other social elements, has raised $55 million in a seed round of funding.

“Teams and alliances, clans, tournaments — these exist in the midcore genre and that is why they are so sticky,” co-founder and CEO Rina Onur Sirinoglu said in an interview. “They let people play together and compete together. We are betting this will start happening in casual games, too.”

The funding is coming from a single investor, Griffin Gaming Partners, a VC that focuses (as you can guess by its name) on startups working in and around the games industry. Other companies in its portfolio include Discord, Forte, AppLovin, Overwolf and WinZO.

This is a big sum for a seed round in any country, but as it happens, it’s the largest seed round to date for a startup out of Turkey, underscoring just how much things have evolved in the country when it comes to attracting investment. As a point of reference, when Peak was acquired for $1.8 billion by Zynga, it had raised a mere $19 million in 10 years.

What’s even more notable is that Spyke has raised this money before it’s even launched anything. Its first game, Royal Riches, has been out in a limited release and is due to launch globally this month.

Part of the reason for the strong investor interest lies in the co-founders and their collective track record. Co-founder and CEO Rina Onur Sirinoglu had also been