Ankara-based mobile gaming startup UDO Games, founded by Mustafa Türker Karahan, Gökhan Güngör and Andaç Altak, completed its first investment round in partnership with WePlay Ventures and Lima Ventures. UDO Games, which received an investment of 420 thousand dollars over a valuation of 4.2 million dollars, will start working to publish the casual mobile games they developed with this investment.
UDO Games has reached more than 45 million users with its published games to date.
UDO Games, formed into a legal corporation within the body of ODTÜ ATOM in 2013, attracted attention with the Incredible Toys casual game which is in action runner and tower defense category, published 1 year after its establishment. The game has won the “Crystal Pixel Awards” in the category of “Game of The Year” and “Best Game Design” in Turkey and also it also was nominated for “Best Mobile Game” category in both “Casual Connect Europe” and “Game Connection Europe” conferances in the same year when it is released. With this momentum they had, they managed to take themselves to the next level in the “io” game category, which made its mark recently. The game studio, which exceeded the 1 million download threshold in a short time with the first “io” game they developed, Blobie.io, has reached more than 45 million users to date with all the io games they developed, especially Goons.io, Boas.io and Spear.io. UDO Games, which also includes PC and Console games in its portfolio, has now tested more than 100 games in the Hyper-Casual game genre. The team, which continues to work with its two offices in Ankara and a team of 30 people, will start to publish the casual games they have developed by strengthening their marketing and developer teams with this investment.
“It is very valuable for us to get the support of two experienced investment companies on this road to our goals”
The UDO Games team stated that they have been aiming to be an independent game studio since the first year they were founded, producing games with their own unique methods and aiming to be a game company that shapes the sector by developing these methods; “Both our founders and our teammates are doing this childhood dream job with great passion. We think that this is the most important reason behind our success so far. Today, we are moving to a new stage together. Our dreams and goals are huge. It means a lot for us to know that two partners such as WePlay Ventures, who are professional in the gaming industry, and Lima Ventures, an experienced investment team, are with us on this path. With this investment, we started a project called Next Gen Devs to bring new faces to the game industry in the country. Within the scope of this project, more than 200 applications were made to the internship program we organized this summer. We included a group of 30 trainees in a 6-week training and hands-on game development program. In addition, we create video content that everyone can benefit from in game development by making weekly live broadcasts with the participation of important names from the industry. Within the scope of this project, we will take serious steps to raise qualified human resources with all this project content by organizing game development activities in the future.” WePlay Ventures managing partner Bora Koçyiğit; “As WePlay, we have had the opportunity to meet with hundreds of game studios since the day we were founded. UDO Games is one of the studios that excites us the most. We will be doing the best we can by being with them on this path they set out on. I am sure that you will hear the name of UDO Games much more in a very short time.” he expressed his opinion. Ahmet Argun, managing partner of Lima Ventures; “As Lima Ventures, we are extremely happy to make our first investment in UDO Games together with Weplay, which is an expert in the game vertical, after long researches and reviews. In addition to being a competent game studio, UDO Games is fully compatible with our investment thesis with its rapid growth and international potential.” he expressed his opinion.
You can visit their website to review UDO Games. You can reach the live broadcasts of the program they developed on Twitch, and the repetitions of these broadcasts and other content on Youtube channels.