TaleMonster Games, an Istanbul-based mobile game studio behind the puzzle title Match Valley, has raised $30 million in a Series A funding round led by Arcadia Gaming Partners and Andreessen Horowitz.
Other participants in the round include Point72 Ventures and General Catalyst, and the company also drew support from Andreessen Horowitz’s Speedrun arm, where investor Josh Lu became involved after seeing the team’s prototype.
Talemonster was founded by CEO Irem Sumer alongside four cofounders who left Peak Games to build the company in Istanbul. The team developed Match Valley over roughly two years, launching the title in August after a seed round the prior February that raised $7 million and supported a stable build with 200 levels.
Match Valley is a mobile puzzle game that combines match-three mechanics with tower-defense elements and a roster of hero characters with unique abilities. The game monetizes through in-app purchases; early engagement metrics cited by the company show an average playtime of one and a half hours per player and about two and a half hours on the first day, and the team expanded to a 32-person remote staff to support engineering, art, product, level design, and marketing.
The $30 million Series A will be used to grow Match Valley — including building additional levels to address rapid content consumption — and to develop a new game the company plans to release this year, while maintaining a lean team structure.
“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,” said Sumer.
