Casual Mobile Games: TaleMonster Games secures $7M

Source: VentureBeat

TaleMonster Games, an Istanbul studio founded by Peak Games veterans on a mission to bring depth and creativity back to casual puzzle games, has raised $7 million in funding.

TaleMonster just scored big. With fresh funding led by General Catalyst — joined by A16z Speedrun, Arcadia, and Ludus Ventures — the studio is set to fast-track development on its debut lineup, including the upcoming match-3 title Match Valley.

But this isn’t just about one game.

CEO Irem Sumer told GamesBeat that TaleMonster was built on a clear mission: today’s players are more sophisticated than ever — and their games should rise to meet them. This investment fuels that vision, backing the studio’s creative and technical push to redefine what casual puzzle gaming can be.

“We have been working together for the last six years,” Sumer said. “We all know each other from Peak Games. We have multidisciplinary expertise across both artistic and technical disciplines, and after five years at Peak, we decided to leave our jobs finally and start our own company.”

Sumer said many of the mobile players have been playing the same mobile games for almost a decade, and they developed serious gaming skills during that time. But Sumer and her team believes that during this time, the definition of casual gamers has changed. While match-3 games are casual in their nature, players can develop skills playing them and become more like hardcore gamers.

She said these players “deserve games that respect their time, their skills and their attention. So we want to be the company that redefines what this means in mobile gaming. That’s why we started TaleMonster Games.”

The founding team brings deep experience from some of the most successful games in the space, including titles built at Peak Games, the seminal Türkiye-based mobile game maker which was acquired by Zynga for $1.8 billion in 2020.

“We’re a multidisciplinary founding team united by a shared obsession with product and a deep love for games,” said Sumer. “We started TaleMonster because we saw something missing in the games we loved. Casual games have become too predictable, too optimized, and not enough fun. We believe players deserve better: games that surprise, challenge, and evolve with them.”

The TaleMonster team started with five cofounders including Sumer, Simay Kahraman, Berk Yasar,
Emre Yanik, and Eren Saricicek. The fact there are two women among the founders makes the company relatively rare in the game industry — as recent venture capital stats show.

has years of experience building and scaling hit puzzle games, with a proven track record in crafting high-quality products end to end. With deep roots in both creative and technical disciplines, TaleMonster is built to move fast, execute with care, and deliver games that last.

This seed round will help TaleMonster scale its vision: building rich, evergreen puzzle games that grow with their players. They plan to expand the team, accelerate development, and continue investing in reusable systems that support smarter game design, personalized experiences, and efficient content delivery to launch faster, learn quicker, and build a portfolio of games that players can return to over time.

“Mobile players have changed. They’ve grown sharper, more curious, and a lot harder to impress. They can tell when a game is built with care and when it’s not,” said Sumer. “We want every game we build to feel like it respects your time, your attention, and your skill.”

In a market where thousands of games launch each year and most are forgotten within months, TaleMonster is taking a different path. Their focus isn’t just on launching a single hit, but on building a team of passionate, curious people who can create multiple standout titles over time.

By creating an environment where great talent can thrive, the studio aims to develop not only games that last, but a culture that lasts just as long. Their first title, Match Valley, proves they’re on the right track, with players spending an average of 52 minutes in the game each day.

“We’re building a team that grows with every title we release; sharp, curious, and unafraid to experiment. With this funding, we can go faster, think bigger, and keep raising the bar for what casual games can be.”

“At General Catalyst, we have a long-standing history of investing in gaming with Discord, Superplay, Brain Games and others,” said Zeynep Yavuz, partner at General Catalyst, in a message to GamesBeat. “With our investment in Talemonsters, we’re backing a team with deep experience and a fresh vision for casual games—at a time when many have become overly optimized and commoditized. Talemonsters is on a mission to bring back the fun with unexpected twists, evolving gameplay, and challenges that grow with the player.”

Origins

The team started in February 2024 and they launched their first game Match Valley in September. They have been updating the game and have started growth marketing in the past couple of months. The game currently has 50% day one retention, meaning 50% of players come back after the first day. They play an average of 52 minutes per day. For mobile games, those are great numbers, and it explains why the company has been able to raise a lot of money.

While match-3 is a crowded genre, Sumer said that people will likely agree that the core mechanics of her company’s game are unique. The title combines match-3 with tower defense mechanics.

In terms of inspiration, Sumer said, “We always knew that we wanted to do something new. We wanted to surprise players. We played hundreds of games over the course of months after we left our jobs.”

The company has 17 people spread across multiple cities. By next year, Sumer hopes the staff will be doubled.

Many of the company’s staff come from Peak Games but Türkiye has a number of game design programs at universities turning out talented game developers at a regular cadence — thanks to the success of Peak Games, according to startups.watch data. There are 1,095 game startups in Türkiye.

“When you graduate from the university, and when you are a top talent, gaming is a really strong career path ahead of you, the family will support that,” Sumer said.

Mobile gaming has had challenges in the wake of Apple’s decision a few years ago to prioritize user privacy over targeted ads. But Sumer is proud of how Türkiye’s game companies have dealt with the changes and still managed to grow their businesses.

“In Türkiye, we are quite optimistic,” she said. “Everyone’s striving to define the next genre and bring opportunities to market.”