Mustafa Cihat Durmuş, CEO of StartGate, which opens its doors to entrepreneurs with a strong ecosystem in the digital gaming industry, signed a strategic partnership with Aktif Portföy and launched PlayGate VC Fund. Durmuş stated that the fund, which will serve startups in the digital gaming and gaming technologies vertical, is expected to reach 750 million TL in a short period. "The revenue generated from the fund will be used to expand our game studios and games globally," he said.
In June 2023, Mustafa Cihat Durmuş, the Founder and CEO of StartGate, the Digital Gaming
and Gaming Technologies Entrepreneurship Center, which opened its doors to entrepreneurs
in the gaming industry, signed a strategic partnership with Aktif Portföy. The PlayGate
Venture Capital Investment Fund (VC Fund), the first private investment fund in the
gaming vertical by Aktif Portföy, was established to support entrepreneurs in the
digital gaming industry. With the launch of PlayGate VC Fund, which aims to contribute
to the growth and development of the gaming industry, investments will be made in areas
such as mobile, PC, and console games, e-sports and technologies, NFTs, cloud gaming,
educational and simulation games, Metaverse, VR/AR, and AI. The fund will make a
significant contribution to supporting the Turkish gaming ecosystem and will also offer
high return potential to its investors.
The fund, expected to reach a size of 750 million TL in a short time, aims to play a
significant role in enabling Turkey’s gaming industry to produce AAA-level games.
STARTGATE AFFILIATE STUDIOS REACH A VALUATION OF $52 MILLION
In less than a year, studios supported by StartGate, including Noko Games, Wendigo Games, Ponchiqs, Game Actor, Arvis Games, Mediazone Games, Pigeoon, Albert Medya, and Femme Fatale, among others, have reached a valuation of $52 million.
StartGate CEO and PlayGate Ventures Chairman Mustafa Cihat Durmuş stated that they established PlayGate based on the confidence gained from their success at StartGate. He also added that both local and global companies, as well as individual investors, can become partners in the PlayGate VC Fund.
"WE AIM TO ATTRACT GLOBAL INVESTORS TO OUR COUNTRY"
Emphasizing that the fund will be a significant leverage point for the development of Turkey’s gaming industry, Durmuş stated, “Through this fund, which will be open to both local and global investors, we aim to attract international investors’ interest to our country. Investments in this sector are growing worldwide, providing substantial returns for investors. At the same time, investors want to channel their funds into strong players through the right platform. We believe that PlayGate VC Fund, backed by StartGate’s strength, will become one of the largest funds in our region.”