Drilo Ventures reveals $30m fund for ‘Türkiye’s second wave of gaming founders’

There’s a new VC fund looking to back Turkish gaming founders: Drilo Ventures.

The new firm has $30m to spend backing what it calls Turkey’s second wave of gaming founders, wherever they may be in the world.

Drilo is founded by Doğukan Çetin, a fund manager at Apy Ventures, and Umut Yaka, founder of Türkiye’s largest startup and tech-focused media company, Swipeline. The firm has filed its regulatory application and will complete its first close in October, it says.

The fund will make investments ranging from $500k to $1.5m in early-stage startups, and says it will also work to bring global funds to the table when investees get to Series A or Series B stage. Drilo Ventures also has agreements in place with UA financing firms in Türkiye and elsewhere to help studios through launch and beyond.

“Türkiye’s success in puzzle games is not an exception — it’s a tradition that has proven itself on a global scale,” said Drilo Ventures general partner Doğukan Çetin. “We believe this momentum will keep accelerating in the coming years, because the newly founded studios are being built by teams who have personally lived through this success and know firsthand the roadmap that leads to it. We founded Drilo Ventures precisely to support this new generation of founders.”

He continued: “Together with my partner Umut, we have one of the strongest networks in the ecosystem, and we offer founders not just capital but this entire network of relationships. The UA funds and potential acquirers we’re building relationships with today are part of that. We will support the scaling businesses in our portfolio through these partnerships at the most critical stage of growth, and we’ll be by their side on the road to exit.”

Fellow Drilo Ventures general partner Umut Yaka added: ”The first generation of Turkish game studios didn’t just create global hit games — they also raised a generation of founders who mastered product, growth, UX, and studio management at the highest level.”

“This generation is now founding their own companies. As Drilo Ventures, we will partner with these founders, whom we call the ‘second wave,’ at the earliest stage. Our goal is to build the biggest VC brand to come out of Turkey.”