Arcadia Gaming Partners Research
Investment Thesis
Arcadia Gaming Partners is a founder-first venture fund built exclusively for the mobile games industry. It was founded by Akın Babayigit, the co-founder and former president of Tripledot Studios (peak valuation $1.4B), who previously ran Facebook's Audience Network across EMEA and advised Peak Games ahead of its $1.8B sale to Zynga. The firm's stated philosophy is that capital alone does not build winning studios: Arcadia positions itself as an operating partner that helps founders with hiring, user acquisition, and monetization, on top of writing checks. Babayigit has repeatedly framed the thesis around conviction over luck, arguing that durable studios come from disciplined, lean teams who move faster than incumbents' legacy playbooks. In public commentary he has also pointed to Türkiye, China, and Vietnam as the geographies producing the next wave of breakout mobile game studios, reflecting his own network from the Istanbul gaming scene (Peak Games, Gram Games, Dream Games alumni).
Sector Focus
Arcadia invests exclusively in mobile gaming: casual and hypercasual publishers, puzzle and merge mechanics, play-to-earn/rewarded-play apps, and adjacent gaming infrastructure. It does not appear to invest outside games.
Stage Focus
Publicly described as targeting Seed through Series B, though its disclosed activity to date skews heavily seed-stage, with one notable $30M Series A co-lead.
Check Size
Not formally disclosed. Observed lead/co-lead checks range from roughly $2M (Loom Games seed) to $6M (Bold Games seed), inside larger rounds that can total up to $30M (TaleMonster Games Series A, where Arcadia co-led alongside a16z).
Lead Tendency
Mixed. Arcadia has led standalone rounds (Iron Games $4M, MoneyTime $3M) and co-led syndicated rounds alongside other funds (Bold Games with Makers Fund/e2vc, TaleMonster Games with a16z, Rotatelab with Laton Ventures). Its first disclosed investment, Good Job Games, was led by Menlo Ventures with Arcadia participating as a new backer.
Recent Activity
Arcadia has been highly active since its December 2024 incorporation, closing a $100M debut fund and deploying into at least seven mobile game studios within roughly 18 months:
- March 2025: Participated in Good Job Games' $23M seed round (led by Menlo Ventures) — Arcadia's first disclosed investment.
- November 2025: Led a $4M investment in Iron Games, a UK studio founded by former Gram Games executives.
- January 2026: Made a seven-figure seed investment in Loom Games alongside e2vc.
- January 2026: Co-led TaleMonster Games' $30M Series A alongside Andreessen Horowitz, with Point72 Ventures and General Catalyst also participating.
- January 2026: Led a $3M seed round in play-to-earn app MoneyTime.
- February 2026: Loom Games was acquired by Scopely at a valuation exceeding $1B, roughly a month after Arcadia's seed check — one of the fastest seed-to-unicorn outcomes in gaming.
- July 2026: Co-led a $6M seed round in Istanbul studio Bold Games alongside Makers Fund, with JIMCO and angel investors also participating.
- August 2026: Co-led a seed round in Turkish studio Rotatelab (developer of Cube Land) alongside Laton Ventures.
The fund is actively deploying and shows no signs of slowing.
Portfolio Highlights
Notable portfolio companies include Good Job Games (Zen Match, Wonder Blast, Match Villains; 3B+ downloads), TaleMonster Games (Match Valley, $30M Series A), Iron Games (founded by the Merge Dragons! team), Rotatelab (Cube Land, 2M+ downloads, Top 80 US grossing), and MoneyTime (play-to-earn, 2M+ downloads across 30 countries). Its standout outcome to date is Loom Games, whose title Pixel Flow! drove the studio to a $1B+ acquisition by Scopely within months of Arcadia's seed investment — one of the fastest unicorn outcomes in gaming history.
Team
- Akın Babayigit, Founder & Managing Partner — Co-founder and former president of Tripledot Studios (reached $1.4B valuation); previously led Facebook's Audience Network for EMEA; advised Peak Games pre-acquisition by Zynga ($1.8B). LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/akinbabayigit
- Sabahat Gümüştaş, Principal — Joined February 2026 with nearly four years of VC experience across İstanbul Portföy Yönetimi, Logo Ventures, twozero Ventures, TechOne Venture Capital, and most recently Metis Ventures, where she sourced and led the fund's first two investments. At Arcadia she manages a portfolio spanning Loom Games, TaleMonster Games, Good Job Games, and over a dozen additional gaming companies.
- Orkun Kilic, Director — Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Berry Street Capital; serves as a co-director of the Arcadia entity alongside Babayigit, per UK Companies House filings (neither partner holds majority voting rights alone).
Decision Process
Structured as a small, hands-on partnership rather than a large investment committee: Babayigit is the public-facing decision-maker and lead investor on most deals, with Kilic as a co-director and Gümüştaş managing sourcing and portfolio work as Principal. No formal IC process has been publicly described.
Founder Preferences
Babayigit has consistently backed founders with prior success in the mobile games industry rather than first-time operators: the Iron Games founders shipped Merge Dragons!, the Good Job Games founders built a 3B-download hypercasual publisher, the TaleMonster Games team came from Peak Games, and the Rotatelab and Loom Games teams are experienced Turkish studio operators. The stated preference is for "disciplined, lean" teams relentlessly focused on execution over strategy decks.
Geographic Focus
Headquartered in Richmond, London, UK, but its deployed capital is concentrated in Türkiye's mobile gaming hub (Istanbul, Gaziantep) — reflecting Babayigit's Turkish gaming network from Peak Games, Gram Games, and Dream Games — alongside UK-based studios (Iron Games). Babayigit has publicly flagged Türkiye, China, and Vietnam as the geographies he expects to produce the next wave of breakout mobile studios.