Drilo Ventures Research
Investment Thesis
Drilo Ventures is a newly launched, Istanbul-based venture fund built around a single, narrow bet: Türkiye's mobile gaming success will keep compounding through a "school effect," where operators, designers, and growth leads who helped build the country's category-defining studios (the Peak Games / Dream Games generation) spin out to found their own companies. The firm calls this cohort the "second wave" of Turkish gaming founders. Drilo positions itself as the first institutional check for these founder teams, wherever in the world they choose to base the company, so long as the founding team has Turkish roots and direct operating experience inside a prior successful studio.
Sector Focus
Drilo invests exclusively in mobile gaming. The firm's own materials do not describe any interest outside games, and both public case studies to date (the firm's own announcement and its first disclosed investment) are mobile game studios. There is no evidence of interest in gaming infrastructure, esports, or non-gaming consumer apps.
Stage Focus
The fund is exclusively early-stage: pre-seed and seed. Drilo describes itself as writing "first checks" into newly founded studios, i.e., the firm expects to be among the earliest institutional capital in a company's life, often before a shipped title has meaningful traction.
Check Size
Typical investment range is $500,000 to $1,500,000 per company, consistent across both the firm's own public statements and trade press coverage of the fund launch.
Lead Tendency
Unclear from available evidence. Drilo markets itself as a first check for founders, which would normally imply a willingness to lead pre-seed rounds, but the one disclosed investment to date (Surge Games) was a participation in a round led by Play Ventures, alongside Simya VC. With only one public data point, and given the fund is barely a month old, lead tendency should be treated as unresolved rather than inferred from that single deal.
Recent Activity
Drilo Ventures publicly launched on July 30, 2026, as a $30M fund targeting Turkish mobile gaming founders. At announcement, the firm said it had already submitted its regulatory fund registration and expected a first close in October 2026, and that it had already completed an investment ahead of the public unveiling. On August 24-25, 2026, Drilo was revealed as a participant (alongside Simya VC) in a $3M pre-seed round for Surge Games, an Istanbul-based AI-native mobile puzzle game studio, led by Play Ventures. This is the fund's only investment disclosed in press or the firm's own site as of this research (the site's portfolio section otherwise shows "coming soon" placeholders).
Portfolio Highlights
- Surge Games (Istanbul) — AI-native mobile puzzle game studio founded by Onur Uras, Muhammed Atlam, Rabia Konuk Uras, and Yiğit Yücel Neğiş; shipped its first title, Twin Tiles!, on iOS and Android; raised a $3M pre-seed in August 2026 led by Play Ventures with Simya VC and Drilo Ventures participating.
No exits or later-stage graduations exist yet given the fund's age.
Team
- Doğukan Çetin, General Partner & Co-Founder — Spent six years as a fund manager at APY Ventures, where he made more than 60 technology investments; previously a board member at Millenicom; educated at Bahçeşehir University; based in Istanbul.
- Umut Yaka, General Partner & Co-Founder — Founder of Swipeline, described as Türkiye's largest startup- and tech-focused media platform, giving the firm direct visibility into the local founder ecosystem and deal flow.
The firm is a two-GP partnership with no additional investment staff disclosed publicly.
Decision Process
Partnership decision-making between the two co-founding GPs; no evidence of a broader investment committee.
Founder Preferences
Drilo explicitly targets operators, product/growth leads, and designers who worked inside Türkiye's first wave of category-defining mobile game studios, rather than first-time founders with no operating pedigree in gaming. The firm emphasizes helping these founders access UA (user acquisition) financing partnerships and warm introductions to global funds for Series A/B follow-on rounds, positioning itself as a network-driven, not just capital-driven, first check.
Geographic Focus
Primary focus is Türkiye and Turkish-founder-led studios globally; the firm explicitly backs Turkish founders "anywhere in the world," not only companies headquartered in Türkiye.