Istanbul-based mobile studio Circle Games has closed a $25 million Series A round led by Tencent, pushing the studio's total funding to $32.25 million across its seed and Series A.

Existing investors e2vc, BITKRAFT Ventures, APY Ventures and a16z Speedrun also participated. Circle Games previously raised $7.25 million in a seed round completed in July 2025.

What is Circle Games shipping today?

Circle Games develops mobile puzzle titles, with Sort Express serving as the studio's first globally released game. The company built Sort Express with an internal emphasis on user experience work and data analysis during development, per the company's own description.

The studio released Jelly Escape more recently. Both titles will get continued investment from the new capital, with Jelly Escape in particular set for geographic expansion.

What will the $25 million fund?

Circle Games has earmarked the round across three operational tracks:

• Geographic expansion of Jelly Escape into markets beyond the current launch footprint.
• Continued global scaling of Sort Express.
• A planned at-least-doubling of headcount, alongside new mobile titles that expand the portfolio beyond two games.

The headcount commitment is the most concrete near-term change. Circle Games did not disclose its current team size, but the doubling target will materially shift the studio's monthly burn and operating footprint in Istanbul.

How does the CEO frame the next phase?

Circle Games co-founder and CEO Göktürk Balıkcı tied the round to craft standards in puzzle development rather than scale for its own sake.

"In order to be successful in the puzzle genre, it is necessary to establish the details correctly and not to lose that care as the game grows," Balıkcı said. "Sort Express showed us that we had the right approach."

He added: "We aim to grow our team with people who set the same bar for themselves and make Circle Games one of the most successful game studios to come out of Turkey."

What is notable about the investor mix?

Tencent's decision to lead — rather than to participate alongside — is the distinguishing feature of the cap table. The investor lineup pairs a Chinese platform operator that routinely takes positions in mid-sized mobile studios with three Western specialty funds (BITKRAFT, APY, a16z Speedrun) and Istanbul-rooted seed operator e2vc.

For mobile puzzle developers tracking capital flows, the composition signals willingness on Tencent's part to underwrite a studio competing in a category where its own publishing operations also operate. Strategic versus financial capital is rarely a clean distinction inside Chinese platform investment; the round nonetheless routes capital to a Turkish independent rather than an outright acquisition target.

What should the industry watch next?

Three signals will indicate whether this round marks a wider thaw in mobile-puzzle Series A activity or remains an isolated transaction:

• Whether a second Istanbul or comparable emerging-hub mobile studio announces a comparable-sized round within the next two quarters.
• Jelly Escape revenue performance in the newly added markets — daily active users and D30 retention remain the operative benchmarks for puzzle games at this scale.
• Circle Games' first post-funding title announcement, which will clarify whether the studio broadens beyond puzzle variants or stays narrowly focused.

The round closes into a market where mobile-puzzle Series A activity thinned sharply through 2024 and the first half of 2025. Circle Games' $25m is one of the largest publicly disclosed raises in the casual-puzzle segment so far this year — a benchmark for any studio in the category now preparing a deck.