Turkey's Peak Games Raises $11.5M For Emerging Markets

Turkish social game company Peak Games announced it has raised $11.5 million in additional funding for its efforts to bring social games to emerging markets including the Middle East, North Africa, and South America. The new funding, from Earlybird Venture Capital and Hummingbird Ventures, contributes to total funding of $19 million for Peak, which boasts 16 million monthly active users focused primarily in the Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) markets. Peak's strategy was initially built on Facebook titles based on popular Turkish and Arabic card and board games, including top performer Okey, but the company has since expanded to titles like tween girl-focused TrendKidz and strategy title Umaykut. Peak recently acquired two Turkish strategy game developers and has partnered with outside developers like RockYou and MagentJoy to publish localized versions of their games in Turkey. Turkey's 30 million Facebook users make it the fourth largest Facebook market, according to Peak, with 87 percent of internet-connected Turks using the service. The 4 million people that play Peak's games daily make it the world's sixth biggest social game maker, right behind LolApps at 4.1 million. "Similar to most emerging markets, the patterns we see in MENA gaming are exceptionally exciting," said Peak Games chief strategy officer Rina Onur, in a statement. "Given our current portfolio of games and those in the pipeline that incorporate local languages, we believe we will be able to connect with users in MENA and Latin America by offering games that speak to their needs and passions."