Welcome back to another EUVC Podcast, where we gather Europe’s venture family to share the stories, insights, and lessons that drive our ecosystem forward.
Today we dive into the world of gaming with Alper Oner, Co-founder of Agave Games, and Enis Hulli, General Partner at e2vc. Agave has taken the gaming world by storm with its hit “Find the Cat” — a quirky hidden-object game that has become a global revenue driver, generating hundreds of thousands of dollars in daily revenue. But this wasn’t a straight line: Agave started as a publisher, pivoted into building games in-house, and is now raising big rounds to expand with its new hit “What the Hex.”
Agave has taken the gaming world by storm with its hit “Find the Cat” — a quirky hidden-object game that climbed global charts, hitting tens of thousands of dollars in daily revenue and inspiring a wave of imitators. But the road here was far from linear: Agave began as a publisher, pivoted to a studio model, and has since raised an $18M Series A led by Baldur’s Gate Capital, Felicis, and e2vc to fuel its next big title — “What the Hex.”
Together, Enis and Alper unpack how to back founders over ideas, pivot at the right time, and scale when metrics explode — all while explaining why Turkey has quietly become Europe’s mobile gaming superpower.
🎧 Here’s what’s covered:
00:10 Introduction: Andreas sets the stage with Alper (Agave) & Enis (E2VC), and why Turkey is Europe’s gaming powerhouse.
05:00 Origins: Alper’s pivot from San Francisco data science to mobile gaming, founding Agave with high school friends.
10:00 Publisher Model Pivot: Why Agave started as a publisher, why the space saturated, and how they decided to build games in-house.
15:00 Betting on Founders: Enis on why pivots are inevitable, and why VCs back founders over ideas.
20:00 Turkey’s Gaming Wave: From Peak Games to 80+ new studios, how the ecosystem multiplies talent and capital.
25:00 Cracking the Code: How “Find the Cat” scaled from intuition to top charts, with ROAS and retention metrics off the charts.
30:00 The Cat Effect: Why cats trend globally, the copycats that followed, and why Agave resists “reskinning.”
35:00 What the Hex: Agave’s next title in the booming sorting genre, its differentiating mechanics, and early fan addiction stories.
40:00 Raising $18M: How Agave closed its Series A with Baldur’s Gate Capital, Felicis, and E2VC, and why they chose speed over maximum valuation.
45:00 Lessons Learned: Alper on vision-setting before execution, Enis on prorata strategy, and why gaming is Pixar, not SaaS.
50:00 Future of Gaming: Will the industry move towards blockbusters or niches, and why agility across multiple titles is now key.
You can watch the episode here, or add it to your queue on Apple or Spotify 🎧 (chapters for easy navigation available on both).
✍️ Show Notes
The Core Insight
Agave’s story proves that pivots aren’t failures — they’re the norm.
Starting as a publisher gave Alper’s team valuable data intuition, but real success came from taking creative control. With Find the Cat, they turned a simple idea into a global hit by pairing founder instinct + metric obsession.
Enis: “That’s kind of always the case… you’re betting on pivots, nothing else. And there isn’t that many examples where a company’s vision stays the same until they become a unicorn. It’s never that linear.”
Alper: “We wanted to get more skin in the game. Although we were super involved in publishing, it didn’t perfectly align with our long-term vision. That’s when we decided to pivot and start building games in-house.”
Why Now
Turkey is now Europe’s mobile gaming capital, producing two unicorns (Peak & Dream) and spawning dozens of studios.
It’s a small, tight-knit hub — and that’s the superpower. Founders, talent, and capital circulate fast.
Enis: “Out of Peak’s hundred people came eighty new studios. That multiplier effect is crazy from every level — from talent being able to pull talent, to entrepreneurs, to getting funding from international sources.”
Alper: “If Peak didn’t have that influence in Turkey, I think none of those gaming companies would get funding early in the days. Someone setting up the tone for the Turkish ecosystem really helped all of us.”
Basically:
Turkey’s gaming ecosystem is booming, with a proven flywheel from Peak Games to 80+ new studios.
Gaming talent density and entrepreneurial appetite create multiplier effects unlike anywhere else.
Global mobile gaming remains inherently scalable, and Turkey’s founders play on that frontier.
Agave’s Model
Underserved niches → genre-defining games.
Agave identifies spaces like hidden-object and sorting genres — then executes flawlessly.
Obsession with retention, ROAS, payback, and LTV.
Relentless scaling once the data validates intuition.
Global-first focus — Asia, Europe, and the U.S. from day one.
Alper: “The mechanic — the Find the Cat mechanic — really addressed the pain points of the genre. It was an easy decision for us to be super bullish on the game.”
Strategic Moves
Pivoted from publishing to in-house studio.
Rejected cloning: “No reskinning. Originality compounds.”
Raised $18M fast, choosing trusted partners and execution speed over chasing the highest valuation.
Built a data-driven culture — but still “bullish on intuition.”
Enis: “As they were scaling, obviously you burn money as you scale, but the metrics were super good. Alper was very aggressive about it — he said, ‘I’m going to raise in the next sixty days, either with the internal investors or not.’ Thirty days later, he had other options and other term sheets, but he wanted to stick with Felicis to close really fast.”
Takeaways for VCs & Founders
Back founders, not ideas. Great founders will pivot until they find gold.
In gaming, creative talent density is the real moat.
When metrics are off the charts — press the gas.
Don’t overanalyze content businesses like SaaS. As Enis puts it:
Enis: “That’s why we have this thesis with Turkey — because the talent here is one of the best in the world.”
What’s Next
Agave’s next hit, What the Hex, is already lighting up test cohorts in the booming sorting genre. Early fan stories show addiction-level engagement.
Enis: “It became the time for studios that have multiple games, multiple assets — where they can balance different segments and retentions. That flexibility became the thing to do.”
The team’s ambition? To scale globally while proving that Turkey’s new generation of founders can create franchise-level titles rivaling the biggest global studios.
💡 One-liner takeaway:
Gaming is more Pixar than SaaS — and Agave shows how Turkey’s best founders can turn quirky ideas like “Find the Cat” into global blockbusters.
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