Mika Games raises $10M to plug mobile gaming's soft-launch funding gap
What's the deal? Mika GamesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a Nicosia-based gaming investment company founded by Wargaming cofounder Nick Katselapov, has raised $10 million in early-stage funding. Flint CapitalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → led the round, with participation from new and existing investors.
What's the endgame? The money targets a specific gap: early-stage mobile studios need a proven marketing record to unlock financing, but building that record demands significant upfront capital. Specialist providers typically want several months of campaign history, $300,000 to $500,000 in prior marketing spend, and a predictable payback period before they fund user acquisition.
Mika invests before a studio's economics are proven, using equity to back the team and product alongside a separate pool of capital for larger paid acquisition tests. Those tests generate the retention and payback data studios need to access bigger financing arrangements later.
Why now? Katselapov argues early capital increasingly decides which games reach players. "Global gaming user acquisition spend reached $25 billion in 2025, while ad impressions increased 20%," he said in a statement. Over the same period, the number of new titles in the US top 1,000 by downloads fell from about 200 in 2020 to just over 100 in 2024, and games more than two years old now generate over 80% of revenue in most genres.
By the numbers: Founded in 2023, Mika has grown from three to five portfolio studios this year. Backed titles include Guli Games'Dealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → 3D farming adventure Legendale , which has topped 3 million players, and Agonalea Games'Dealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → tower defense title Punko , which has passed 500,000 downloads. The portfolio now spans casual, hybrid-casual, midcore, and hardcore strategy games.
Flint Capital frames the approach as a way to manage the risk of backing unproven economics. "Mika changes that equation by spreading exposure across teams and genres, deploying capital in stages, and using product and cohort data to determine where to invest further," said general partner Sergey Gribov in a statement.
The signal: The round sits at the large end for its field, ranking in the 93rd percentile among all-time early VC rounds for marketing-focused companies in Cyprus. It also fits a wider 2026 shift toward specialist user-acquisition financing, as studios such as Metasports Interactive and Two DesperadosDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → secure sizable facilities for games with traction. Mika's bet is on the earlier, riskier stage before that capital becomes available — and its payoff depends on whether these tests produce titles that scale profitably.
Read more: gamesbeat.com
Image credit: Official GDC
