The below profile of Loom Games co-founder and CEO Kübra Gündoğan was written by Mehtap Demir and first appeared in Turkish as a cover story for Fast Company Türkiye. It has been edited for translation, brevity and clarity.In February 2026, Scopely announced it had entered an agreement to acquire a majority stake in Loom Games and closed the transaction soon after.—
The startup world has seen remarkable growth stories. In the game industry, however, the average time needed to reach major milestones is around two to three years. Supercell reached a $1 billion valuation in approximately three years, while Dream Games did so in two years.Loom Games, founded in 2025, achieved this pace even faster. The company was founded by CEO Kübra Gündoğan and CTO Emre Çelik. Rather than positioning itself as only a game studio, the company presents itself as a community-focused organization that aims to offer players new experiences while competing globally.Its approach is described as different from the traditional "publisher" model. Its hybrid puzzle game Pixel Flow! reached more than 10 million players within a few months. In addition, it became the only Turkish-developed casual puzzle game to rank among the top 20 highest-grossing games in the United States.Earlier this year, Scopely, one of the leading mobile-first video game companies in the world, acquired a majority stake in Loom Games with Kübra and Emre continuing to lead the studio from Istanbul. Loom Games co-founder and CEO Kübra Gündoğan spoke with Fast Company about the company's rapid success, its entrepreneurial journey and its future goals. This article is written in her voice.—
A childhood passion for gamesI've been playing games since I was very young, and they've always been an important part of my life.
After graduating in computer engineering, I began thinking about what kind of career I wanted to build. During that process, I realized game development is a field that uniquely combines technical knowledge with creativity, and I decided to enter the games industry.
At first, it simply looked like an exciting and enjoyable journey. Over time, however, I realized that games can reach millions of people, evoke emotions and create experiences that have an impact on a global scale.
That realization completely changed my motivation for developing games.
The first impactful moment of my careerThroughout my professional career, I worked on different projects and gained valuable experience not only in the technical side of development but also in game design and team management.
The biggest turning point for me and my team was working on a game that became the first hybrid puzzle experience developed in Türkiye called Twisted Tangle. The game reached millions of players and showed us how responsive players are to innovative mechanics and that we were able to experiment faster than expected.
That experience convinced us that we wanted to build hybrid puzzle games centered on originality and creativity.
In many ways, the founding of Loom Games was the natural continuation of the experiences we gained and the vision we developed during that period.
How Loom Games beganAlthough Loom Games appears on paper to have been founded in 2025, in reality our journey in the game industry goes back much further.
Prior to Loom, we worked at another game studio for many years, where we developed successful games that reached millions of players. During that time, we gained invaluable experience — not only in game development, but also in understanding the dynamics of the mobile games industry.
Over time, we came to realize something important: Success in this industry isn't achieved simply by developing a good game.
Being able to directly manage a game's publishing, marketing and growth is just as important as the game itself. If you want to build a truly global game company, operating under a model that depends on publishers can make reaching "unicorn" status much more difficult because long-term value comes from owning your own intellectual property, your growth strategy and understanding your players.
For that reason, we built Loom Games as an organization where we manage our game development and marketing processes in-house. That gives us greater independence and allows us to pursue our goal of creating global success stories.
Another important thing that distinguishes us is that we focus on creating new gameplay experiences rather than simply following trends.
Creating a new feelingWhen we begin developing a new game, our biggest priority is giving players an experience they haven't had before.
Today's mobile games market is filled with many titles that repeat similar mechanics. Rather than recreating what's already popular, we focus on asking ourselves: “How can we make players feel something different the moment they start playing?"
That question guides the ideas we pursue.
Where success comes fromI believe one of the most important reasons for our success is our ability to create games that genuinely stand out in the market.
Before
Pixel Flow!, there wasn't another game built around this exact mechanic.
One of the hardest things in mobile gaming is offering players an experience that truly feels new.
To reach that point, we built many different prototypes before Pixel Flow! and wee tested many mechanics and improved them rapidly.
Some mobile games companies try to compete by making a slightly better version of something that's already successful.
We chose a different path.
Instead of trying to take a share of an existing market, we wanted to create an entirely new experience — and, in doing so, create our own market. I believe Pixel Flow! reached its current level of success because it is rooted in that philosophy.
At the same time, as a team we combine creativity with the ability to make decisions quickly. When we come up with a new idea, we're able to test it rapidly and reshape it based on player feedback.
Looking back now, Loom Games' rapid growth isn't surprising to me because those principles have guided us from the beginning.
Taking a riskOne of the defining moments in our journey came at the beginning of 2025, when we went out to raise investment. Unfortunately, we weren't able to close that funding round.
Rather than losing momentum, we decided to rely on ourselves. We had generated some capital from our previous game and made the decision to reinvest all of it into the business.
I remember telling my co-founder, Emre (Çelik): "There's only one path forward — we're going all in."
In many ways, Loom Games exists today because we had the courage to take that risk.
One of the most important lessons in entrepreneurship is how you respond when things don't go according to plan.
Instead of pulling back during a difficult period, we chose to think bigger and play bigger. That decision ultimately shaped the company we've since become.
Building a global gameThe Turkish game ecosystem has advanced tremendously in recent years, but I believe the next major transformation will come when Turkish game companies evolve beyond being excellent development studios and become organizations that completely manage the full flywheel themselves — manage their own marketing, taking responsibility for our own risks, and owning both successes and failures.
That's how long-term, truly global companies are built.
For many years, the mindset in our industry was: "We make the game; the publisher takes care of the rest."
Today, when we look at the world's largest game companies, they all share something in common.
They own the game. They own the roadmap and live services.
They control every part of the business.
I believe that's the greatest opportunity for Turkish entrepreneurs today, and it's one of the biggest reasons Loom Games was founded.
If you want to build a company capable of succeeding globally, making a great game isn't enough. You also need to understand how that game grows and how it becomes an experience people will continue playing for years.
And one more thing is essential: You have to be willing to take risks. When we founded Loom Games, we invested almost all of the capital we had.
We started this journey with the ambition of building a billion-dollar company.
If you want to change the rules of the game, you can't succeed by playing according to the existing rules.