Grand Games: Where gaming meets global ambition

Grand Games is a Kazakhstan-based technology company bringing together mobile gaming, advanced digital products and AI-driven solutions under a single ecosystem. Its flagship title, Grand Mobile, has grown into one of the country’s most successful tech exports, recording more than 70 million downloads and over six million monthly active players worldwide. Designed as an open-world multiplayer role-playing game, it allows users to build virtual lives from scratch, shaping careers, earning income, acquiring property and interacting within a player-driven economy.

Behind the company is 27-year-old founder Roman Lineitsev, a Forbes 30 Under 30 honouree and one of Kazakhstan’s new generation of entrepreneurs. Having studied in Abu Dhabi before moving to Geneva, Lineitsev combined a background in economics and finance with a passion for online role-playing games. On founding the company with friends in December 2020, the group initially focused on producing additional content for existing PC-based titles – before quickly realising the limitations of this approach. “We saw that it was really difficult to scale while focusing only on PC and on add-ons,” says Lineitsev. “We needed to shift to mobile and focus on having our own product, our own game.”

That pivot gave rise to Grand Mobile, a mass-market mobile game with players in more than 50 countries. While the core user base includes Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine, the game has also gained significant traction in India, Pakistan, Turkey and Eastern Europe. From a standing start, Grand Mobile experienced steady growth, nurtured by a strategy of ongoing refinement, data analysis and reinvesting profits. For Lineitsev, the secret to the title’s success goes beyond simple gameplay mechanics: “Our main vision is that Grand Mobile is essentially a metaverse,” he explains. “We give people another way to socialise and interact. We see it as a kind of 3D social network.”

The first version of the game was engineered for accessibility, running smoothly on lower- to mid-range Android devices to ensure broad reach. That technical discipline helped build a mass-market product rather than a niche title. Now the firm is applying the experience accumulated over the past several years to the development of Grand Mobile 2, a more technologically advanced iteration designed primarily for the English-speaking market. Currently undergoing beta testing, Grand Mobile 2 will operate alongside the original, targeting different device segments and income levels, reflecting what Lineitsev sees as a structural divide in global access to technology.

The commercial results are already substantial. Grand Games reached $30 million in revenue in 2025, with ambitions to double that figure again this year. That growth has enabled the company to fuel its own expansion, taking a selective approach to outside capital. A strategic partnership saw Astana Hub Ventures invest $750,000 in Grand Games at a $75 million valuation, with a second round already under discussion. Beyond funding, the relationship offers institutional guidance, regulatory expertise and access to networks.

That experience has led Grand Games to seek strategic partners as it expands in the Middle East and North Africa, building on its dedicated user base. The company has plans to establish a physical presence in the UAE while also exploring opportunities for collaboration. “In the near future, the MENA region will be one of our key areas of focus, and we are optimistic about our development and growth opportunities there,” Lineitsev says. “From my experience living in the UAE and then in Geneva, there are many markets where, without a local partner, it is very difficult to develop your product.”

Expansion is, however, only one component of the company’s long-term goal to build a broader model. A planned in-house fintech capability is a natural extension, supporting payments within Grand Mobile and aiming to let players connect their digital assets to the outside world. The company is currently exploring an M&A deal with a Kazakh fintech startup in pursuit of this ambition. In parallel, Grand Games is assessing opportunities in creative production, including music and film, seeing natural synergies between content and game development. “In the future, we want to create an ecosystem that supports itself and gives people from creative fields opportunities to work inside it, complementing each other,” Lineitsev says.

That vision reflects a determination to contribute to national development. The company is working on an AI-based moderation and support platform originally built to manage interactions inside Grand Mobile, with elements of that technology now being adapted to assist public-sector initiatives. Grand Games also backs regional entrepreneurship and has acquired a majority stake in a Kazakh food-delivery startup, aiming to apply operational expertise to strengthen a local champion. That sits alongside funding for Enactus and other cultural, sporting and environmental initiatives.

Looking ahead, the priority remains on developing Grand Mobile – with the game itself proving a fertile ground for new business inspiration. “We try to create everything in-house for the game, and when a product we build for the game can become a separate business, we treat it as a new venture,” Lineitsev says. “For us, the game is always the starting point.”