In a sector where scale is often preceded by dilution, and where venture funding is seen less as an option than a prerequisite, Nexus International has taken a strikingly different route. The company, led since inception by founder Gurhan Kiziloz, has not raised a single dollar of outside capital. There have been no funding rounds, no convertible notes, no strategic backers. And yet, by the close of Q3 2025, Nexus had posted $848 million in revenue, on track to surpass $1 billion by year-end.
That figure does more than validate the underlying business model. It quietly rewrites assumptions about what a founder-led, self-financed company can achieve in one of the most capital-intensive segments of the digital economy. Online gaming, particularly in regulated markets, requires not just technical infrastructure, but licensing capital, compliance resourcing, fraud architecture, payments localisation, and ongoing regulatory submission. Most operators, even those with clear product-market fit, turn to external financing early to absorb the load. Kiziloz declined.
The decision was not ideological. It was structural. From the outset, Nexus was designed to prioritise sustainability over speed, and repeatable execution over rapid expansion. Every dollar reinvested into the business came from within. That constraint shaped a different kind of operating discipline: one in which brands are not scaled until product infrastructure is mature, where entry into new markets is dictated by licensing readiness, and where growth is benchmarked against internal capacity, not investor expectations.
The benefits of that model are now beginning to surface in ways that are hard to ignore. Spartans.com, the company’s casino-first platform, has become one of the group’s strongest performers, built, launched, and scaled entirely from internal allocation. Following a $200 million capital commitment earlier this year, funded directly from Nexus’s own reserves, the platform has expanded its market footprint, upgraded its transactional stack, and deployed regionally tailored UX with no need for external bridge capital or promotional pressure. Its rise has been as quiet as it is substantial.
Megaposta, Nexus’s sportsbook brand, tells a similar story. Focused on Brazil’s regulated market, it has delivered steady contributions to group revenue while maintaining a high degree of local alignment. Its localisation efforts, from domestic payment systems to regional user behaviour, have been implemented incrementally, and without compromising group margin. That kind of operational patience is rarely afforded to VC-backed companies, where timelines are compressed and geographical expansion is often front-loaded. Nexus, by contrast, has grown by sequencing: one market, one infrastructure layer, one brand at a time.
Crucially, this mode of growth has enabled the company to retain its independence, not just in governance, but in tempo. There are no quarterly investor updates driving product decisions. No external boards reshaping strategy. No capital stack competing with internal priorities. Kiziloz continues to run the business with a small, central leadership team, while maintaining control of strategic direction, compliance posture, and financial deployment. For a company approaching the $1 billion annual revenue mark, that is increasingly rare.
And yet, despite this autonomy, Nexus has not adopted the opacity that often accompanies privately held growth. The company’s operating philosophy, compliance-first, infrastructure-led, brand-separated, has been consistent and internally enforced. Its brands are licensed, its payments are regulated, and its risk frameworks are not retrofitted post hoc. This is not growth through grey areas or unregulated volume. It is measured scale, underpinned by systems designed to endure regulatory scrutiny across jurisdictions.
That foundation is also shaping Nexus’s long-term horizon. The company has announced plans to pursue an IPO in March 2027, contingent on reaching $5 billion in annual revenue. Unlike many of its peers, which treat listing as a capital event, Nexus is approaching it as a structural progression, an institutional transition, not an exit. And because it arrives there without dilution, its governance integrity remains intact. A founder-led company entering public markets with scale, control, and cash flow already in place is not just uncommon, it is quietly disruptive.
Nexus International’s path is unlikely to become the norm. The gravitational pull of external capital remains strong, and for many businesses, necessary. But what Kiziloz has demonstrated is that it is possible to build, scale, and institutionalise a gaming business without ceding control or compromising cadence. At $848 million YTD, the results are speaking clearly, and they have done so without a single pitch deck.
Disclosure: Insider Monkey doesn’t recommend purchase of any securities/currencies. Insider Monkey received compensation to publish this article. We don’t guarantee the accuracy of the statements made in this article. Insider Monkey and its principals are not affiliated with the client and have no ownership in the client’s business. Insider Monkey doesn’t recommend the purchase/sale of any securities, cryptocurrencies, or ICOs. Please get in touch with a financial professional before making any financial decisions. You understand that Insider Monkey doesn’t accept any responsibility and you will be using the information presented here at your own risk. You acknowledge that this disclaimer is a simplified version of our Terms of Use, and by accessing or using our site, you agree to be bound by all of its terms and conditions. If at any time you find these terms and conditions unacceptable, you must immediately leave the Site and cease all use of the Site.
