In less than three years, Gurhan Kiziloz has turned Nexus International from a private startup into one of the world’s top 100 gaming operators by revenue, without raising a single round of external capital. While most high-growth companies in online gaming rely heavily on private equity or institutional investors, Kiziloz pursued a different path: absolute control, operational speed, and market-specific execution. That formula has already delivered $546 million in revenue in the first half of 2025 alone, surpassing the company’s full-year 2024 total of $400 million, and is on pace to reach $1.1–$1.2 billion by year-end.
At the heart of this acceleration is a deliberate decision to stay self-funded. Nexus International has no venture capital backers, no formal board, and no external shareholders to satisfy. Instead, Kiziloz and a small executive team own and operate the company in full, making every strategic decision, from market entry and licensing to product development and hiring, with complete autonomy. While this model introduces personal risk, it also eliminates the delays, dilution, and pressure cycles that often come with investor-backed growth. It allows for speed in high-stakes environments where timing is critical, and that speed has paid off.
Nowhere is this clearer than in Brazil. Following the passage of Law 14,790/2023, which formalized the regulatory structure for fixed-odds betting and online gaming, most operators spent months adjusting to the new framework. Nexus International, however, had already built the infrastructure to comply. Its Brazil-facing platform, Megaposta, quickly secured licensing, integrated mandatory player verification features, and launched with full functionality while competitors were still waiting on approval. That head start has translated into high retention, volume growth, and dominant early market share, making Brazil the single largest contributor to Nexus’s 2025 revenue to date.
Kiziloz’s approach relies on what he calls “tight loops of execution.” There are no large strategy decks or multi-layered approval processes. The company’s decisions are made daily, in real time, with a feedback system driven by internal data. Nexus operates on a custom analytics and risk management framework that feeds directly into product, compliance, and marketing workflows. Every adjustment, whether it’s a tweak to user onboarding in Colombia or a content localization experiment in Brazil, is tested, measured, and either expanded or discarded without delay. This loop-based approach requires discipline, but it avoids the stagnation that often follows scale.
Beyond Brazil, the company has applied the same philosophy to its expansion across Latin America. Recently, Nexus opened a new regional office in São Paulo to serve as a coordination center for operations in Colombia, Peru, and Chile. Rather than layering on regional executives with siloed teams, the São Paulo hub was designed to consolidate compliance, marketing, and partnerships under a single operational structure. This lets Nexus respond faster to regulatory changes, streamline cross-border campaigns, and execute market launches without red tape.
Kiziloz has made it clear that he has no intention of pursuing an IPO or bringing in equity partners, even as Nexus continues to scale. While many in the industry would use top 100 status as leverage for a fundraising round, he remains focused on long-term market leadership instead of short-term valuations. His view is that external capital would slow down decision-making, dilute ownership, and introduce competing agendas at the board level. For a company operating in regulated, fast-moving environments like Brazil, Chile, and Colombia, that cost is too high.
What makes this approach especially notable is that Nexus International has outpaced several mid-cap public gaming companies in revenue growth without access to the same capital reserves. Competitors such as Betsson AB and Rank Group, both publicly traded, have struggled to match Nexus’s growth trajectory in Latin America, largely due to delayed licensing and slower execution. And while giants like Flutter Entertainment and Entain remain larger by scale, their onboarding delays in Brazil have allowed smaller, more agile players like Nexus to capture early market share.
Kiziloz’s strategy is not without risk. Operating without external oversight puts the burden of accountability entirely on the leadership team. Every market decision, licensing application, and infrastructure investment is a direct reflection of that team’s ability to execute. But so far, the results speak for themselves: 110% year-on-year revenue growth, early dominance in Brazil, and a fast-moving expansion strategy across the region, all without outside funding.
As the company heads into the second half of 2025, its revenue run rate places it on track for $1.1 to $1.2 billion, with a stretch target of $1.54 billion. That would place Nexus International within striking distance of the top 75 global operators by revenue. More importantly, it would solidify Gurhan Kiziloz’s strategy as a viable alternative to the capital-heavy models that dominate the sector. In an industry defined by regulatory change and execution speed, his decision to stay lean, fast, and independent may be what ultimately defines the company’s long-term advantage.
This article was written in cooperation with Gurhan Kiziloz