The game will use new funding and international expertise to improve gameplay, pursue 100,000 active players and test new revenue streams.
For Rise of Fearless, the $1 million raised from Mauritius-based Epic Edges Capital comes with a one-year test: reach 100,000 active players while making significant technical improvements to the game. The African-owned mobile title has more than 15,000 total downloads so far, according to founder Kanessa Muluneh. The funding gives her team resources to pursue growth, while tying that effort to a steep audience milestone.
The financing uses a Simple Agreement for Future Equity, or SAFE. The company hasn’t disclosed its valuation or the precise terms for Epic Edges to receive equity. The money is intended for game development, infrastructure, marketing and community building, as well as bringing experienced international gaming executives and developers into the project.
Rise of Fearless launched in 2025. It’s a free-to-play battle royale game inspired by Ethiopia’s 1896 Battle of Adwa, where players choose avatars and weapons to compete in peer-to-peer survival matches. It’s available through Google Play Store and the App Store. Its largest player communities are in Nigeria, Ethiopia and South Africa, Muluneh said.
Reaching 100,000 active players would mean more than adding downloads: the company will need to keep people playing. “I did 15,000 [game downloads] by myself,” Muluneh told TechCabal. “If I can do that by myself, then no doubt that with a strong team and strong marketing plan we can easily get 100,000 in Africa.”
She described the new financing as a shift from experimenting with a game to building a company able to compete internationally. “Launching a game is really not the hardest part,” she said in an October 27 interview. “But scaling it and competing with whatever is out there is definitely something I underestimated.”
Funding lessons from an expensive build
Muluneh said she has paid for most of the game’s development herself. She estimated that development and promotion together cost nearly $2.8 million. That tally includes marketing, travel to events, management and community work, in addition to building the game. “In hindsight, it wasn’t necessary,” she said. “I didn’t have to spend that much. But this is the price you pay if you go in without a plan, I guess.”
Some of the expense came from early missteps, including switching development teams and failing to secure ownership of certain game assets. Her account points to a practical strain on small studios: choices about who builds a product and who owns its underlying work can shape costs long after the first version ships.
A previously announced $700,000 arrangement with an undisclosed private investor did not become available capital. Muluneh described the financing in a September 2025 interview with Entrepreneur MENA, saying then that 25% would go to development and 75% to marketing when deployed. She later told TechCabal that the funds were never deployed and the arrangement was abandoned after disagreements over terms. She said she continued to fund the work herself rather than accept pressure before settling on a viable strategy.
The game currently earns revenue through advertising, but Muluneh has held back a wider monetisation push to focus on gameplay and audience growth. She did not disclose advertising revenue or monthly operating costs, so the distance to break-even is unclear. The company is also considering merchandise, events, sponsorships and licensing its intellectual property as possible sources of income.
Building beyond the game
To strengthen the product and develop a larger entertainment franchise, Rise of Fearless is bringing four international firms into its development and publishing work. Miniboss Solutions, a gaming consultancy focused on publishing and marketing, is led by Adam Krause, formerly of Ubisoft, 2K/Take-Two and Capcom, and TJ Consunji, formerly of PlayStation and Krafton.
Trick Question Studios, led by TQ Jefferson, who previously held roles at Marvel, Disney and Pixar, will guide franchise strategy and creative direction. IDG Intelligence, headed by president and chief executive Yoshio Osaki, will contribute research, analytics and investment strategy expertise. Spectra Entertainment, which works on game development, art and technical art, will support production and the game’s visual experience.
Muluneh said the work should also transfer technical knowledge to African developers. “Knowledge is the biggest asset right now. Knowledge and access,” she said, describing a plan to bring specialists to the continent to help build the project there. She framed African ownership and culturally grounded characters, environments and visual identities as central to making the game’s world recognisable to players beyond its home region.
The team is reviewing the game’s technology and rewriting parts of its storyline as it develops a broader portfolio of gaming intellectual property. A technical audit is underway, with hopes of relaunching an improved version afterward. Muluneh hasn’t given a release date.
Audience growth and the revenue test
The funding arrives as the potential audience expands. A report from gaming technology startup Carry1st and research firm Newzoo projects that Africa’s gaming market will generate $1.98 billion in revenue in 2026, with mobile games accounting for nearly 82%. The report also estimates the continent will have about 406 million gamers by that year.
Growth in the audience doesn’t remove the operating hurdles for studios. Muluneh cited uneven infrastructure, fragmented payment systems and differences in consumer behaviour between countries as obstacles to earning revenue across the continent. Access to financing and dependable market data can also be difficult for developers seeking paying customers in multiple markets.
That makes the active-player goal only one measure of progress. Rise of Fearless will also need to find ways to turn engagement into recurring revenue, including in markets where payment habits and infrastructure differ. “Maybe 80% of our work will be figuring out if we can get [the game] monetised throughout the whole continent, and not just the big markets,” Muluneh said. “Some countries are adaptive to it. Some are not. So it will remain a challenge.”
Other African gaming companies are also drawing funding. Vatar, maker of the Nigerian browser game Lagos Life, raised $500,000 in an angel round at a $10 million valuation in October, less than a week after launch. Local publication Condia reported that the company is seeking another $2.5 million in pre-seed funding at a $15 million valuation. The broader interest gives studios more visibility, while Rise of Fearless’s next year will show whether added expertise and marketing can build sustained play and a workable revenue model.
