Ethiopian gaming studio Rise of Fearless has raised $1 million in funding from Epic Edges Capital, a Mauritius-based investment and advisory firm, as it moves to scale its African-inspired mobile battle royale title to international markets.

Announced on Tuesday, the investment is structured as a Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE) — a financing instrument widely used by early-stage startups, in which the investment converts into equity at a future priced funding round rather than fixing a valuation upfront. The bootstrapped studio will deploy the capital across technology upgrades, server infrastructure, cross-border payment rails, talent acquisition, and marketing as it looks to expand beyond its primary markets of Nigeria, Ethiopia, and South Africa.

Alongside the funding, the company is onboarding a group of international gaming executives and specialist studios to oversee publishing, franchise development, and technical art:

• Miniboss Solutions serves as an embedded publishing and marketing partner, led by Managing Partners Adam Krause, formerly of Ubisoft, 2K/Take-Two, Capcom, and Striking Distance Studios, and TJ Consunji, formerly of PlayStation, Krafton, and Striking Distance Studios.
• Trick Question Studios is handling franchise definition and creative direction under Founder and CEO TQ Jefferson, whose prior credits include Marvel, Pixar, Disney, 20th Century Fox Games, and Survios.
• IDG Intelligence is providing market research, data analytics, and strategic advisory, led by President and CEO Yoshio Osaki.
• Spectra Entertainment joins as a full-stack AAA art and technical-art development partner.

Commenting on the investment, Kanessa Muluneh, founder of Rise of Fearless, said: "We couldn't be more excited about our new team taking an African-owned gaming franchise to international distribution and commercial scale. The launch of Rise of Fearless filled a gap in the gaming space, but it has also forced us to think beyond game downloads, shifting our focus towards a much wider African gaming ecosystem where African intellectual ownership and talent development are key. As a bootstrapped company, this investment is pivotal to our ambitions and the future of African gaming."

Launched in 2025 on the Apple App Store and Google Play, Rise of Fearless is a free-to-play mobile battle royale built around African history and identity. Its narrative draws inspiration from Ethiopia's 1896 victory at the Battle of Adwa, in which Ethiopian forces defeated an invading Italian colonial army — a triumph that made Ethiopia one of the few African countries to preserve its independence during the Scramble for Africa, and one still commemorated in Ethiopia as a national holiday. The game features distinctly African characters, attire, hairstyles, and environments designed to retain African creative and commercial ownership while appealing to global audiences.

According to the company, the game has recorded more than 15,000 downloads since launch. Muluneh said the next phase of growth will target foundational bottlenecks facing African game developers — specifically unreliable local server infrastructure and fragmented cross-border payment gateways — while pairing international executives with local developers to transfer technical skills. Both constraints speak to the practical mechanics of scaling a multiplayer free-to-play title across the continent: server location shapes how responsive online play feels for regional players, while fragmented payments determine how easily players can transact across Africa's many markets and currencies.

Remco Coerman, founder of Epic Edges Group, said the investment reflects confidence in the commercial potential of local intellectual property on the global stage.

"Rise of Fearless represents the kind of ambitious, culturally rooted IP that has the potential to resonate far beyond its home market. We believe there is a significant opportunity for African creators to build globally relevant gaming experiences that reflect the continent's stories, identities and talent. We're proud to invest in the game as it strengthens its team, scales its development capabilities and continues building an ecosystem where African and international talent can collaborate and create for a global audience."

The deal comes amid steady growth in Africa's gaming industry. Figures cited by the studio indicate the continent is home to more than 400 million gamers, with gaming revenue reaching $1.98 billion in 2026. Mobile gaming accounts for the majority of that activity, reflecting the continent's mobile-first digital economy and the growing accessibility of smartphones.

Through the funding and its expanded team, Rise of Fearless aims to demonstrate what African-owned gaming IP can become when it has access to the capital, expertise, and infrastructure needed to scale, creating a pathway for African studios and creators to develop and retain globally relevant IP. Near-term markers of that plan, based on the company's stated priorities, will be capital moving into servers and payment rails, first outputs from the new publishing and franchise partnerships, and expansion into markets beyond Nigeria, Ethiopia, and South Africa.