Gara – the budding platform for African made mobile games and comics has announced it has received a sizeable European grant to accelerate its distribution ambitions.

Gara is an Android marketplace dedicated to promoting and making creative content from Africa available for purchase. Gara allows anyone based in Africa to buy this digital content using mobile money or credit card without intermediaries in a bid to put the money directly into the content creator’s pocket. Founder, Teddy Kossoko of Masseka Game Studio envisioned creating a platform to better suit African creators’ needs by allowing developers to sell their content anywhere in Africa, revolutionising the continent’s economies

Revealing the news on social media, Teddy Kossoko said, “We are proud to announce that Gara has received a major funding from the European Union to support our mission: unlocking the distribution and monetization of cultural content across Africa.

This funding marks a powerful vote of confidence in our vision : The success of our startup can open the door to entirely new markets for European companies in gaming and comics.“

In a brief chat with GIA, Kossoko addressed how they planned to balance the split of content developed by African creators as well as the likely introduction of European based creators.

“Since the beginning of Gara, the platform has featured 95% European content. The reason is that local creators prefer to publish their content elsewhere, and also that local creators do not produce enough. That’s why we got involved in the incubator in Senegal and now in Benin, to help produce more African content. This funding is not intended to finance content creation. It is meant to support the growth of our user base, finish the automation of all process and the console to deploy games, our cloud gaming system that will allow us to distribute more PC games, and other strategic areas. If the Europeans succeed on Gara, then African games will succeed too.”

With regards to the issue of variable pricing methods to ensure developers across the continent aren’t getting overcharged when it comes to content from their European counterparts, Kossoko said,

“Gara has a business model similar to Netflix or Spotify. The user pays, for example, €0.15 for daily access and gets unlimited access to all content. Then, each piece of content consumed receives a share of that amount. This even allows small developers to earn a bit. We are also considering a system that would allow creators to set their own price, manage their own user acquisition, and direct users exclusively to their game.”

With this backing, the EU brings not just funding, but also credibility and momentum, enough to inspire European studios and publishers to explore this vibrant, underserved market that may well represent the future of global cultural growth.

With funding secured Spielfabrique will lead the effort to onboard European IP holders and studios, helping them confidently license their work for African distribution.

You can download Gara for PC or  Android from their official website