Supercell, the Helsinki-based publisher of Clash of Clans, Hay Day, and Clash Royale, opened applications on July 14 for its first Developer Grants Program, reserving $20,000 to $200,000 in equity-free capital for African game studios.

The company will pick three to five studios for the inaugural cohort. Applications close August 9; shortlisted teams hear back in October; disbursements begin in December.

What does the grant cover?

The capital is non-dilutive. Supercell takes no equity, claims no IP, and demands no revenue share. The company lists permitted uses as:

• Salaries and contractor fees
• Engineering, art, and design hires
• Software, tooling, and quality assurance spend
• Marketing and user acquisition
• Live operations and other costs tied to the studio's next growth stage

Eligible studios must be legally registered, with primary operations and most of the team based in Africa. A studio whose holding company sits outside the continent can still apply, provided it discloses the structure. Applicants can submit multiple titles in a portfolio but must name one as the primary funding focus.

Prior accelerator participation, prior grants, or prior investment do not affect eligibility. Supercell is open across all platforms and business models.

How will Supercell pick winners?

Selection criteria, per the program announcement:

• Strength of the founding team
• Quality and originality of the creative vision
• Evidence of player engagement on shipped or playable builds
• Potential to build a sustainable business
• Potential contribution to Africa's gaming ecosystem
• Clarity of the funding-acceleration plan

The company first telegraphed the program at MaliyoCon, a gaming conference held in Lagos in December 2025, where CEO and cofounder Ilkka Paananen framed the bet as both commercial and social.

"Africa is one of the most vibrant creative regions in the world," Paananen said in a video message at the conference. "The ideas, the stories, the talent emerging from Africa will help shape the future of global gaming."

Also at MaliyoCon, Deborah Mensah-Bonsu, Supercell's global social impact lead, previewed the grants while criteria were still being drafted.

"We believe there are incredible teams here on the continent that we want to support," Mensah-Bonsu told attendees. "It is really about trying to catalyse and accelerate some of the studios on the continent."

What does it mean for studios and the wider market?

Early-stage capital remains the binding constraint in Africa's games sector, which has multiplied its studio count yet struggled to plug funding gaps at the seed stage. The Supercell tranche slots into a tightening cluster of regional mechanisms. Google Play's $1 million equity-free fund, disclosed earlier in July 2026, backs independent studios across 32 African countries, creating two distinct non-dilutive pools in the same quarter.

For studios, the structure matters as much as the cheque size. Non-dilutive capital lets founders preserve ownership and IP while the regional publisher, platform, and venture ecosystem continues to mature around them.

The application portal, hosted on Typeform, accepts pitch decks, gameplay trailers, links to prior titles, and a funding plan.

Watch the August 9 deadline: the shape of the applicant pool will give the first real read on how hungry African studios are for non-dilutive capital tied to one of mobile gaming's most successful live-service publishers.