Gamsole founder Abiola Olaniran passes away aged 36

Abiola Olaniran, founder of Nigerian-born mobile game production company Gamsole, has passed away at the age of 36. While the cause of his death is yet unknown, the Software engineer was buried on Wednesday, June 16, the same day he died, in a closed setup.

According to a report by Techpoint Africa’s Co-founder, Adewale Yusuf Abiola Olaniran was the organisation’s first Angel Investor, providing seed money and office space for the firm in 2015, which helped it see through its earliest media activities. Sources described Olaniyan as a generous individual who prefers to remain behind the scenes rather than facing the spotlight.

Abiola, who founded Gamsole in 2012, became the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of ed-tech startup eLimu Kenya in November 2020, where he supervised the significant rebuilding of their mobile applications. Before quitting in July 2022, Abiola Olaniran tailored the art of game-design initiative to literacy style for learners across the East African region.

Thereafter, Abiola diverted his attention from Gamsole activities to focus on mentoring angel investing and young studios across the African tech sector.  

Described as Nigeria’s most successful and highest-paid Windows mobile game developer, Forbes Africa placed Abiola Olaniran on its coveted “30 Under 30” list alongside Hotels.ng’s Mark Essien and Andela’s Iyin Aboyeji in February 2015.

The following year, the magazine named him one of the “30 Most Promising Young African Entrepreneurs” to further cement his image as Africa’s gaming flag-bearer. In December 2016, Abiola also won “The Future Awards Africa” (TFAA) Prize for Technology.

Following his accolades, investors saw the African gaming industry as profitable. His performance revealed that the gaming industry is profitable despite scarce resources and infrastructure.

Abiola Olaniran’s journey to Gamsole 

Abiola Olaniran started as a Microsoft student partner after a group of tech evangelists came to his school, Obafemi Awolowo University. This was around the time Windows Phone emerged in Nigeria. Abiola, who started coding at 15, decided to focus on game development, solely for Microsoft’s Windows phones. 

As an individual developer, still an undergraduate at the time, he kept on uploading applications to the Windows store, where one of his first games was called “Road Blazer”. Within a few weeks, he already had about 40,000 downloads, according to a report by Bellanaija.

Abiola Olaniran, who was also a Google Student Ambassador at the time, learnt of the 88mph accelerator program. He submitted his pitch and his application and became the only Nigerian picked at the time. Abiola then founded Gamsole in 2012, after 88mph’s seed investment.

Abiola founded the startup in Lagos to drive mobile game operations across the continent, a pivotal decision he made after leading his Obafemi Awolowo University team to national victory in the 2010 Microsoft Imagine Cup. During that time, he became a world finalist in the student competition in the same year. Abiola also won the Samsung Developer Challenge.

By 2015, Gamsole had recorded more than 10 million downloads in Windows Phone, Android, and feature-phone platforms across 191 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe and South America. As part of its significant footprint, the company partnered with MTN in 2016 to launch Gidi Run, which repositioned game monetisation initiatives across Africa. 

Despite his passion for mobile applications and designs, Abiola explored alternative opportunities for monetisation with advertising opportunities for brands that want to reach a young, tech-savvy audience.

As one of the first African startups to be awarded an innovation grant from Microsoft 4Afrika, the company has created more than 35 games, including Gidi Run, Temple Run, Monster Ninja, Sweet Candy, Juicy Links and Cookie Jam.

Abiola Olaniran’s demise has left the tech world in shock, with praises for his discoveries and impact across the mobile gaming world. He will always be remembered for his passion and attitude to embrace powerful change and discoveries.