Friendly Fire Raises $4.7 Million as Franchise Pipeline Narrows to 178 Locations

What the report says

Friendly Fire has closed a Series A funding round with AYMO Ventures, a Zagreb venture firm, giving the Croatian gaming café franchisor its first disclosed institutional backer as it prepares to sell franchises in the United States.The company put the round at $4.7 million USD in its English-language announcement. Bloomberg Adria, reporting a day earlier, said AYMO invested €4 million EUR, which converts to $4.67 million at the European Central Bank’s Aug. 26 reference rate and indicates a round raised in euros and presented in dollars for an American franchise-buying audience.The English announcement says the capital “is planned to be used to support ongoing operations and the development of the company’s technology platform.” The Croatian report describes a broader purpose, adding accelerated international expansion and support for franchise partners.

Neither discloses the valuation, AYMO’s resulting stake, or whether any investor other than AYMO took part.“That’s why we can be so confident today about what works, and why we can guarantee success to franchisees who stick to our standard,” said Friendly Fire founder and CEO David Kosir in the announcement. “With this investment and with a partner like AYMO Ventures, we now have real wind at our backs and everything we need to deliver on our vision and become the largest gaming cafe chain in the world.”The investor statement in the release is attributed to AYMO Ventures as a firm rather than to any named executive, although the fund lists four partners on its website.

“Alongside the operational know-how, the technology layer is the part that’s easiest to overlook from the outside, and it’s precisely what turns a good gaming cafe into a network that gets stronger with every new opening,” it reads. “It matters just as much that this is a team that proved the model at its own locations, with its own money, before offering it to anyone else.”AYMO reached a €52 million ($60.7 million) first close across two funds in July 2025, and is listed by the European Commission among the financial intermediaries offering EU-backed finance.

Key details

Its growth fund writes cheques of €300,000 to €5 million “and above,” placing this deal near the top of the stated range, and the firm describes itself as sector-agnostic “with the exception of activities excluded or restricted under applicable EIF, EU, and HBOR guidelines,” a reference to the European Investment Fund and the Croatian state development bank. The companies on its portfolio page are predominantly software and artificial-intelligence businesses; none is a physical retail or hospitality chain.The company raising that money is smaller than the ambition suggests.Friendly Fire d.o.o. za usluge i trgovinu, the Zagreb entity that operates the company-owned side of the business, is wholly owned by Friendly Fire, Inc., a Delaware corporation, according to the Croatian Financial Agency’s business register.

That register classifies it as a micro enterprise and lists its principal activity as the leasing of computers and office equipment rather than hospitality. It booked €998,427 EUR ($1.17 million USD) in total revenue in 2025 on four employees, up from €751,690 ($877,000) with two employees in 2024 and €359,391 ($419,000) in 2023.Net profit was €136,990 ($160,000) in 2025. In 2024, the year revenue doubled, the company all but broke even, clearing €210 ($245) on €751,690 of revenue. Its best year was 2023, when it earned €181,072 ($211,000) on just over a third of last year’s revenue.

A single year’s net line at one subsidiary can reflect the timing of expansion spending as readily as weak trading, and the figures cover the Croatian company only, not the Delaware parent where franchise fees and royalties from other markets would sit. Across the three years, however, the Croatian company has not generated cash on anything like the scale of the rollout being described.The operating figures in the announcement are the company’s own and were not independently verified by The Esports Advocate.Friendly Fire said it operates 22 company- and franchise-owned locations across six countries, that more than 220,000 gamers have joined its platform, and that its venues have hosted more than 1,000 amateur tournaments.

More from the announcement

It put its forward pipeline at 31 signed franchise agreements representing 178 additional locations across 11 countries.