Abstract. In this talk the Assisted Annihilation framework that generates thermal sub-GeV dark matter through a novel annihilation between pairs of dark matter and standard-model-like states, called the "assister" will be presented. The feasibility of such non-standard annihilation topology to reproduce the observed relic density of dark matter while remaining in consonance with cosmological bounds will be discussed in a model independent way. A simple multipartite scalar extension of the Standard Model where Assisted Annihilation can dominantly drive the thermal freeze out of dark matter in certain regions of the parameter space will be sketched. It is demonstrated that for photophilic assisters these models may be probed by indirect detection and fixed target experiments.