git submodule as a dependency

I want to extend functionality of a mod which is open source on github. I'm trying to do this by including that project as a git submodule in my project, then getting gradle to build it. So far, I've managed to get gradle to build it, but I can't get minecraft client to load the said mod. I assume there needs to be a way to copy the compiled dependency from libs folder of that to libs folder of my mod or something like that, but I am unsure. My configurations are as follows:

build.gradle(everything outside dependencies is unchanged from what is provided with the mdk)

dependencies {
  minecraft 'net.minecraftforge:forge:1.16.1-32.0.108'
  compile project('DependencyMod')
}

settings.gradle

include 'DependencyMod'