Grace Ashiru
Carry1st announced today that it has raised $27 million in a funding round led by BITKRAFT Ventures, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), TTV Capital, Alumni Ventures, Lateral Capital, Kepple Ventures, and Konvoy, solidifying its position as the top publisher of mobile games in Africa. Following a fruitful relationship with Call of Duty: Mobile in South Africa in Q4 2022 and new partnerships slated to debut in 2023, funding was announced.
Over the previous year, Carry1st has had substantial growth. Carry1st and Riot Games signed a collaboration in 2022 to test local payments for the company’s games in Africa. According to data.ai, the company’s CrazyHubs gaming accelerator created the most downloaded game in the US, and Carry1st has struck a number of collaborations that will support the company’s expansion through 2023 and beyond.
Sub-Saharan African gamers have grown from 77m to 186 m in six years
The fresh capital will be used by Carry1st to create, acquire, and release new games as well as to increase the scope of Pay1st monetisation-as-a-service offering.
The business offers a complete publishing solution, taking care of user acquisition, live operations, community management, and content monetization.
Customers in Africa can pay for content in their preferred method thanks to Pay1st, the company’s embedded payments technology and online marketplace for virtual goods.
BITKRAFT Ventures’ founding general partner, Jens Hilgers, stated: “The largest youthful population in the world is in Africa, and this new generation will be digital natives who enjoy playing video games as their main form of pleasure.
We have complete faith in Carry 1st’s remarkable founding team and their ambition for laying the groundwork for localized content and a thriving interactive entertainment industry in Africa!”
CEO of Carry1st Cordel Robbin-Coker continued, “As we continue on our objective to scale fantastic content in Africa, we are thrilled to collaborate with BITKRAFT, one of the top gaming venture capital firms in the world, in addition to a16z and other current investors.
Although 2022 was a year of considerable growth, we hope to improve upon it in 2023 with the help of our partners.”
