Carry1st, an African mobile games publisher, has raised a $27 million pre-Series B investment to expand its business operations and game development.
The round was led by Bitkraft Ventures with the participation of Andreessen Horowitz, TTV Capital, Alumni Ventures, Lateral Capital, Kepple Ventures, and Konvoy.
The latest round of investment comes a year after Carry1st raised $20 million in a Series A round led by Horowitz.
Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Cape Town, South Africa, Carry1st monetizes games via Pay1st, its proprietary payment and online marketplace.
The fund will be used to drive growth in all these areas: develop, license and publish new games, as well as expand Pay1st.
According to the African mobile games developer, the funding round is coming off the back of a successful year which saw the first game from its CrazyHubs gaming accelerator — the accelerator Carry1st launched in partnership with CrazyLabs, one of its six partner studios — become the No. 1 downloaded game in the U.S. for a few days last July, according to data.ai. The game, The President, is loosely based on a fictionalized Donald Trump and was developed by Nairobi-based Mekan Games.
Games like The President have seen Carry1st’s revenues grow by 10x over the year. Other areas where the gaming startup has also experienced growth include Carry1st Shop, its online marketplace for virtual goods, which, according to the company, allows customers across Africa to pay for content and 100+ products across 120 different payment methods, including bank transfers, crypto and mobile money.
“We’re delighted to partner with Bitkraft, one of the world’s top gaming VC firms, alongside a16z and other existing investors as we continue on our mission to scale awesome content in Africa,” said Carry1st CEO Robbin-Coker.
“2022 was a year of significant growth but together with our partners we look forward to making 2023 even better.”
“Africa is home to the largest population of young people in the world, and this upcoming generation will grow up digitally native with videogames as their primary entertainment preference.
“We have full conviction in Carry1st’s impressive founding team and their vision of building out foundational infrastructure and localized content, ensuring that gaming and interactive entertainment in Africa will thrive.”
