The Carry1st Africa Cup: MLBB Women’s Invitational (MWI) Qualifier will kick off the Carry1st Africa Cup 2025, and also function as the official Esports World Cup (EWC) MWI 2025 Africa Qualifier, with victors qualifying for the MLBB Women’s Invitational at the Esports World Cup 2025 in Saudi Arabia later this year.

As the first event of the Carry1st Africa Cup 2025, it is the first in a series of esports competitions to take place across the continent this year. Carry1st’s inaugural Africa Cup in 2024 hosted top esports pros from across the continent battling for a $15,000 prize pool. 

The Carry1st Africa Cup MWI Qualifier will provide a dedicated stage for female gamers to compete and showcase their talents at the highest level. It will unfold in multiple stages: 

• Two online qualifiers, one for Egypt and another for the rest of Africa, will feature 32 teams each, competing in a double-elimination bracket of playoffs and final rounds
• The winners of the qualifiers will go on to compete in a grand final at Cairo’s Insomnia event, where the champions will secure a spot at the Esports World Cup (EWC) in Saudi Arabia later this year

Key dates:

• Wednesday 26th March: Registration opens on the website.
• Wednesday 2nd April 2025: Registration closes for applicants to the MLBB qualifiers
• Friday 4th to Sunday 6th April: Online qualifiers for teams competing from the Rest of Africa category, which covers South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Cameroon, Senegal, Rwanda, Tanzania, Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, Uganda, Tunisia, Algeria
• Thursday 10th to Saturday 12th April: Online qualifiers for competitors based in Egypt
• Thursday 24th to Saturday 26th April: During Insomnia Egypt, two teams will compete on the esports stage in a single elimination championship final, with the winners booking their ticket to the Esports World Cup in Saudi Arabia

Despite Africa’s growing gaming community, the continent remains underrepresented on the global esports stage, with limited participation in major gaming tournaments due to infrastructural and logistical challenges. As it supports Africa’s burgeoning gaming ecosystem, Carry1st is committed to changing that, one tournament at a time. 

Lucy Hoffman, co-founder and COO at Carry1st, comments:

“I am especially excited for MLBB; it marks the first women’s tournament for the Carry1st Cup and sets the stage for an exciting year ahead, with even more to come. Last year, the Cup was a huge success, and this year, we’re taking it to the next level. Africa has the talent, passion, and drive, and we are committed to providing players with the platform they truly deserve.”

Ray Ng, Head of Esports Ecosystem at Moonton Games, comments:

“MOONTON Games is delighted to join forces with Carry1st to extend our esports initiatives to Africa. We are witnessing a thriving esports ecosystem across the continent and are particularly proud to be able to help talented female players from Africa make their mark on the global stage. This partnership represents our commitment to nurturing diverse talent and creating inclusive competitive opportunities for all players, everywhere.”

This is the first instalment of the Carry1st Cup 2025, with more tournaments taking place throughout the year. Stay tuned for key timelines, announcements, and the full roadmap as Carry1st continues to redefine Africa’s presence on the global esports stage.

MLBB has grown into a popular game in the global esports scene and was one of the most-watched titles at the Esports World Cup (EWC) last year, with the 2024 MLBB The MWI 2024 Grand Finals peaking at over 250k viewers. 

This partnership will enable the expansion of Blood Strike, the popular first-person shooter from NetEase Games, across the MENA region, home to over 380 million gamers. 

With a vision to enhance gaming accessibility, Carry1st brings its cutting-edge payment solutions to the region, making it easier for players to access and enjoy top-tier gaming experiences.

Carry1st will work alongside Stellar Gate Games to help drive the growth of the gaming ecosystem across the MENA region.

Having enabled access across Africa to some of the world’s most popular mobile titles, including VALORANT and Call of Duty: Mobile in recent years, Carry1st is now extending its payment solutions in the MENA region. 

As part of this targeted expansion to support Stellar Gate Games, the partnership leverages Carry1st’s proprietary Pay1st platform, enabling players to make payments using local methods such as mobile money, digital wallets, and bank transfers.

Building on the formation of Stellar Gate Games by NetEase Games and Sandsoft in 2024, this partnership will enhance accessibility for millions of gamers in MENA, one of the world’s fastest-growing gaming markets with over 380 million players.

First launched in 2023, Blood Strike has gained global traction as a highly popular first-person shooter battle royale game. Renowned for its fast-paced action and competitive gameplay, the title celebrated surpassing 50 million downloads worldwide in August 2024. 

“Partnering with Stellar Gate Games is a key step in our mission to make gaming accessible to players everywhere,” said Lucy Hoffman, COO of Carry1st. “We are excited to bring our payment solutions to select countries in the MENA region, helping deliver localized content and create a seamless gaming experience for players across the region.”

Steve Zhang, CEO of Stellar Gate Games, added: “We are excited to join forces with Carry1st to expand Blood Strike’s reach in MENA. The company’s deep understanding of local markets and payment solutions will ensure a smooth experience for players in the region.

“Carry1st’s expertise in local payment methods and its innovation in unlocking access to games makes it an ideal partner. This collaboration will make it easier for players to engage with and enjoy our games.”

As the official licensor and publisher of Mobile Premier League (MPL) in Africa, Carry1st will enable new players to access one of the world’s largest Paid Competitive Gaming (PGC) platforms. 

MPL has proven success in multiple territories, with a strong presence in Asia, North America and Europe. A new form of gaming, PGC allows users to participate in skill-based gaming contests.

Commenting on the launch, Sai Srinivas, Co-Founder and CEO, MPL, said, “We are incredibly excited to bring MPL to various African markets through our partnership with Carry1st. As our first market, Nigeria’s thriving gaming community and its position as the largest economy in Africa make it the perfect market for us to expand into. We are confident that gamers in this market will embrace MPL and its growing collection of games, and we look forward to providing them with an unforgettable gaming experience.”

“We’ve been impressed with MPL for years and are thrilled to expand the company’s reach to Africa. With over 60 games to play and a sophisticated liveops platform, we believe MPL provides one of the best products we’ve evaluated for our market. We’re excited to activate our growing community around this new endeavor,” shared Lucy Hoffman, Carry1st Co-Founder and COO. 

Carry1st is partnering with MPL to optimize the product for African markets, starting with Nigeria. MPL has integrated Pay1st, Carry1st’s monetization-as-a-service platform. With Pay1st, MPL provides over 120 local payment methods for in-game purchases across Carry1st’s markets in Africa. 

Carry1st has continued to work with, and expand, the globe’s biggest games. The launch of MPL comes off the back of its partnership with Call of Duty®: Mobile in South Africa in 2022. Most recently, the company raised $27 million led by BITKRAFT Ventures with participation from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), TTV Capital, Alumni Ventures, Lateral Capital, Kepple Ventures, and Konvoy. 

In 2022, Carry1st signed a partnership with Riot Games to pilot local payments for the company’s games in Africa. Riot Games is the developer and publisher behind League of Legends — the most-played PC game in the world. Riot Games is an early investor in Carry1st and has been a continued supporter of the business.

The round for Carry1st was led by Andreessen Horowitz with participation from new investors such as Avenir and Google, with follow-on investments from Riot Games and TTV Capital. 

While the African gaming industry has significant monetisation potential, international/regional game developers/studios operating there often find monetisation difficult, due to fragmented game distribution channels and payment methods. 

Carry1st is leveraging its knowledge of Africa to handle the distribution needs of its partners, while also aggregating different payment methods to make in-game payments seamless for gamers when they interact with their or partners’ games. 

The company is based in South Africa with a team size of 37 people working fully remotely across 18 countries with plans to scale to other African countries.

Business model

Who: Carry1st’s stakeholders include – game developers/studios (looking to market their games to local and/or international audiences), gamers (who interact with their or partners’ games) and fintechs (with whom it partners for airtime/ticket sales and provision of in-game payment options). 

What: Carry1st was founded in 2018 as a game studio to develop its own games but subsequently pivoted more towards publishing, where it handles the distribution, marketing and financing of mobile games for game developers/studios. 

How: Game developers looking to partner with Carry1st typically fill a form on the latter’s website stating – the game title, number of published games, video/presentation about the game, for example, all of which it reviews before deciding on whether to follow up with the company or not.

Revenue model

The company claims that revenue from games increased ~90% on a MoM basis since 2H21, and that it has signed publishing deals for seven games with six studios globally. Further, Carry1st typically adopts a revenue share model with its partners, whilst leveraging its expansive network to drive distribution, visibility and gamer retention within and outside Africa for them. 

Recently, it launched an online marketplace for selling virtual goods e.g. airtime/mobile data to gamers, who pay either via bank transfers/crypto, thus enabling it to earn a margin on each sale.

Future plans

Monies raised will be used to expand its content portfolio and engineering teams. It also plans to double down on its user acquisition efforts while exploring game co-development opportunities with studios. Finally, it plans to develop its infrastructure to support play-to-earn gaming in Africa, hence its decision to venture into web3 following this raise.

Andreessen Horowitz — a16z, making its first investment in an Africa-headquartered company, led the round for Carry1st. Avenir, Google, as well as angel investors like Grammy winner and renowned crypto investor Nas, the founders of Chipper Cash, Sky Mavis, and Yield Guild Games also took part in the round.

The round — which is an extension of Carry1st Series A raised in May 2021 — also included investors such as Riot Games, Konvoy Ventures, Raine Ventures and TTV Capital, who participated last year and would enable Carry1st to scale operations beyond its current reach, further into the African continent.

Having recently launched a proprietary payment and online marketplace to better monetise content, Cape Town-based Carry1st was founded in 2018 as a mobile games publisher. The company has so far raised a total funding amount of $27,700,000. The company has reached millions of users across the region with its captivating games such as Mine Rescue and SpongeBob: Krusty Cook-Off since inception.

With monthly revenue growth of 96%, Carry1st will leverage the current investment for the expansion of its content portfolio; grow its product, engineering, and growth teams; and acquire tens of millions of new users. 

The company also seeks to expand into game co-development, working with leading game studios on original concepts, and developing the infrastructure to support play-to-earn gaming. 

“We’re excited to partner with this world-class group of investors who, in addition to capital, bring expertise across gaming, fintech, and web3,” said Cordel Robbin-Coker, co-founder and CEO of Carry1st. 

“In 2021 we launched multiple games and digital commerce solutions achieving really strong growth. Together we can accelerate this growth and achieve our goal of becoming the leading consumer internet company in the region.”

David Haber, general partner, Andreessen Horowitz said he was delighted to be making the firm’s first investment in an Africa-headquartered company in Carry1st.

“We see immense opportunity for the company to mirror outstanding successes we’ve seen in markets like India, China, and Southeast Asia. We couldn’t be more thrilled to partner with founders Cordel, Lucy, Tino, and the Carry1st team on their mission to build the Garena of Africa.”