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.”