Africa is taking a bold step to join the growing game industry that is rapidly attracting the big names in the tech industry as investors.
Carry1st, an African mobile gaming publisher, has announced a $20 million Series A extension round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), its first investment into an African-headquartered company. New participants in the round are Avenir and Google as well as other prominent angel investors including Grammy winner and crypto investor Nas, and founders of Chipper Cash, Sky Mavis, and Yield Guild Games. Riot Games, Konvoy Ventures, Raine Ventures, and TTV Capital, who were also part of the Serie A round, participated in the extension round.
Founded in 2018 by Cordel Robbin-Coker, Lucy Hoffman, and Tino Mundangepfupfu, Carry1st is a publisher of social games and interactive content with a focus on frontier markets like Africa.
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“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, Carry1st’s CEO and co-founder.
“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.”
Since launching its game publishing platform last May, Carry1st has grown by over 90% month-over-month, Robbin-Coker said. “Our team nearly doubled in 2021 in order to support and build on the growth. This funding from some of the world’s most renowned investors will allow us to take the next step forward.”
“We have an incredible market opportunity; coupled with a clear strategy and the resources to realize this potential. In short, we have a chance, which is very exciting,” he added.
Carry1st partners with mobile games studios and content owners around the world to enable them to “launch their content profitably in the region. We’ve developed a payments platform which allows users to purchase using their preferred method of payment, and a marketplace for digital products”.
Having recently partnered with online payments provider PayPal and Chipper Cash, its users can now also pay for digital services like Tinder subscriptions, mobile data, and gaming currency.
Robbin-Coker believes connecting international content owners with “a large, engaged, aspirational user base” is a way to help solve Africa’s notorious connectivity problems.
“Due to app distribution and digital payment problems in the region, it’s extremely difficult for studios to make money off their games – and for consumers to pay for the content they want,” he said.
“As a result, consumers across Africa are underserved. We work with international publishers to access the world’s fastest-growing market. Our publishing solution, which handles user acquisition, live operations, community management, and monetization for our partners, is the solution to this.”
Andreessen Horowitz general partner David Haber said the firm was “delighted to be making our first investment in an Africa-headquartered company” in the mobile games and fintech platform. “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.”
Gaming has recorded rapid year-on-year growth to become a $200+ billion industry, attracting the flotsam and jetsam in the tech industry as the number of game players jump globally 3 billion. In 2021 alone, the total number of video game releases was up 64% compared to 2020.
The U.S leads the pack with 51% of players reported spending more than 7 hours per week playing across console, PC and mobile. Though China’s recent regulatory framework targeting its game market has resulted in decline in the number of players, there has been an uptick in other countries. The number of gamers is expected to grow to 4.5 billion by 2030.