Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has led a $20 million Series A extension for Carry1st, a South African publisher of social games and interactive content across Africa. This is a16z’s first investment in a company based in Africa (the firm has previously invested in Branch and Zipline, companies with some of its operations in Africa but headquartered in the U.S).
Avenir and Google also invested in Carry1st; this is Google’s second check from its Africa Investment Fund.
Nas, as well as the founders of Chipper Cash, Sky Mavis, and Yield Guild Games, were among the notable individual investors who took part.
The round, which is a follow-up to Riot Games, Konvoy Ventures, Raine Ventures, and TTV Capital’s Series A investment in Carry1st in May, saw the same investors increase their stakes in the company.
David Haber and Jonathan Lai, general partners at Andreessen Horowitz, will participate on Carry1st’s board as observers.
“When we think about Carry1st, we want to be the leading consumer internet company in the region. And we think that the best kind of wedge would be able to do that is a combination of gaming and micropayments and online commerce,” CEO Cordel Robbin-Coker said.
“These industries are being pretty significantly disrupted or augmented with web3 and crypto. And as more gaming content starts to integrate with NFTs and cryptocurrencies, we think there’s a really big opportunity to partner with those studios the same way we partner with free-to-play studios.”
On the heels of this revenue growth in its games and marketplace offerings, Carry1st will utilize this funding to expand its content catalog, build its product and engineering teams, and gain “tens of millions” of new customers.
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The company said in a statement that it plans to expand into game co-development with studios in order to gain more consumers. It’s also considering constructing infrastructure in Africa to accommodate play-to-earn gaming, which would be its first foray into web3.
Why The Investors Invested
Investors backed Carry1st out of the traction it has acquired within a short time. The three-year-old company recently landed deals for the publication of seven games from six studios globally, including Tilting Point, publisher of Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob: Krusty Cook-Off, which Carry1st recently launched in Africa. Others include CrazyLabs and Sweden’s Raketspel, a studio with over 120 million downloads across its portfolio.
According to the company, its game income also has climbed by 90 percent month over month since the second half of last year. It’s not surprising, given the explosive expansion of games in terms of both number and income (gaming applications represented for nearly 70% of all App Store revenue last year) on both the Apple and Google app stores since the epidemic.
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According to Robbin-Coker, the company’s online marketplace is seeing even faster growth, particularly among consumers in South Africa and Nigeria.
“We are delighted to be making our first investment in an Africa-headquartered company in Carry1st, a next-generation mobile games and fintech platform,” David Haber, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz said in a statement. “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.”
Carry1st appears to have chosen its backers carefully, especially as it wants to expand its gaming, web3, and finance businesses across Africa.
With over $3 billion in assets under management, a16z delivers unrivaled knowledge in gaming and web3. Carry1st will be able to deepen its penetration and engagement in Africa with the support of Google’s goods and phones.
At the same time, following its large investment in Flutterwave, Avenir continues to make a strong push in African fintech.
Individual investors include Nas, who has made a number of crypto investments, and the creators of Axie Infinity, which owns the world’s largest web3 game firm.
A Look At What Carry1st Does
Carry1st was founded in 2018 by Cordel Robbin-Coker, Lucy Hoffman, and Tinotenda Mundangepfupfu. The company, which is located in South Africa and employs 37 people in 18 countries, plans to utilize the new funding to expand its interactive content across Africa.
The company began as a gaming studio, creating, developing (from system designs to artwork and engineering), and releasing mobile games. It evolved into a hybrid model over time, taking on a publishing function while also handling distribution, marketing, and operations.
Since then, Carry1st co-founder and CEO Robbin-Coker said the company has primarily concentrated on its publishing arm.
Carry1st claims to offer a full-stack publishing solution to its partners, including user acquisition, live operations, community management, and monetization.
“We have a full-suite service that starts with distribution and partnerships. We help them create bespoke marketing materials from short-form advertising videos to statics, and we customize their content to resonate with individuals in different countries,” said Robbin-Coker.
“And then we operate the game and we also monetize. So we’ve built out our monetization engine to allow users to be able to pay for content that they want more easily across Africa.”
It also improves monetization in the region with its embedded payment solutions, which allow users to pay using a variety of local payment methods including as bank transfers, cryptocurrency, and mobile money.
Carry1st started its online marketplace for virtual items shortly after finishing its Series A financing. Users of a Carry1st game can buy virtual products including airtime, mobile data, entertainment vouchers, grocery shop vouchers, and gaming currency on this marketplace called Carry1st Shop.
Andreessen Horowitz Africa Andreessen Horowitz Africa
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer