African mobile game maker Carry1st secures $27 million funding
A investment round led by BITKRAFT Ventures and including Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), TTV Capital, Alumni Ventures, Lateral Capital, Kepple Ventures, and Konvoy netted $27 million for African mobile game maker Carry1st.
Following a fruitful cooperation with Call of Duty: Mobile in South Africa in Q4 2022 and a new partnership with Riot Games scheduled to debut in 2023, this investment was announced.
The largest youthful population in the world is in Africa, and this generation will be digital natives who prefer playing videogames as their main form of entertainment, according to Jens Hilgers, founding general partner at Bitkraft. “We have complete faith in Carry1st’s outstanding founding team and their ambition of establishing a solid foundation and localized content, ensuring that gaming and interactive entertainment will flourish in Africa!
The most popular PC game in the world, League of Legends, was created and published by Riot Games, along with additional games including VALORANT, Teamfight Tactics, Legends of Runeterra, and League of Legends: Wild Rift. The business has continued to get backing from the company, which invested in Carry1st early on.
The funding follows a fruitful year for Carry1st, which saw the first game from its CrazyHubs gaming accelerator become the most downloaded game in the US, saw a significant increase in revenue over the previous year, and signed a number of partnerships that will support the company’s expansion in 2023 and beyond. The funding will be used by Carry1st to create, acquire, and release new games as well as to increase the scope of Pay1st, the company’s monetization-as-a-service offering.
We’re thrilled to work with BITKRAFT, one of the world’s best gaming VC companies, alongside a16z and other current investors as we continue on our objective to develop fantastic content in Africa,” said Cordel Robbin-Coker, Carry1st Co-Founder and CEO. While 2022 was a year of considerable growth, we hope to improve upon it in 2023 with the help of our partners
According to Jens Hilgers, founding general partner at BITKRAFT Ventures, Africa has the highest youth population in the world. This new generation will be digital natives that enjoy playing videogames as their main form of leisure. We have complete faith in Carry1st’s excellent founding team and their ambition for laying the groundwork for localized content and a thriving interactive entertainment industry in Africa.
