African mobile games publisher Carry1st raises $27 million

African mobile games publisher Carry1st announced that it has raised $27 million in a funding round led by Bitkraft Ventures, with Andreesen Horowitz, TTV Capital, Alumni Ventures, Lateral Capital, Kepple Ventures, and Konvoy also participating.

The newly announced pre-Series B round comes a year after the company raised $20 million from key investors. Last January, Carry1st announced a $20 million Series A extension round after it raised $6 million in May 2021 from various investors, including Riot Games.

“We now have, in our minds, the three best funds that focus on gaming and web3. And so it just adds even more resources, perspective and assistance to help us achieve our goals,” Carry1st CEO Cordel Robbin-Coker said in an interview. 

Founded in 2018 by Tinotenda Mundangepfupfu, Lucy Hoffman, and Cordel Robbin-Coker and headquartered in Cape Town, South Africa, the company plans to use the funding to develop internally produced games, including home-grown titles for the African market. The company also plans to expand Pay1st, its monetization-as-a-service solution.

“This round is oriented around content, as our content engine has grown,” Robbin-Coker said. “We used to be primarily just licensing third-party games and publishing them exclusively across Africa. But since our last raise, we’ve acquired two games, and we think there will be opportunities to acquire more games, particularly in this market. We can buy interesting franchises and own and operate and try and improve them. And we’ve also built our team, a game development team.”