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Carry1st raises $20 million with plans to expand gaming and Web3 efforts

The leading publisher of mobile games on the African continent, Carry1st, has announced that its $20 million Series A extension has drawn in the likes of Andreesen Horowitz, Avenir and Google.

Other investors include the likes of Nas (yes, that Nas), as well as the founders of Sky Mavis, Chipper Cash and Yield Guild Games. Investors from Carry1st’s May 2021 Series A funding round are backing the company once more. These investors include Riot Games, Konvoy Ventures, Raine Ventures and TTV Capital.

“We’re excited to partner with this world-class group of investors who, in addition to capital, bring expertise across gaming, fintech, and web3,” explained co-founder and chief executive officer at Carry1st, Cordel Robbin-Coker.

“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.”

A report released in 2021 from Newzoo and Carry1st, showed that the number of gamers in Sub-Saharan Africa is set to increase by 275 percent over 10 years, potentially leading to a 728 percent increase in revenue. Carry1st then is in prime position to assist local and international developers and publishers when entering the local market.

While it may seem like an easy enough thing to do, having an understanding of the African market and the aspects of it that make it unique is incredibly important. For example, given that many African citizens are mobile-first games and the accompanying solutions such as marketplaces and in-app purchases need to be tailored to these markets.

To that end, Carry1st recently partnered with PayPal and Chipper Cash to make digital payments for virtual goods and digital services far simpler through the Carry1st Shop. This store front also allows you to purchase airtime, data, prepaid electricity and vouchers for platforms such as Twitch.

“We’re thrilled to partner with Carry1st to unlock the mobile gaming industry in Africa and support the team as they scale solutions to the hundreds of millions of new consumers coming online for the first time,” said Nitin Gaijria, managing director for Google in Africa.

This is a rather exciting development especially as the likes of Google are looking to make mobile games more accessible on other platforms.

Whether that play works remains to be seen but it can’t hurt and if it gets more African’s gaming and by extension results in Africa not longer being lumped into the massive Europe, Middle East and Africa category, we’re all for it.

[Image – CC 0 Pixabay]

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