Carry1st raises $27m from Bitkraft, Andreessen Horowitz, others

Carry1st, a mobile games publisher in Africa, has raised $27 million in funding led by BITKRAFT Ventures. The funding round also included participation from Andreessen Horowitz, TTV Capital, Alumni Ventures, Lateral Capital, Kepple Ventures and Konvoy.

The funding comes on the heels of a successful partnership with Call of Duty: Mobile in South Africa in Q4 2022 and new partnerships planned for 2023.

Carry1st plans to use the funding to develop, license and publish new games, as well as expand its monetisation-as-a-service solution, Pay1st.

Additionally, Carry1st has a partnership with Riot Games, the developer and publisher of popular game League of Legends, to pilot local payments for the company’s games in Africa.

Africa is viewed as a major growth market for mobile games, driven by increasing technology adoption among the continent’s large millennial and Gen-Z population.