Carry1st

Carry1st is the leading publisher of social games and interactive content in Africa.

Carry1st provides a full-stack publishing solution, handling user acquisition, live operations, community management and monetization for its partners.

Carry1st was founded in 2018 by Cordel Robbin-Coker, Lucy Hoffman and Tinotenda Mundangepfupfu. The company is headquartered in Cape Town, South Africa.

 

Carry1st started as a game studio where it conceptualized, developed (from system designs to artwork and engineering), and launched mobile games. Over time, it switched to a hybrid model, adopting a publishing role and handling distribution, marketing and operations.

 

Carry1st also exclusively licenses third-party games. The company launched Pay1st, an embedded finance platform that helps the startup make revenue from both categories: owned games and third-party games, of which Riot Games is one of its clients.

 

Carry1st also launched Carry1st Shop, its online marketplace for virtual goods which allows customers across Africa to pay for content and 100+ products across 120 different payment methods, including bank transfers, crypto and mobile money.

 

Carry1st is backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Riot Games, Avenir, Google, Bitkraft Ventures, Konvoy Ventures, CRE Ventures, Raine Ventures, TTV Capital, Alumni Ventures, Lateral Capital, Kepple Ventures, and others. The company raised $27M in a pre-Series B round on Jan 17, 2023. This brings Carry1st's total funding to $57M to date.

 

 

  • Year founded: 2018
  • Funding Info: $57M over 5 Rounds (Latest Funding Type: pre-Series B)
  • Yearly Revenue: NA
  • Employee Size: 51-200
  • Business Valuation: NA
  • City/Town: Cape Town
  • State: Western Cape
  • Country: South Africa
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