The Carry1st funding which was led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) also saw in attendance the likes of Avenir, Riot Games, Google, and TTV Capital amongst others. The fund will be used to expand product development in Africa.
Carry1st, a publisher of web3 and social games, has raised $20 million in Series A funding to grow product development in Africa, a continent that has the potential to become the major hub for the gaming industry in the next decade.
With participation from Avenir and Google parent Alphabet, the funding round was managed by Silicon Valley venture firm Andreessen Horowitz, which has been engaged in the blockchain industry. Riot Games, Konvoy Ventures, Raine Ventures, and TTV Capital, among Carry1st’s current backers, took part in the funding round.
Carry1st plans to utilize the funds to increase its content inventory, expand its in-house development team, and launch a new growth strategy aimed at attracting tens of millions of new users.
The development of infrastructure to support play-to-earn gaming, which allows users to monetise their gaming experience, is a fundamental pillar of their growth plan.
Alphabet’s investment in Carry1st is part of the company’s Africa digital transformation program, which CEO Sundar Pichai announced in October 2021.
Pichai highlighted Africa as a major growth driver for the digital economy at the time, predicting that 300 million people would join the internet in the following five years. Many of those new users will be gamers if current trends provide any indication. Carry1st appears to be in a unique position to capitalize on this potential as Africa’s top publisher of social games.
Aside from providing a full-stack publishing platform, the company also creates games with embedded payment solutions and online marketplaces to help with commercialization.
Tilting Point, the publisher of Nickelodeon’s SpongeBob: Krusty Cook-Off, and Sweden’s Raketspel are among the studios with which the company has publishing agreements.
Crypto adoption in Africa
Africa is quickly establishing itself as one of the most important consumer markets for decentralized networks and peer-to-peer payments. Nigeria, like several other large economies in the area, has embraced Bitcoin (BTC) for payments and remittances.
Between 2020 and 2021, the continent’s crypto market expanded 1,200 percent, according to blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis. Over the next ten years, the gaming industry is predicted to develop at an exponential rate, opening up new prospects for Web3 and play-to-earn business models.
According to Newzoo and Cary1st research, the number of gamers in Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to increase by 275% in the next decade.
