A Series Seed round of US$2.5 million has been raised by Carry1st, which was led by CRE Venture Capital with participation from Perivoli Innovations, Lateral Capital, Transsion’s Future Hub, and Kam Kronenberg III, among others. CRE Venture Capital led the round, which included participation from Chandaria Capital, Lateral Capital, Transsion’s Future Hub, and Kam Kronenberg III.
With this round, the company has raised a total of $4.0 million in funding. The money raised will be used to attract top-tier talent,
invest in platform technology, and publish new content, among other things. Among those joining the board will be Pardon Makumbe, Managing Partner of CRE Capital Partners, and Henry Lowenfels, Chief Product Officer at One Team Partners (and former Scopely SVP).
Carry1st is the top mobile games publisher in Africa, focusing on the first generation of smartphone players in the continent. As of January 2019, the firm has attracted more than 1.5 million subscribers throughout the area, according to its website. Carry1st Trivia was recognized as the number one free-to-play Android game in Nigeria and Kenya, and it was voted the Best Media & Entertainment Solution of the year in both countries. The startup intends to collaborate with foreign studios to publish a number of games in 2020 and grow its audience to more than a million monthly active users by that time.
“Social gaming is the most popular and fastest-growing type of mobile media, accounting for more than three times the total revenue of all other app categories.” Our objective is to deliver this world of interactive information to Africa, as well as to link Africa to the rest of the globe via technology. The way forward, in our opinion, is to establish a local publisher with distinct technological and operational skills across marketing, distribution, and monetization. In order to expedite this ambition, we are glad to collaborate with CRE and our investment group.”
Cordel Robbin-Coker, CEO of Carry1st and a former Carlyle dealmaker, shared his thoughts.
The firm, which was founded by Cordel Robbin-Coker, Lucy Hoffman, and Tinotenda Mundangepfupfu, seeks to solve critical concerns in Africa that affect both consumers and content providers. With more than 350 million smartphone users expected to join the market by 2025 and data consumption expected to climb by 17 times, Carry1st serves the world’s fastest-growing market. In order to accelerate the development of the African mobile content market, Carry1st aims to provide specialized content, localized interaction, and payment solutions. The African mobile content industry is already anticipated to expand by 400 percent over the next five years.
Pardon Makumbe, a CRE partner, stated:
‘We are thrilled to be partnering with the world-class team at Carry1st to alleviate the agony associated with the distribution and monetization of games in Africa.’ We think Carry1st will be well-positioned to define the category and catalyze the growth of the business for Africa’s more than 1.3 billion customers by concentrating on the building blocks.”
Lucy Hoffman, Vice President of Operations at Carry1st, added:
Taking part in the development of a new industry in a growing area is really thrilling. We will create thousands of new employment as a result of this, as well as promote digital inclusiveness. When individuals go onto the internet for the first time, they want to make new friends and have a good time. The ability of games to entertain, educate, and ultimately unify us is brought to our attention in these extraordinary times.”