Three months after its release, Sony Innovation Fund: Africaa $10 million fund made its seed investment in Carry1st, a leading African game publisher.
“We are excited to welcome Carry1st as our first investment in Africa,” said Antonio Avitabile, managing director for EMEA at Sony Ventures Corporation. “We believe there is enormous untapped potential for the gaming market in Africa, which we hope to experience and contribute to through our investment in Carry1st. We look forward to working closely with Carry1st’s world-class management team to support the company’s growth and to explore potential business opportunities with Sony group companies.”
Carry1st started in 2018 as a game studio creating mobile games like Carry1st Trivia. Later, they also started licensing and publishing games from other developers. The Cape Town-based startup developed Pay1st, a platform for monetizing its and other publishers’ games.
🎮
Since launching, Carry1st has raised over $57 million from at least five deals, including a $27 million pre-Series B round last year. The startup has also partnered with Call of Duty® and Riot Games.
With the undisclosed investment from Sony, Cordel Robbin-Coker, co-founder and CEO of Carry1st said it will “bring the world’s best games to gamers across Africa.” According to data from Newzoo and Carry1st, Africa’s gaming industry has over 200 million unique players and is set to reach a market size of over $1 billion this year.
“The African gaming market is a story of possibilities. In the last three years, the growth of the market has exceeded the global average and is set to continue to do so for the next few years. Having said that, it is also a challenging area for success Sub-Saharan Africa Africa is home to 7% of the global gaming audience, but its players spend less than half a percent of global gaming revenue,” said Tom Wijman, chief gaming analyst at Newzoo.
Robbin-Coker believes that “The relationship [with Sony] will help Carry1st drive the future of gaming in Africa. At Carry1st, we believe that the African console market is a huge undervalued opportunity. Our unique local capabilities, combined with Sony’s expertise in gaming and entertainment, make for a powerful combination.”