Nas Invests In $20M Funding Round For African Mobile Games Publisher Carry1st

While the gaming market in Africa is on the rise, Nas and the venture capital firm have taken notice of its promising future.

“We are delighted to be making our first investment in an Africa-headquartered company in Carry1st,” Andreessen Horowitz General Partner David Haber said. “We see immense opportunity for the company to mirror outstanding successes we’ve seen in markets like India, China, and Southeast Asia.”

Carry1st was founded by Cordel Robbin-Coker, Lucy Hoffman, and Tinotenda Mundangepfupfu in 2018. The South African-based company has been on a roll from raising $6 million in funding prior to this recent round to working with the likes of PayPal and Tilting Point. To now be co-signed by a dominating firm and business mogul is quite an impressive feat for the startup that aims to scale interactive content across Africa by growing its teams and working with leading game studios.

“We’re excited to partner with this world-class group of investors who, in addition to capital, bring expertise across gaming, fintech, and web3,” said Coker. “In 2021, we launched multiple games and digital commerce solutions achieving really strong growth. Together we can accelerate this growth and achieve our goal of becoming the leading consumer internet company in the region.”

The gaming market was once untapped in Africa, but not for long. The continent’s gaming community is growing exponentially fast and is projected to double the number of gamers that North America has today in the next five years, according to Carry1st’s website.