Carry1st

Carry1st is Africa's leading mobile games publisher and digital commerce platform, headquartered in South Africa and operating across high-growth African markets including Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Egypt, and Morocco. Beyond publishing and distributing mobile games from partners such as Riot Games, Activision, and Supercell, Carry1st operates Pay1st, a payment gateway that lets digital-content and game developers accept payments through 120+ local payment methods across six African geographies. Pay1st offers a single unified API, acts as Merchant of Record (handling compliance, taxation, FX, and risk so businesses collect in USD), and supports hosted-payment, game-client, and Carry1st Shop marketplace integration styles. Carry1st is backed by a16z. This profile was enriched by the API Evangelist pipeline from the public Pay1st developer documentation.

Carry1st publishes 4 APIs on the APIs.io network, including Authentication API, Payment Methods API, Payments API, and 1 more. Tagged areas include Company, Payments, Payment Gateway, Fintech, and Gaming.

The Carry1st catalog on APIs.io includes 1 event-driven AsyncAPI specification.

Carry1st’s developer surface includes documentation, API reference, getting-started guide, engineering blog, support, changelog, authentication, and 22 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Source on GitHub

32.1/100 thin ▬ flat Agent 35/100 agent ready saas Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-08-30 · rubric v0.17.2

AccessSelf serve

1 APIs 1 MCP Servers

Company Payments Payment Gateway Fintech Gaming Mobile Games Africa Digital Commerce Merchant of RecordGames Publishing

Kin Score

Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-08-30 · rubric v0.17.2

Composite quality — 32.1/100 · thin

Contract Quality 4.9 / 21

Developer Ergonomics 8.0 / 17

Access Clarity 3.6 / 17

Operational Transparency 3.0 / 11

Contract Governance 0.5 / 10

Discoverability 6.5 / 9

Regulatory Posture 5.9 / 15

Agent readiness — 35/100 · agent ready

Machine-Readable Contract 18 / 18

Agentic Access Contract 10 / 10

Documented Reversibility 6 / 6

MCP Server 0 / 12

Machine-Readable Auth 10 / 10

Idempotency 9 / 9

Stable Error Semantics 8 / 8

Request/Response Examples 7 / 7

Rate-Limit Signaling 0 / 7

Typed Event Surface 6 / 6

Agent Skills 5 / 5

Well-Known Catalog 0 / 4

Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3

A2A Agent Card 0 / 8

Dry-Run / Simulate Mode 0 / 4

Delegated User Identity 0 / 6

Protected Resource Metadata 0 / 5

Registration Without a Human 0 / 6

Agentic Commerce Surface 0 / 5

Regulatory Posture applies to this provider. Its tags matched the Payments regime, so Regulatory Posture carries 15 points of the composite. If this regime is wrong for your business, say so on your provider repo — the applicability map is public and we will correct it.

The six quality facets above are damped to 85 points between them, because the conditional facet above carries the other 15. That is why each facet's contribution is shown against a damped maximum: raising a quality facet moves the composite by 85% of its nominal weight, not 100%. The full arithmetic is at apis.io/rating/.

Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. This rating is computed from github.com/api-evangelist/carry1st: open an issue to ask a question, or submit a pull request to add artifacts. Want it done for you? Prioritized profiling — $2,500 →

APIs 4

Individual APIs this provider publishes, each with its own machine-readable definition.

MCP Servers 1

Model Context Protocol servers that expose these APIs to AI agents.

Get Started 3

Portal, sign-up, and the first successful call

DeveloperPortal

DeveloperPortal

GettingStarted

GettingStarted

Sandbox

Sandbox

Documentation 2

Reference material describing how the API behaves

Documentation

Documentation

APIReference

APIReference

Agent Surfaces 5

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

WellKnown

MCPServer

LLMsTxt

AgentSkill

AgenticAccess

Design & Contract 8

Pagination, idempotency, versioning, errors, and events

Idempotency

Conventions

ErrorCatalog

Lifecycle

Conformance

DataModel

Webhooks

Arazzo

Scroll for all 8

Build 1

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

Packages

Packages

Access & Security 2

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

Authentication

Authentication

DomainSecurity

DomainSecurity

Operate 3

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

Support

Support

ChangeLog

ChangeLog

Deprecation

Deprecation

Commercial 2

Pricing, plans, and the legal terms of use

TermsOfService

TermsOfService

PrivacyPolicy

PrivacyPolicy

Company 2

The organization behind the API

Website

Website

Blog

Blog

Other 1

Properties that don't map to a standard resource type

Overlay

Overlay

Source (apis.yml)

aid: carry1st
name: Carry1st
description: Carry1st is Africa's leading mobile games publisher and digital commerce platform, headquartered in South Africa
  and operating across high-growth African markets including Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Egypt, and Morocco. Beyond
  publishing and distributing mobile games from partners such as Riot Games, Activision, and Supercell, Carry1st operates
  Pay1st, a payment gateway that lets digital-content and game developers accept payments through 120+ local payment methods
  across six African geographies. Pay1st offers a single unified API, acts as Merchant of Record (handling compliance, taxation,
  FX, and risk so businesses collect in USD), and supports hosted-payment, game-client, and Carry1st Shop marketplace integration
  styles. Carry1st is backed by a16z. This profile was enriched by the API Evangelist pipeline from the public Pay1st developer
  documentation.
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/carry1st/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
x-type: company
x-source: vc-portfolio
x-backed-by:
- a16z
x-tier: profiled
x-tier-reason: portfolio-lead-enriched
deliveryModel:
  model: saas
  open_source: false
  commercial: true
  callable_host: true
  label: Hosted service · you call their endpoint
  confidence: high
  source:
  - openapi
  - pricing
  generated: '2026-08-28'
  method: derived
accessModel:
  pricing: unknown
  onboarding: self-serve
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Self-serve signup
  confidence: medium
  source:
  - authentication
  generated: '2026-07-22'
  method: derived
specificationVersion: '0.23'
created: '2026-07-17'
modified: '2026-07-18'
image: https://www.carry1st.com/favicon.ico
tags:
- Company
- Payments
- Payment Gateway
- Fintech
- Gaming
- Mobile Games
- Africa
- Digital Commerce
- Merchant of Record
- Games Publishing
apis:
- aid: carry1st:carry1st-authentication-api
  name: Carry1st Authentication API
  description: Obtain and refresh access tokens for Gateway API requests.
  humanURL: https://pay1st-docs.carry1st.com/
  baseURL: https://api-gateway.carry1st.com
  tags:
  - Authentication
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/carry1st-authentication-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://pay1st-docs.carry1st.com/
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://pay1st-docs.carry1st.com/reference/gateway-api-overview
  - type: GettingStarted
    url: https://pay1st-docs.carry1st.com/reference/gateway-integration-step-by-step-checklist
  - type: Authentication
    url: authentication/carry1st-authentication.yml
  - type: Sandbox
    url: sandbox/carry1st-sandbox.yml
  - type: Idempotency
    url: conventions/carry1st-conventions.yml
  - type: Conventions
    url: conventions/carry1st-conventions.yml
  - type: ErrorCatalog
    url: errors/carry1st-problem-types.yml
  - type: Webhooks
    url: asyncapi/carry1st-pay1st-webhooks.yml
  - type: DataModel
    url: data-model/carry1st-data-model.yml
  - type: AgenticAccess
    url: agentic-access/carry1st-agentic-access.yml
- aid: carry1st:carry1st-payment-methods-api
  name: Carry1st Payment Methods API
  description: Discover the local payment methods available per country.
  humanURL: https://pay1st-docs.carry1st.com/
  baseURL: https://api-gateway.carry1st.com
  tags:
  - Payment Methods
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/carry1st-payment-methods-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://pay1st-docs.carry1st.com/
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://pay1st-docs.carry1st.com/reference/gateway-api-overview
  - type: GettingStarted
    url: https://pay1st-docs.carry1st.com/reference/gateway-integration-step-by-step-checklist
  - type: Authentication
    url: authentication/carry1st-authentication.yml
  - type: Sandbox
    url: sandbox/carry1st-sandbox.yml
  - type: Idempotency
    url: conventions/carry1st-conventions.yml
  - type: Conventions
    url: conventions/carry1st-conventions.yml
  - type: ErrorCatalog
    url: errors/carry1st-problem-types.yml
  - type: Webhooks
    url: asyncapi/carry1st-pay1st-webhooks.yml
  - type: DataModel
    url: data-model/carry1st-data-model.yml
  - type: AgenticAccess
    url: agentic-access/carry1st-agentic-access.yml
- aid: carry1st:carry1st-payments-api
  name: Carry1st Payments API
  description: Create payment requests and query their status.
  humanURL: https://pay1st-docs.carry1st.com/
  baseURL: https://api-gateway.carry1st.com
  tags:
  - Payments
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/carry1st-payments-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://pay1st-docs.carry1st.com/
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://pay1st-docs.carry1st.com/reference/gateway-api-overview
  - type: GettingStarted
    url: https://pay1st-docs.carry1st.com/reference/gateway-integration-step-by-step-checklist
  - type: Authentication
    url: authentication/carry1st-authentication.yml
  - type: Sandbox
    url: sandbox/carry1st-sandbox.yml
  - type: Idempotency
    url: conventions/carry1st-conventions.yml
  - type: Conventions
    url: conventions/carry1st-conventions.yml
  - type: ErrorCatalog
    url: errors/carry1st-problem-types.yml
  - type: Webhooks
    url: asyncapi/carry1st-pay1st-webhooks.yml
  - type: DataModel
    url: data-model/carry1st-data-model.yml
  - type: AgenticAccess
    url: agentic-access/carry1st-agentic-access.yml
- aid: carry1st:carry1st-refunds-api
  name: Carry1st Refunds API
  description: Request refunds against processed transactions.
  humanURL: https://pay1st-docs.carry1st.com/
  baseURL: https://api-gateway.carry1st.com
  tags:
  - Refunds
  properties:
  - type: OpenAPI
    url: openapi/carry1st-refunds-api-openapi.yml
  - type: Documentation
    url: https://pay1st-docs.carry1st.com/
  - type: APIReference
    url: https://pay1st-docs.carry1st.com/reference/gateway-api-overview
  - type: GettingStarted
    url: https://pay1st-docs.carry1st.com/reference/gateway-integration-step-by-step-checklist
  - type: Authentication
    url: authentication/carry1st-authentication.yml
  - type: Sandbox
    url: sandbox/carry1st-sandbox.yml
  - type: Idempotency
    url: conventions/carry1st-conventions.yml
  - type: Conventions
    url: conventions/carry1st-conventions.yml
  - type: ErrorCatalog
    url: errors/carry1st-problem-types.yml
  - type: Webhooks
    url: asyncapi/carry1st-pay1st-webhooks.yml
  - type: DataModel
    url: data-model/carry1st-data-model.yml
  - type: AgenticAccess
    url: agentic-access/carry1st-agentic-access.yml
common:
- type: Overlay
  url: overlays/carry1st-pay1st-gateway-overlay.yaml
- type: DeveloperPortal
  url: https://pay1st-docs.carry1st.com/
- type: Documentation
  url: https://pay1st-docs.carry1st.com/
- type: APIReference
  url: https://pay1st-docs.carry1st.com/reference/gateway-api-overview
- type: GettingStarted
  url: https://pay1st-docs.carry1st.com/reference/gateway-integration-step-by-step-checklist
- type: Website
  url: https://www.carry1st.com/
- type: Blog
  url: https://www.carry1st.com/blog
- type: TermsOfService
  url: https://www.carry1st.com/terms-of-service
- type: PrivacyPolicy
  url: https://www.carry1st.com/privacy-policy
- type: Support
  url: https://www.carry1st.com/contact
- type: ChangeLog
  url: changelog/carry1st-changelog.yml
- type: Authentication
  url: authentication/carry1st-authentication.yml
- type: Idempotency
  url: conventions/carry1st-conventions.yml
- type: Conventions
  url: conventions/carry1st-conventions.yml
- type: ErrorCatalog
  url: errors/carry1st-problem-types.yml
- type: Sandbox
  url: sandbox/carry1st-sandbox.yml
- type: Lifecycle
  url: lifecycle/carry1st-lifecycle.yml
- type: Deprecation
  url: https://pay1st-docs.carry1st.com/reference/gateway-migration-guide
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/carry1st-domain-security.yml
- type: Conformance
  url: conformance/carry1st-conformance.yml
- type: WellKnown
  url: well-known/carry1st-well-known.yml
- type: MCPServer
  url: mcp/carry1st-mcp.yml
- type: LLMsTxt
  url: llms/carry1st-llms.txt
- type: Packages
  url: packages/carry1st-packages.yml
- type: DataModel
  url: data-model/carry1st-data-model.yml
- type: Webhooks
  url: asyncapi/carry1st-pay1st-webhooks.yml
- type: AgentSkill
  url: skills/_index.yml
- type: AgenticAccess
  url: agentic-access/carry1st-agentic-access.yml
- type: Arazzo
  name: Pay1st - collect a payment
  url: arazzo/carry1st-collect-payment.yml
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com
- FN: APIs.json
  email: info@apis.io
x-enrichment:
  date: '2026-07-19'
  status: backfilled
  pass: local-v1
  note: backfilled from .gitignore signal + verified work evidence

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