k-ID, a cross-platform and instant sign-on solution for kids and teens built as an all-in-one answer for solving the complex issue of privacy and online safety worldwide, announced a $45 million Series A funding round. This latest of three funding rounds in less than nine months comes due to unprecedented traction from major publishers.
Backed with some of the world’s most sought-after investors, the Series A round comes from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Lightspeed Venture Partners, with major support from Konvoy, TIRTA, Okta, and Z Venture Capital from LY Corporation. This brings the total funding raised to date to $51 million.
Along with a substantial Series A, k-ID was recently selected as a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer for 2024, joining the ranks of esteemed alumni, including early-stage Google and Airbnb. Just 100 companies make the WEF Technology Pioneers cohort each year based on their potential to transform industries and society.
Game publishers using k-ID represent games and online experiences played by hundreds of millions of kids and teens each day around the world, including popular experiences from some of the world’s largest public and private gaming companies.
k-ID also announced a partnership with the ESRB Privacy Certified program. And k-ID has configured its parent/family and developer portals to reflect the program’s COPPA-based requirements. This partnership offers game publishers a way to leverage k-ID technology to help obtain the ESRB Privacy Certified Kids Seal.
Launched by Kieran Donovan, Timothy Ma, Julian Corbett and Jeff Wu, with a goal centered on youth empowerment, the k-ID team hails from the likes of Meta, Tencent, Google, Take-Two, EA, with deep expertise in games, legal compliance and trust and safety. And the company emerged from stealth in March 2024, is rapidly establishing itself as one of the most promising and fastest-growing start-ups in the world.
KEY QUOTES:
“The time for change is now—today, the world demands safer, more empowered online experiences for youth. The groundswell of support from across the industry has been phenomenal. We are excited to accelerate our mission to bring privacy-preserving, youth-first technology that delivers on the societal imperative of empowering the next generation.”
– Kieran Donovan, co-founder and CEO of k-ID, whose own childhood trauma was the motivation for k-ID
“Kids today make friends and countless memories inside games and virtual worlds, and parents need modern tools to keep them safe. k-ID is serving this need and defining a new industry standard for digital youth safety. We first invested in k-ID at the pre-seed through SPEEDRUN, and we’re thrilled to continue supporting them as they make digital communities safer for kids and parents.”
– Jonathan Lai, General Partner at a16z
“It’s rare to find this combination of unique founder-market fit, societal impact, and—most impressively—commercial traction. Clearly, k-ID is solving a massive challenge for publishers, parents, teens, and kids worldwide. Embarking on this partnership during my parental leave only made it more meaningful.”
– Moritz Baier-Lentz, Partner and Head of Gaming & Interactive Media at Lightspeed, who is joining the company’s board of directors
“There are over 2 billion people aged 18 and under, and their increasingly expansive digital identity needs to be secure. Kids have unique authentication and authorization requirements, and k-ID has a robust and novel approach to ensuring safe online digital access to games and other digital assets. We are incredibly impressed by the team and excited for what lies ahead.”
– Austin Arensberg, Senior Director, Okta Ventures
“Publishers are navigating new challenges with growing their user base under the age of 18 and complicated global compliance standards. We believe k-ID’s innovative solutions will streamline the challenges posed by the ever-changing regulatory landscape and pave the way for a safer online environment for our kids and teens.”
– Hyung Kim from Z Venture Capital, Corporate Venture Arm of LY corporation (a merged entity of LINE and Yahoo Japan)
