k-ID closes $45 million Series A to set a new global benchmark for age-appropriate gaming experiences

k-ID, a first-of-its-kind global compliance engine that simplifies online safety and privacy management for game developers, parents, kids, and teens, announced a $45 million Series A funding round. Backed by 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, the world's leading identity management platform Okta, and Z Venture Capital from the Japanese tech leader LY Corporation. This brings the total funding raised to date to $51M.

In addition to its 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. Only 100 companies make the WEF Technology Pioneers cohort each year based on their potential to transform industries and society.

Game publishers integrating 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.

"The time for change is now—today, the world demands safer, more empowered online experiences for youth," said Kieran Donovan, co-founder and CEO of k-ID, whose own childhood trauma was the motivation for k-ID. "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."

Furthering its affiliation and support within the industry, k-ID also announced today a partnership with the ESRB Privacy Certified program. 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.

Founded by Kieran Donovan, Timothy Ma, Julian Corbett and Jeff Wu, with a mission 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. The company, which emerged from stealth in March 2024, is rapidly establishing itself as one of the most promising and fastest-growing start-ups in the world.

INVESTOR PERSPECTIVES

"Kids today make friends and countless memories inside games and virtual worlds, and parents need modern tools to keep them safe," said Jonathan Lai, General Partner at a16z. "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."

"It's rare to find this combination of unique founder-market fit, societal impact, and—most impressively—commercial traction," said Moritz Baier-Lentz, Partner and Head of Gaming & Interactive Media at Lightspeed, who is joining the company's board of directors. "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."

"There are over 2 billion people aged 18 and under, and their increasingly expansive digital identity needs to be secure," said Austin Arensberg, Senior Director, Okta Ventures. "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."