k-ID, a Singapore-based startup that seeks to solve the issue of privacy and online safety for kids and teens, has announced raising $45 million in its Series A funding round.
The round, which brings the startup’s total funding raised to date to $51 million, was co-anchored by US venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and multi-stage venture investor Lightspeed Venture Partners.
The Series A round was also backed by a host of investors, including Konvoy, TIRTA, Okta, and Z Venture Capital, per the announcement.
k-ID aims to provide a safe and secure gaming environment for kids and teens and peace of mind for parents. It offers a cross-platform, 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 for young players.
Traditionally, game publishers require players to provide proof that they are of legal age or their accounts will be deleted. With k-ID, game developers can tailor experiences based on the age of the users and their appropriate locations.
“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 startup, founded by Donovan, Timothy Ma, Julian Corbett, and Jeff Wu, emerged from stealth in March 2024 and has partnered with the ESRB Privacy Certified programme to offer game publishers a way to leverage k-ID technology to help obtain the ESRB Privacy Certified Kids Seal.
“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.
Lai, whose company first invested in k-ID at the pre-seed, added that the startup is serving this need and defining a new industry standard for digital youth safety.
k-ID was also recently selected as a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer for 2024, joining the ranks of esteemed alumni, including early-stage Google and Airbnb.
k-ID’s funding comes as Singapore continues to stand out as the top fundraising hub in Southeast Asia, in terms of both deal count and value, amid a global funding downturn in 2023, a report from DealStreetAsia and Enterprise Singapore showed.
The report—Singapore Venture Funding Landscape 2023: A Full Year Study—showed that Singapore startups sealed 522 deals, which is 63.7% of all equity deals in ASEAN 6 (Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam) last year, up from 56.7% in 2022.
