Founders in Focus: Kieran Donovan of k-ID

Each month, we’ll highlight one of the founders of Okta Ventures’ portfolio companies. You’ll get to know more about them and learn how they work with Okta. This month, we’re speaking with Kieran Donovan of k-ID. To learn more about k-ID’s recent Series A fundraising announcement, check out this TechCrunch article.

What is k-ID and what is your mission?

Our technology answers what is (or at least starts out as) a simple question: How do “we” (the service, app, platform, and game) enable digital youth in a safe, age-appropriate, and empowering way? As a result, k-ID powers an infinitely more meaningful online world for kids and teens.

What were you doing prior to k-ID that led you to this moment?

I’ve been an attorney for over a decade. Most recently I was a partner at a global firm leading the data and technology practice in Asia.

Over the course of my career, I’ve lived in Australia, the UK, Hong Kong, and Singapore. It has lent itself to a global perspective in many ways, principally how platforms navigate a near-infinite decision tree of complexity when it comes to the legal and regulatory environment for the online world.

Having advised on this complexity for so long, and seeing the divergent roads ahead, I saw a moment to change the way we lay the foundation for online worlds for the next generation.

What is k-ID’s solution? What challenge does it solve?

Today, outside of education, most of the internet is predicated on the idea that kids and teens are not online. That’s why you see so many pop-ups to “confirm you are over 13.”

Yet today’s youth are the most digitally native generation. This generation of youth and each subsequent generation will build more of their identity and community online at an earlier age and faster than ever before.

The technology that underpins today’s platforms, however, was built on assumptions that are generationally out of date. The backbone of today’s internet wasn’t (philosophically) built for a world where a nine-year-old in Indonesia could be gaming with a 22-year-old in the United States with live chat.

What’s more, today we have more complexity than ever across the globe — even what a “digital child” means varies from country to country. Add to that the fact that each child brings with them a distinct cultural and social identity, and is logging in from a unique legal environment.

This means that today, many aspects of the online world are forced to be reactive to digital youth (the best example being that if a child confirms they are over 13 and is later discovered, their account and identity are deleted). This can be the case even if, in the real world, their parent is, in fact, the one who helps them get online to begin with.

k-ID flips the script. We’ve built the foundation for an internet that is proactive for a digitally native generation.

We take it even further, providing the ability to localize that experience to suit the cultural and social environment wherever that child or teen is and even adjust based on their digital maturity.

Why did k-ID want to work with Okta?

At the very beginning of our journey, nearly two years ago, when I put together our very first company deck, I had one slide at the very beginning — a slide that appeared before jumping into any detail on the team, the product, the mission, opportunity, or philosophy behind what we proposed to build.

It was a slide designed to capture the essence — the simplicity and power — behind what we wanted to build, as a technology solution and as a company. It was slide that could convey to any person what we were doing. The slide said, “Like Okta for Kids.”

We admire the philosophy that underpins Okta as a technology and company, and looking at that approach helped us very early on in terms of our north star, so to partner together in such a direct way feels like a natural (and exciting) moment of coming full circle.

How is k-ID working with Okta? What support do you look for in a corporate partner?

First and foremost, we look for a partner who’s aligned with our overall mission. We’re building the foundation for an online world that respects and empowers youth. We love to work with partners who support that inclusivity. We’re already working with Okta to bring k-ID to more online experiences across the world.

Our core value is integrity — in our systems, our people, and our mission. Pairing the best of k-ID with the best of Okta, bringing to bear the best foundation for kids and teens online, is an exciting combination for the future.

Okta Ventures is an important partner and now a key investor. On June 20, Okta Ventures, along with a16z, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Konvoy Ventures, TIRTA, and Z Venture Capital, drove the successful $45 million Series A round for k-ID. We’re fortunate to work with the most sought-after financial partners who believe in k-ID’s mission, including Okta Ventures.

What trends do you expect to see in the k-ID industry?

There are two trends in particular we have seen emerge that we expect will become more pronounced:

• Regulatory fragmentation is increasing, including within countries like the United States, where different states are taking different approaches. This makes the challenge of adapting an experience to comply with these laws expensive and time-consuming, meaning many platforms take a risk-based approach.
• The emergence of “age assurance” — technologies to better determine the age of a person online — is gaining steam. This means the internet as a whole will be dealing with potentially dozens or hundreds of conflicting age signals relating to the same user.

Interested in joining Okta Ventures? Check out our FAQ here, and feel free to reach out to our team or submit your business for review.