k-ID

k-ID is a compliance infrastructure company for what it calls the age-adaptive internet. It supplies age assurance, regulatory intelligence and compliance technology to gaming, social media, consumer AI and other platforms carrying user-generated content, with coverage stated across more than 200 jurisdictions. Its stated purpose is to establish how old a user is under local law and risk requirements in a privacy-preserving way, and then use that age signal to adapt features, permissions, notices and safeguards for children, teens and families in each market.

The product set includes AgeKit, a free age-classification layer that sorts users into the correct age category for their jurisdiction; AgeKit+, which confirms age through multiple privacy-preserving methods such as facial age estimation, ID checks and reusable age tokens through a single API, using an on-device model so biometric data is not transmitted and multi-vendor failover; the Compliance Development Kit (CDK), a jurisdiction-aware engine that enforces age-appropriate permissions and includes verifiable parental consent and a "Safe Start" default-safe onboarding mode; Family Connect, a parent portal for consent, controls and family management; neimo, an AI-supported regulatory intelligence product; and AgeKey reusable age credentials drawn from the OpenAge Initiative. In the operational flow described for parents, an integrating game passes k-ID the player's location (typically inferred from IP address), a self-reported or third-party-obtained age, and a session ID; where local law requires, k-ID routes a consent request to a trusted adult. k-ID states it does not store the underlying data used to validate ages or adult status, only the result of the check.

The company was founded by Kieran Donovan (Co-Founder & CEO), Timothy Ma (Co-Founder & Chief Legal Officer), Julian Corbett (Co-Founder & Chief Growth Officer) and Jeff Wu (Co-Founder & Chief People and Safety Officer), and emerged from stealth in March 2024. Other named executives include Aakash Mandhar (CTO), Venk Subramanian (Head of Innovation), Mike Mongeau (Head of Product) and Benjamin Chen (Head of Global Sales). The team is described as drawn from Meta, Google, Take-Two, Electronic Arts, Microsoft, Netflix, Tencent, Unity and Latham & Watkins.

Founding story

k-ID was founded by Kieran Donovan, Timothy Ma, Julian Corbett and Jeff Wu around a mission of youth empowerment online. Press coverage of the Series A states that CEO Kieran Donovan's own childhood trauma was the motivation for starting the company.

Business model

k-ID sells compliance and age-assurance infrastructure to digital platform operators, integrated via widgets for fast deployment or APIs for deeper control, with one integration intended to cover multiple titles or products. AgeKit, the age classification tier, is offered free, with verification (AgeKit+), the CDK compliance engine, Family Connect and neimo positioned as the broader enterprise platform. Go-to-market runs through demos booked by product and compliance teams.

Traction

The company site reports more than 100 million users protected across gaming, social and AI platforms, coverage of more than 200 jurisdictions, and a live counter of age-appropriate experiences powered by k-ID showing over 27.7 million. It cites parental consent rates of up to 96% through the CDK. At the time of the June 2024 Series A, press materials stated that game publishers integrating k-ID represented games and online experiences played by hundreds of millions of kids and teens daily.

Latest developments

The company's site lists an upcoming presence at Gamescom 2026 in Cologne (Aug 23-28) and tracks forthcoming regimes including Brazil's ECA Digital (March 2026), the US COPPA rule amendments (April 2026) and India's DPDP Act (May 2027). Its current product line spans AgeKit, AgeKit+, CDK, Family Connect, neimo, AgeKey and a dedicated consumer AI offering.