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Kidas
Techstars '20Philadelphia, US · Founded 2019 · 3 known investors
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Kidas provides white-label threat detection and protection solutions that integrate with SMS, email, voice, and gaming platforms to defend against scams, fraud, and digital threats. The company uses cybersecurity and AI technology to protect communications for gaming platforms, messaging services, and other digital channels.
Also known as KIDAS · Kidas, Inc. · ProtectMe
Founders & leadership
Kidas was founded in 2019 by Ron Kerbs.
Investors · 3
How we know: av.vc · Not right? Tell us
How we know: New York Venture Partners's portfolio page · Not right? Tell us
How we know: the Techstars portfolio · open dataset · Top 3000 Accelerator Startups (no YC) 2026-08 · Not right? Tell us
Company profile
researched Sep 2026Kidas, Inc. is a Philadelphia-based software company that develops real-time voice and text analysis AI used to detect scams, fraud, and other online threats. Its current flagship product, Kidas Voice Shield, is aimed at operators of voice infrastructure and is split into two modules: Network Shield, which detects robocall campaigns, AI-generated voice scams, and account-takeover call blasts originating from an operator's own customers and can signal disconnect, flag, or quarantine actions via webhook; and Subscriber Shield, which detects AI voice fraud and PBX takeovers targeting an operator's subscribers and is positioned as a resellable premium add-on with real-time alerts.
The company also operates a gaming-focused line under the ProtectMe brand, which analyzes voice and text chat in multiplayer PC games and on platforms such as Discord to surface scams, hate speech, cyberbullying, predatory behavior, and harassment. ProtectMe is sold to digital security companies and gaming communities as a bundled or white-label component, to Discord server owners and admins for voice channel moderation, and directly to families via a parent dashboard with phone alerts; the company states support for Fortnite, Roblox, Minecraft and more than 3,000 other games.
Kidas positions its voice products around regulatory exposure for carriers and voice platforms, referencing FCC cease-and-desist mandates, loss of Robocall Mitigation Database status, carrier "Scam Likely" labeling, and TCPA liability.
Founding story
Founder Ron Kerbs, a gamer himself, decided to build the product after learning of a young woman from the Germantown area of Philadelphia who was sexually harassed by someone she met online; he concluded that existing parental filters were easily circumvented and that monitoring in-game voice conversations was technologically unaddressed.
Business model
Kidas sells software to voice network operators, digital security companies, and gaming platforms, with modules that partners can resell to their own subscribers as premium add-ons, alongside a direct consumer/family subscription offering in gaming.
Subscription software; the gaming product is described as a subscription that alerts parents, and Subscriber Shield is described as resellable by operators as a premium add-on.
Traction
The company reports more than 160 million calls analyzed and advertises deployment in 48-72 hours. It received an AI Breakthrough Award in 2025. Its gaming business reports monitoring of voice conversations each month across a user base of protected gamers, and it was selected for the Comcast NBCUniversal LIFT Labs Accelerator.
Latest developments
Kidas now markets Voice Shield with Network Shield and Subscriber Shield modules for detection of robocalls, AI voice scams, account takeovers, and PBX takeovers, citing over 160 million calls analyzed and an AI Breakthrough Award 2025.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history, risks & controversies
Market position
An early-stage security vendor that expanded from child-safety monitoring in online games into network-level voice fraud detection for telecom and voice platform operators.
Kidas states that competing solutions rely on CDR metadata, which cannot detect AI-generated voice, while its acoustic analysis identifies synthetic voice and fraud patterns; it also emphasizes no audio retention and deployment within 48-72 hours. For gaming, it describes ProtectMe as able to detect serious threats inside Windows PC games, voice chats, and gaming apps.
Technology
Out-of-band acoustic AI combined with CDR and signaling data for multi-factor scoring of calls. Integration is via SIPREC, WebSocket, or API with no hardware and no changes to call routing; audio is processed in memory and wiped from RAM immediately with no recordings or logs retained, and the company states zero added latency because the live call path is untouched. The same underlying real-time voice and text analysis is applied to in-game voice and text chat.
Go-to-market
Direct enterprise outreach to voice platform operators through a contact form, partnerships with digital security companies and gaming platforms for bundled or white-label distribution, and a consumer-facing family product; participation in the Comcast NBCUniversal LIFT Labs accelerator powered by Techstars provided corporate exposure.
Voice platform and network operators with FCC/TCPA exposure, digital security companies, gaming platforms and communities, Discord server owners and administrators, and parents of children who play online games.
Geography
Headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Kidas Inc., Philadelphia, PA 19102), with a joint development project partner in Israel.
History
Kidas launched as subscription software alerting parents when children's in-game or Discord conversations and behavior trended toward danger. In 2022 it was approved for a BIRD Foundation project with Israeli company Overwolf to develop voice and text chat protection in gaming. It later extended its real-time voice and text analysis into network-level interception of automated scams and fraud, marketed as Kidas Voice Shield for carriers and voice platforms.
Risks & controversies
The company's voice offering is tied to regulatory enforcement dynamics it cites for its customers, including FCC cease-and-desist mandates, removal from the Robocall Mitigation Database, carrier blocklisting, and TCPA liability.
Compiled by commissioned research from 10 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Related companies · 1
Companies working in the same space as Kidas.
Timeline · 4
launches, deals, and filingsKidas markets Voice Shield, comprising Network Shield and Subscriber Shield, for real-time detection of robocalls, AI voice scams, account takeovers and PBX takeovers, integrated via SIPREC, WebSocket or API.
The Israel-U.S. Binational Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation approved a project pairing Overwolf (Ramat Gan, Israel) with Kidas, Inc. (Philadelphia, PA) to develop voice and text chat protection in gaming, as part of a $7.9 million approval covering nine projects. BIRD provides conditional grants of up to $1 million per approved project.
Kidas is listed in the Comcast NBCUniversal LIFT Labs portfolio, with featured coverage of the accelerator's Demo Day and selection of startups for the third annual LIFT Labs Accelerator powered by Techstars.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
▸Research sources · 10
primary sources listed
- Kidasgetkidas.com · web
10 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Kidas do?
- Kidas builds real-time acoustic AI that detects robocalls, AI voice scams and chat threats for voice networks and gaming platforms.
- Who founded Kidas?
- Kidas was founded by Ron Kerbs in 2019.
- Who are Kidas's investors?
- Kidas's investors include Alumni Ventures, New York Venture Partners, Techstars.
- Where is Kidas headquartered?
- Kidas is headquartered in Philadelphia, US.