Microsoft has been confirmed as a backer of SuperAwesome, a platform that aims to deliver safe content to children. Microsoft’s M12 venture fund has been announced as a new investor in the London-based startup, although the level of investment has not been revealed.
“In our first meeting with M12, we instantly realized that they shared our perspective and values on both privacy and responsibility by design for children.”
SuperAwesome has enjoyed a strong growth patterns as it secured major clients such as Lego, NBC, Hasbro, and Mattel. Now reaching 500 million, the platform is a major investment opportunity.
Enter M12, which has recently opened its first European office alongside locations in Seattle, Tel Aviv, San Francisco, and Bengaluru.
SuperAwesome is seeking to corner an area of the market focused on “zero-data internet”. This proprietary term allows children to leverage the company’s solutions to ensure they are not tracked online.
“In 2013, we started as a handful of people in a room, mostly being turned down by investors,” SuperAwesome cofounder and CEO Dylan Collins said. “Today our kid tech platform enables over 12 billion kid-safe transactions every month, ranging from advertising and video to community and parental consent.”
SuperAwesome has several apps and services. Among them is AwesomeAds, which allows companies to send contextual ads that don’t rely on user data. Elsewhere there’s Kidfluencer, which provides a content creation platform for YouTube. Finally, there’s also Kids Web Services, which gives developers tools to add verifiable parental consent (VPC) features into the apps.
M12 Evolution
Some people may know M12 better has Microsoft Ventures. The company decided to change the branding of its venture capital in April.
Launched two years ago as Microsoft Ventures, the initial branding caused some confusion. That’s because Ventures was originally the name of Microsoft’s startup accelerator. That accelerator later became Microsoft ScaleUp, but the company was worried people would be confused.
