Today we’re pleased to announce that M12, Microsoft’s venture fund, has taken a stake in SuperAwesome as part of a new round. We typically don’t announce investments but we feel this transaction represents an important milestone.

We’re growing quickly and we’re profitable so why did we decide to bring M12 on board?

Last week’s enactment of the Age Appropriate Design Code in the UK is a preview of how the internet will look in five years. Laws will not just protect kids’ digital privacy (as with COPPA today) but they will also ensure that any general audience service supports kids as one of their main user types. 

Making the internet safer for kids is a sector-agnostic mission. As increasing numbers of companies outside of the core kids sector realise that children cannot be ignored, we’ve begun to shift our horizons to the wider internet. In our first meeting with M12, we instantly realised that they shared our perspective and values on both privacy and responsibility by design for children.

As major technology companies begin to embrace kids and their privacy through kidtech, we’re proud to lead the way with Microsoft and M12. It’s also a timely opportunity to shout out some of our other great investors who have provided such unwavering support along the way including Hoxton Ventures, Mayfair, Harbert, Ibis and our angels.

In 2013 we started as a handful of people in a room, mostly being turned down by investors. Today our kidtech platform enables over 12B kid-safe transactions every month, ranging from advertising and video to community and parental consent. The ‘powered by SuperAwesome’ logo is appearing on increasing numbers of consumer experiences which either directly or indirectly engage with kids. 

We’re just getting started.