Family media platform Kin promises privacy. Enters market with $25 million valuation.

Social media can be a drag. With ads and “influencers” coming at you from all sides, an algorithm determining what you see and what you don’t, a perpetuated culture of FOMO, and not to mention which of your data is being sold to whom, it can all be a bit much.

Toss some Whatsapp flavoured kerosene on that smoldering fire with it’s privacy policy debacle last January, and it’s not a coincidence that millions of users started making an exodus.

But with all the gripes to be had, the simple act of staying in touch with family members, particularly across time and space remains. Recognising the lack of a worthy platform, Michael Collett and Matt Blom are launching Kin, a family media app designed for families that protects personal data and media of its users.

Operating on the premise that social media and messaging platforms promote hyper-connectivity and push advertisements ad nauseum, Kin has been designed with privacy as a priority.

Instead of relying on selling data to marketers, Kin is subscription-based, thus, according to the company, guarantees that user’s data will never be sold and that they will never engage with advertisers.

Designed for the long-haul, Kin includes some unique features, albeit having that every-so-slightly-creepy touch to them, that include recorded future messages. Family members can create messages that unlock at a predetermined date in the future.

Because nothing says I love you, quite like Grandma does from the beyond the grave.🤔

While the idea of a subscription-based personal media platform isn’t new, Collett and Blom’s backgrounds are enough to attract significant pre-launch investment. So much so that the company has raised $3.2m while in beta, and enters the market with a $25 million valuation.

However, I am going to take a guess, and say that Collett’s 29 year experience in the financial sector might have built up more than a few connections to find them money.

Kin was founded in September 2019 and will soon be available in 10 languages, which gives them a potential 4.8b person marketplace. The app aims to have 100 million users by Q3 2022.

Kin is currently available in both the App Store and Google Play.