Let's face it, parents, the Internet is here to stay in our children's lives and it's not always kid-friendly. But one Atlanta startup offers a service that proactively monitors text messages, emails, YouTube and social media for all your safety concerns.
Bark, originally based in Savannah and a member of the Atlanta Tech Village, has raised a $9 million Series A round. The investment was led by Signal Peak Ventures, with participation from Two Sigma Ventures and existing investors Symmetrical Ventures, Fuel Capital, Hallett Capital and Atlanta Seed Company.
With the recent funding round, the company has raised a total of $10.9 million in funding, according to Crunchbase. Bark also went through the Techstars Atlanta accelerator program in 2016.
“We are very excited to welcome Signal Peak and Two Sigma as new investors, and look forward to working closely with them both to accelerate our growth and positive impact on children's lives,” CEO and founder Brian Bason said in a statement.
“We’re thrilled to work with Bark on their mission to keep children safer,” Signal Peak Ventures Managing Director Brandon Tidwell said in a statement. “As children’s usage of technology continues to increase, there is clearly an incredible need for Bark’s solution, and we believe Bark is uniquely positioned to build a great company in an exciting category.”
The monthly subscription service for parents was founded in 2015 and created in collaboration with child psychologists, youth advisors, digital media experts and law enforcement professionals. Using advanced machine learning, Bark's software will scan the context of children's text messages, social media accounts and email for cyberbullying, internet predators, depression, suicidal thoughts and sexting.
"Bark is technology that keeps children safer online and in real life," CMO Titania Jordan said. "We monitor over 25 social media platform, including YouTube, which is the No. 1 platform for kids today."
The threats that Bark monitors are real issues that kids face and their parents should be aware of, Jordan said. For instance, about 75 percent of children are encountering sexual content online, she said.
"When we find those problematic issues, we will send parents a note either via text or email…we’ll also provide recommended best steps for how to address," she said.
Bark isn't a spying service for parents, Jordan said, but a way to educate them about the dangers their children might face and how to properly address them.
"We don’t advocate spying," she said. "We don’t advocate helicopter parenting and we don't believe children aren’t going to explore…we were all there. We had more leeway to make mistakes and not have them captured."
The first goal of Bark is to educate, Jordan said, and make them aware of the ramifications of their children's online activity. Some of that next steps advice after a parent is notified of certain behaviors include being non-confrontational and talking with their children about what these decisions can mean for their future. Taking away a phone or a digital device isn't the answer.
"This is the state of things and your job as a parent is to raise a responsible digital native," she said.
The startup will use this round of funding to broaden its product offering and establish a presence in new markets. In addition to focusing on education, product development and scaling, Bark is also exploring the initiative to expand for other languages.
"This is a global problem, this is not just an issue in the United States," she said. "We’re scaling our efforts and we’re really excited to do so."
Bark offers a monthly or annual subscription rate for parents that monitors across 25 platforms. However, the startup offers Bark for Schools for free.
Following the high school shooting in Parkland, Fla. on Valentine's Day earlier this year, Bark announced it was offering its platform for free to any school using Google’s G Suite for Education. Earlier this month, Bark rolled out the same functionality for schools using Microsoft Office 365 Education. This technology proactively alerts school administrators to issues detected in school-issued student email, chat, documents and cloud storage.
"Given the current landscape of schools giving students Chromebooks, iPads and email addresses, these things are happening on school devices," Jordan said. "It’s just silly for them not to have it, because it’s free and it works."
According to the company, Bark has analyzed more than a billion messages via texting, email and social media, and has helped prevent 33 suicides and 12 school shooting and bomb threats.
“Bark for Schools is the real deal," Thad Schulz, technology coordinator at Sebeka Public School, said. "We didn't have any sort of content scanning before getting Bark. Within a few days, Bark found multiple issues that would have otherwise gone unnoticed. When an issue arose that could have been life-threatening for one of our students, a Bark team member called our school to help us take action."
