Identity Digital spins out agentic effort, now called Known

Company’s Innovation Labs will become a separate company.

Domain name company Identity Digital has spun out its nascent agent identity initiative into a new company called Known.

Identity Digital launched a division called Innovation Labs earlier this year. It described its initial initiative, DNSid, as “birth certificates for AI agents.”

As agents increasingly take over web tasks, many groups are calling for standards that use the DNS for agent identity. Identity Digital CEO Akram Atallah explained DNSid on DNW Podcast #587.

Now, the company is spinning it out into its own entity, Known.

Known will advance DNSid as an open standard and build the capabilities enterprises need to put agent accountability into practice at scale.

The company hopes it can get broader traction by distancing it from an individual domain company.

“We reached a point where keeping this work inside Identity Digital would limit its potential,” Atallah said. “Agent accountability needs to work across companies, platforms, and ecosystems. Known now has the independence to work across the market and build the broad participation required for shared infrastructure to succeed.”

Identity Digital will be an investor in the company and retain a board seat. Ethos Capital, which also backs Identity Digital, will support Known for now.

Known has named Identity Digital board member Allie Kline as interim CEO while it seeks a permanent CEO. Kline is a partner at Ethos Capital.