Glance Turns Unicorn After Raising Funds From Google And Mithril Capital

• Glance, owned by InMobi, turns unicorn after raising $145 million in funding from Google and Mithril Capital.
• The company will use the funding to improve its AI capabilities and expand its presence in global markets.
• In November 2019, Glance had acquired a short video platform Roposo to add more vernacular content to its platform.

Adtech InMobi-owned Glance has become a unicorn company after raising $145 million (or about Rs 1,070 crore) in funding from tech giant Google and global investment firm Mithril Capital.

The company plans to use the funding to improve its AI capabilities, expand its technology team, launch services on the platform, and drive expansion in global markets.

In November last year, Glance had acquired a short video platform Roposo for an undisclosed amount to add more vernacular content to its platform.

In September 2019, Glance had raised $45 million in funding from Mithril Capital. To date, The company has raised over $190 million in funding.

Founded in 2017 by Naveen Tewari (who is also a board member of Paytm), Rohan Choudhary, and Bikash Chowdhury, Glance makes a lock-screen platform that helps users see personalized content on the display while their phones are locked. Glance AI-driven mechanism enables users to enjoy content, products, and services of their choice, all delivered in an intuitive and visually stunning format. 

The company partners with the world's leading Android smartphone brands to deliver a native user experience (UI) to consumers.

Commenting on the latest fundraise, Naveen Tewari, Co-Founder & CEO of Glance and InMobi Group, said "We are absolutely thrilled to have Google as a strategic investor in Glance and Roposo. With two of the largest digital content platforms in the country, we have taken the lead in making the digital economy accessible for the next billion users in India and globally."

Glance delivers trending content across entertainment, music, fashion, news, sports, among others. It offers content in several Indian languages, including English, Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu.

"Glance is a great example of innovation solving for mobile-first and mobile-only consumption, serving content across many of India’s local languages," said Caesar Sengupta, Vice President, Google.

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"Still too many Indians have trouble finding content to read or services they can use confidently, in their own language. And this significantly limits the value of the internet for them, particularly at a time like this when the internet is the lifeline of so many people," he added.

"Glance, the world’s largest screen zero platforms, is a powerful innovation to democratize content on the mobile Internet, said Ajay Royan, Managing General Partner, Mithril Capital.

 “It has been fantastic working with the Glance leadership team to realize Glance’s global vision of breaking through technical and linguistic barriers to deliver frictionless and engaging experiences across cultures and languages," he said.

The platform claims to have more than 115 million daily active users, who spend an average of 25 minutes on the platform per day.

On the other hand, Roposo claims to have 33 monthly active users (MAU) who spend an average of 20 minutes on the platform daily.

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