Glance, the AI-driven lock-screen platform from InMobi, has raised $200 million from Jio Platforms Limited in a Series D round of funding. The transaction is subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.
With this round Glance valuation will go up to $2 billion. Glance had raised $145 million in December of 2020 from Google and existing investor Mithril Capital, making it one of the fastest startups to reach the unicorn stage.
The proposed investment by Jio is aimed at accelerating Glance’s launch in several key international markets outside of Asia such as the US, Brazil, Mexico and Russia. The company is aiming to create the world’s largest live content and commerce ecosystem on the lock screen and will use the funds raised to expand globally.
Naveen Tewari, founder & CEO of InMobi Group, said “It is not just the investment that we are excited about, it’s the strategic nature of the partnership that really helps us scale and go extremely deep in India. Glance will be integrated into the Pragati OS, which is jointly being developed with Jio and Google.”
Tewari added: “Mukesh Ambani has been a source of immense inspiration for me since my early days and it is an honor to have Jio becoming a strategic partner in our journey. Jio’s investment into Glance and Glance’s presence on the lock screen of JioPhone Next smartphones will lead to a paradigm shift in how its users experience the internet.” Today, Glance’s lock screen platform is present on more than 400 million devices across markets in Asia. Reliance Jio Platforms and Google are expected to roll-out around 100 million handsets in India.
Along with the proposed investment, Glance has also entered into a business partnership arrangement with Reliance Retail Ventures, providing for Glance’s ‘lock screen platform’ to be integrated into the JioPhone Next smartphones to transform the internet experience for millions of Jio users.
The deal is also expected to lead to further strategic collaborations between Glance, Reliance Retail and Jio across devices, commerce, content and gaming ecosystem.
One of the partnership will be of Roposo with Reliance Retail, wherein the latter can leverage the live commerce platform of Roposo.
The short-video platform has over 30 million active users.
Akash Ambani, Director, Jio Platforms Limited said, “Glance has grown at a phenomenal pace over the past two years and has given users a truly unique solution by unlocking the power of the lock screen. With the help of this investment, Glance expects to launch in several key markets globally as well as extend the experience to millions of Jio users, further reinforcing our commitment to provide the most advanced and next-level tech and digital ecosystem for consumers in India and beyond.”
Glance has a total user base of almost 190 million across Asia, of this 163 million are in India. Glance has presence in over 400 million handsets and with this tie-up it expects this number will go up further. The average time spent by users on Glance is 25 minutes per day, per user.
Piyush Shah, Co-founder of InMobi Group and President & COO of Glance, said, “Glance has created a disruptive lock screen-first discovery platform for live content,
commerce and gaming in Asia, and we intend to scale it globally going forward. Jio’s investment is a huge validation of this vision and gives us the firepower to take the
innovative experience of Glance to surfaces across the world. We look forward to working with Jio to build the content, creator and commerce ecosystem of the future, together.”
Morgan Stanley acted as the exclusive financial advisor and Khaitan & Co. acted as the legal counsel to Glance. White & Case and K Law acted as the legal counsels and Ernst & Young provided accounting and tax due diligence services to Jio Platforms.
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