InMobi Group's Glance Raises $145 Mn From Google and Mithril Capital Glance will use the new investment to deepen its AI capability across Glance and Roposo, and expand the technology team
By Debarghya Sil •
You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.
Glance, one of the major mobile lock screen platforms, on Tuesday announced it has raised $145 million from Google and its existing investor Mithril Capital. Glance is a subsidiary of InMobi Group and owner of the social media platform Roposo. Several media reports have suggested that the latest round of funding has helped Glance to achieve a valuation of more than $1 billion thus entering the prestigious Unicorn club.
The company will use the fresh investment to deepen its AI capability across Glance and Roposo, expand its technology team, launch services on the platform, further strengthen the brand and drive expansion in global markets.
Glance delivers AI-driven personalized content in multiple languages such as English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Bahasa on the lock screen of Android smartphones. The company boasts of around 115 million daily active users that spend 25 minutes per day.
The firm last year acquired Roposo, a three IIT-Delhi alumni founded short-video platform which now has more than 33 million monthly active users who spend 20 minutes daily consuming content across 10 languages.
Commenting on the investment, Caesar Sengupta, vice-president of Google, said, "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. This investment underlines our strong belief in working with India's innovative startups towards the shared goal of building a truly inclusive digital economy that will benefit everyone."
Ajay Royan, managing general partner and co-founder of Mithril Capital said Glance is a powerful innovation which is democratizing content on the mobile Internet.
On the latest development, Naveen Tewari, founder and chief operating officer 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."
InMobi Group has been recognized on both the 2018 and 2019 CNBC Disruptor 50 list and as one of Fast Company's 2018 World's Most Innovative Companies.
