[Funding] Glance turns a unicorn with $145 million fund raise from Google and Mithril Capital

Glance is one of the world’s leading lock screen platform. The InMobi subsidiary today announced that it has closed a $145 million investment round led by Google. Existing investor Mithril Capital also participated in the round. Glance is also the owner of the fast-growing video-sharing social media platform Roposo. The startup will use the fund to deepen its AI capability across Glance and Roposo. It will also expand its technology team and launch services on the platform. It further aims to strengthen the brand and drive expansion in global markets.

The new financing round has helped the 18-month-old Glance to become the fastest company to reach unicorn status. It is the 10th Indian startup to reach a valuation of more than $1 billion only after Zenoti.

About Glance

Glance delivers AI-driven personalized content in multiple languages including English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Bahasa on the lock screen of Android smartphones. It has more than 115 million daily active users that spend 25 minutes per day on the digital consumer platform. The content majorly includes entertainment, sports, fashion, news. All categories showcase in a rich, visual format that is easy to consume with just a tap on the lock screen. It leverages its strategic partnership with the world’s leading Android smartphone brands to deliver this native user experience to consumers. Further, it's subsidiary, Roposo is a short-form video platform. It has more than 33 million monthly active users. These users spend 20 minutes daily consuming content across multiple genres in more than 10 languages.

From the leaders

“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, VP, Google. “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.”

“Glance is a powerful innovation to democratize content on the mobile Internet,” said Ajay Royan, Managing General Partner and Co-founder of Mithril Capital. “It has been fantastic working with the Glance leadership team in realizing Glance’s global vision of breaking through technical and linguistic barriers to deliver frictionless and engaging experiences across cultures and languages.”

“Glance is reimagining the future of digital consumption on smartphones,” said Naveen Tewari, Founder and CEO of Glance and InMobi Group. “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.”