Glance raises $200mn from Jio Platforms; partners with Reliance Retail

Will use funds for expanding into global markets such as the US, Russia, Brazil and Mexico

Jio Platforms, the subsidiary of Reliance Industries (RIL), is investing $200 million (around Rs 1,500 crore) in Glance, the AI-driven lock-screen platform from InMobi, in a series D funding round. Apart from this, the start-up has also entered into a partnership with Reliance Retail that aims to provide Glance’s ‘lock-screen platform’ on JioPhone Next smartphones.

With this round, Glance’s valuation will rise 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 start-ups to reach the unicorn stage.

The proposed investment by Jio is aimed at accelerating Glance’s launch in several key international markets outside Asia, such as the USA, 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.

The partnership with Reliance Retail is expected to lead to further strategic collaborations between itself, Glance, and Jio across devices, commerce, content, and the gaming ecosystem.

One of the partnerships will be of Roposo with Reliance Retail, wherein the latter can leverage the live commerce platform of the former. The live commerce platform has over 30 million active users.

Speaking about the deal, Naveen Tewari, founder and chief executive officer 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 also added: “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.”

At present, Glance’s lock screen platform is present on more than 400 million devices across markets in Asia. Jio Platforms and Google are expected to roll-out around 100 million handsets in India.

Akash Ambani, director of Jio Platforms, 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. The average time spent by users on Glance is 25 minutes per day, per user.

Piyush Shah, co-founder of InMobi Group and president and 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.”

·        Glance valuations around $2bn

·        Total user base of 190mn across Asia

·        India user base 163mn

·        To use funds for expansion into international markets

·        Glance will be integrated to the Pragati OS

·        Roposo, a Glance company, will be leveraged by Reliance Retail for live commerce