Glance raises USD 145 mn from Google, Mithril Capital

Glance will use the new 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, InMobi Group founder and CEO Naveen Tewari told PTI.This is the first time that a consumer internet platform has been built out of India and is going global...

Glance, a part of SoftBank-backed InMobi Group, on Tuesday said it has closed a USD 145 million (around Rs 1,071.6 crore) investment round from Google and existing investor, Mithril Capital. In September last year, Glance had raised USD 45 million (over Rs 323 crore) in funding from Austin-based Mithril Capital, and the latest round takes the total fund raising by Glance to USD 190 million.

While details around valuation were not disclosed, InMobi would continue to hold a majority stake in Glance. Glance will use the new 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, InMobi Group founder and CEO Naveen Tewari told PTI.

''This is the first time that a consumer internet platform has been built out of India and is going global... About 20 million daily active users come from outside of India,'' he added. Apart from India, the company has made inroads in many markets within Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand.

''There are two major things we want to use this capital for - we really want to invest on the artificial intelligence side, and for global expansion. Apart from going deep into Southeast Asia, we will launch in South America in 2021 and sometime late 2021 or early 2022, we will launch in the US,'' Tewari said. Glance delivers artificial intelligence-driven personalised content to screen zero of smartphones. When a Glance user wakes up their phone, their lock screen has new visual and interactive content that is personalised for them. Glance also operates video-sharing social media platform Roposo.

Glance has more than 115 million daily active users that spend 25 minutes per day using the platform. Roposo has more than 33 million monthly active users who spend 20 minutes daily. Tewari said the main focus of the team is getting users and improving engagement, and 2022 onwards is when the company would start looking at monetisation.

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

''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,'' he said.