Mobile-first content platform Glance is raising $200 million in its Series D round from Reliance-owned Jio Platforms in a strategic deal. The company had previously raised $145 million in a round led by Google in December.
The investment is expected to expedite Glace’s vision of bringing the internet to lock screens, globally, said the company in a press release. With the investment, Jio aims to accelerate Glance’s launch in several key international markets outside of Asia such as the USA, Brazil, Mexico and Russia.
According to Entrackr’s sources, Glance will be valued at close to $2 billion. The company was valued at over $1 billion during its last round.
Started as a part of InMobi, Glance was created as a separate entity from the former in July 2019. Along with Glance, InMobi holds two more subsidiaries under the umbrella entity– advertising technology under InMobi UMC and data business TruFactor.
At present (excluding this investment), InMobi is the largest stakeholder in Glance with 63.3% stake followed by Mithril Capital Management which owns 22.6%, its regulatory filings in Singapore show. Alphabet (formerly Google Capital) commands a 12.7% holding in Glance.
The content at Glance ranges between 10 seconds and two minutes long and includes everything from news to short videos to single-player games. The platform has tied up with over 1,000 media and agencies and smartphone makers such as Samsung, Vivo, Oppo and Xiaomi to pre-install Glance in their popular model.
It’s worth mentioning that Google had invested $4.5 billion in Jio Platforms in July 2020 as part of a larger plan to invest $10 billion in India over the next few years.
The investment by Jio in Glance comes soon after the strategic merger announced between ShareChat and short video sharing app MX TakaTak. Glance also had a short video sharing app Roposo. However, the company later pivot to live commerce.
