Mobile-first content platform Glance raised a $200 million round led by Reliance-owned Jio Platform at the onset of FY23 but the staggering investment did not translate into corresponding growth. Nevertheless, the Bengaluru-based firm managed 77.7% growth in its operating scale with a modest growth in losses which crossed Rs 1,000 crore in FY23.
Glance’s revenue from operations grew to Rs 317 crore in FY23 from Rs 178 crore in FY22, its consolidated financial statements filed by the group’s holding entity in Singapore show.
Launched in 2019 in Singapore as a separate entity of Inmobi, it introduced the lock-screen feature for Android-powered smartphones. Glance offers content ranging from 10-second to two-minute segments, encompassing news updates, short videos, and solo gaming experiences.
Income from advertising comprised 76% of its total operating revenue which spiked 62.6% to Rs 242 crore in FY23. Shipping, marketplace, and games hosting were some other revenue drivers for Glance in the said period. See TheKredible for the complete revenue breakdown.
Similar to other funded tech unicorns, its employee benefits accounted for 29% of overall expenditure. This cost increased by 24.8% to Rs 413 crore in FY23 and it includes Rs 64 crore ESOP cost (non-cash).
Glance’s burn on infra, consultancy, marketing and selling, content creation, shipping, software licensing, and other overheads took its total expenditure to Rs 1,414 crore in FY23 from Rs 1,108 crore in FY22.
Head to TheKredible for the detailed expense breakup.
Expense Breakdown
https://thekredible.com/company/glance/financials
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https://thekredible.com/company/glance/financials
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- Employee benefit
- Infrastructre cost
- Professional and consultancy
- Marketing and selling
- Content creation
- Shipping and related cost
- Software and license
- Travelling
- Others
Unlike its scale, Glance’s losses grew only 18.6% to Rs 1,067 crore in the fiscal year ending March 2023 from Rs 900 crore in FY22. Its ROCE and EBITDA margin were recorded at -116% and -305% respectively. On a unit level, the firm spent Rs 4.46 to earn a rupee in FY23.
Glace has raised around $390 million and was valued at $1.6 billion in its last round of $200 million led by the Jio Platform in 2022. According to the startup data intelligence platform TheKredible, Jio Platform is the largest external stakeholder with 20.27% followed by Google which owns 10.13%. Its parent company InMobi commands 50.45% of the company.
Glance’s current assets stood at $108 million including cash and bank balances, trade receivables, and inventories during FY23. As per the Fintrackr estimates, its enterprise value to revenue multiple was 41X.
FY22-FY23
| FY22 | FY23 |
| EBITDA Margin | -474% | -305.1% |
| Expense/₹ of Op Revenue | ₹6.21 | ₹4.46 |
| ROCE | -347% | -116% |
Glance faces the challenge of being a product that is certainly not a priority, even being considered a nuisance by many of its users. That it has the numbers it has is of course thanks to being bundled with handsets that dominate the Indian Android smartphone market. For all its protestations about not being an Adware, the majority of revenues from advertising tell a different story. The acquisition of Roposo and Shop 101 to make it more meaningful has also not really delivered the results the firm had hoped for. The firm needs to make a compelling case for its users to not disable it on their phones. We believe the firm needs to find that answer quickly to reduce the risk of regulatory action that could seriously disrupt its growth plans in the future.
