Glance crosses Rs 600 Cr revenue in FY24 with improved economics

Consumer technology company Glance has demonstrated impressive financial performance over the past two fiscal years (FY23 and FY24) registering a 3.4X growth from Rs 178 crore or $22 million in FY22 to Rs 614 crore or $73.1 million during the fiscal year ending March 2024.

Glance’s revenue from operations grew 89% year-on-year to Rs 614 crore in FY24 from Rs 325 crore in FY23, according to its consolidated financial statements filed by the group’s holding entity in Singapore.

Launched in 2019, Glance which is part of InMobi's ecosystem, is known for its AI-powered smart lock screen platform that transforms the way users engage with their smartphones. It has a user base of over 300 million. It brings together other consumer platforms like Roposo (shoppertainment) and Nostra (gaming)

Advertising services contributed 54.7% of total revenue, growing by 35.7% to Rs 336 crore in FY24 from Rs 248 crore in FY23. Revenue from the commerce (shoppertainment) segment stood at Rs 254 crore.

Glance also earned Rs 15.9 crore from financial income (interest) which tallied the overall revenue to Rs 640 crore in FY24.

Like many technology startups, employee benefits were the largest cost driver for Glance, accounting for 28.28% of its total expenses. This cost saw a marginal increase, rising to Rs 444 crore in FY24 from Rs 424 crore in FY23. It includes Rs 71.4 crore as ESOP cost.

Glance’s shipping, marketing/selling, and infrastructure costs stood at Rs 200 crore, Rs 436 crore and Rs 201 crore, respectively. Software, publisher, legal, and travel are some other overheads that took the overall burn to Rs 1,569 crore in FY24 from Rs 1,448 crore in FY23. 

The decent scale and controlled expenditure helped Glance to reduce its losses by 15% to Rs 929 crore in FY24 from Rs 1,094 crore in FY23. Notably, this marks the first fiscal year in which the company narrowed losses. Its ROCE and EBITDA margin stood at -1191% and 134.9% respectively. On a unit level, it spent Rs 2.55 to earn a rupee in FY24.

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 Rs 428 crore.  As per the Fintrackr estimates, its enterprise value to revenue multiple was 21.8X.