Jio Platforms invests $200 m in consumer internet start-up Glance.

Continuing with its strategy to acquire an equity stake in start-ups, Jio Platforms Limited has invested $200 million in InMobi-backed consumer Internet start-up, Glance.

The proposed investment by Jio is aimed at accelerating Glance’s launch in several international markets outside of Asia, such as the USA, Brazil, Mexico and Russia. “The company (Glance) 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,” said a press note. In addition to Jio Platforms, Glance is also backed by Google and Silicon Valley-based venture fund, Mithril Capital.

Glance has also entered into a business partnership arrangement with Reliance Retail Ventures Limited providing for Glance’s ‘lock screen platform’ to be integrated into the JioPhone Next smartphones. “The deal is also expected to lead to further strategic collaborations between Glance, Reliance Retail and Jio across devices, commerce, content and gaming ecosystem,” the press note added.

Jio Platforms has already invested into 14 tech companies, including, Saavn, Indiavidual Larning Limited, Tesseract Imaging World and Buzzo.ai, to name a few.

Akash Ambani, Director, Jio Platforms Limited, 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 for experiencing the Internet, live content, creator driven entertainment commerce and gaming. 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.”

Founded in 2019, the Singapore-based start-up Glance is a subsidiary of InMobi Group. Naveen Tewari, Founder & CEO of InMobi Group, said: “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.”

Piyush Shah, Co-founder of InMobi Group and President & 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’s key business units include Glance Lock Screen, which enables users to use the internet on the lock screen, and Roposo, India’s first creator-driven live entertainment commerce platform. Glance supports nine languages, English, Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Marathi, Kannada, Bengali, Bahasa (Indonesia), Thai (Thailand) across 18 content categories. Glance has over 163 million daily active users in India, 25 million across Southeast Asia, and is present in 400 million mobile devices across Asia.

HBL