Google invests in Indian startups Glance and DailyHunt 23rd Dec 2020 | Source: TechCrunch
Google said on Tuesday it is investing in two Indian startups, Glance and DailyHunt, as the Android-maker makes further push in the world’s second largest internet market.
Two-year-old Indian startup Glance, which serves news, media content, and games on the lock screen of over 100 million smartphones, has raised $145 million in a new financing round from Google and existing investor Mithril Partners. The new round values Glance at over $1 billion, a person familiar with the matter said, making the startup a unicorn.
Glance, which is part of advertising giant InMobi Group, uses AI to offer personalized experience to its users. The service replaces the otherwise empty lock screen with locally relevant news, stories, and casual games. Late last year, InMobi acquired Roposo, a Gurgaon-headquartered startup, that has enabled it to introduce short-form videos on the platform. Googl
Glance transformed phone lock screens, it s now unicorn
With more than 115 million daily active users, Glance delivers AI-driven personalised content in multiple languages including English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Bahasa, on the lock screen of Android smartphones.
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Glance, a subsidiary of InMobi Group and owner of video-sharing social media platform Roposo, on Tuesday, announced it has closed a $145 million investment round from Google and existing investor Mithril Capital.
The funding will be used to deepen artificial intelligence (AI) capability and product offerings, including expanding its technology team, across markets for both Glance and Roposo, the company said in a statement.
Naveen Tewari creates second unicorn after InMobi; Glance raises funds from Google, Mithril
Glance is a subsidiary of InMobi Group and owner of video-sharing social media platform Roposo December 23, 2020 / 10:13 AM IST
InMobi s Naveen Tewari s lock-screen content platform Glance has raised $145 million from Google and existing investor Mithril Capital, an investment fund of Peter Thiel. With this, Tewari has created a second unicorn after InMobi.
The company will use the new investment to deepen the AI capability across Glance and Roposo, expand the technology team, launch services on the platform, further strengthen the brand and drive expansion in global markets.
Glance is a subsidiary of InMobi Group and owner of video-sharing social media platform Roposo. It delivers content in five languages including English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu in India, and Bahasa in Indonesia. The platform now has 115 million daily active users, making it the third largest content platform in In
Google and its American internet peers are steadily amping up their investment in India, latching onto the only other country with a billion-plus population after getting shut out of China. From Amazon.com Inc to Facebook Inc, they’re hoping to get in on the ground floor of what they envision as a smartphone and online commerce boom that could eventually create a market to rival the world’s No 2 economy.
The online search leader has struck an alliance with Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd to invest $4.5 billion and cooperate on technology initiatives including the development of affordable mobile phones. But they’re also teaming with smaller outfits to target more local audiences.
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At stake is the growing base of Indian language users who are expected to drive future growth and account for a majority of the country s internet base in the coming years.
“In the last two years alone, 100 million new internet users have come online from rural India. Data shows that rural consumption now accounts for roughly 45% of overall mobile data usage in the country and is primarily focused on online video,” said Caesar Sengupta, vice-president, Google in a blog post.
Since the ban on TikTok in June, more than a dozen short-video apps, including Glance-owned Roposo, Dailyhunt s Josh, and MX Player s TakaTak, have been