India's Jio invests $200M in mobile startup Glance

Jio Platforms, the parent company of India's largest service provider, has announced that it will be investing $200 million in Glance InMobi, part of InMobi Group.

The Singapore-based company offers two kinds of services: Glance, a lock screen platform that allows users to access content without unlocking their screens, and Roposo, a short video platform.

This is part of a series-D round of funding for Glance. Glance is also backed by Internet giant Google and Mithril Capital.

Figure 1: "Glance's presence on the lock screen of JioPhone Next smartphones will lead to a paradigm shift in how its users experience the internet," said Naveen Tewari, founder and ceo of InMobi Group.
(Source: Reuters/Alamy Stock Photo)

Glance will be integrated with Pragati OS, developed specially by Google for Jio's JioPhoneNext devices, to provide users with lock screen content. Investment by Jio will allow Glance to launch in several international markets, including the US, Brazil, Mexico and Russia.

"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," says Akash Ambani, director of Jio Platforms.

A lockscreen ecosystem

It is present in more than 400 million devices and aims to "create the world's largest live content and commerce ecosystem on the lock screen."

Glance has tie-ups with various smartphone makers, including Samsung, Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi, in India and is present in a majority of Android devices in the country.

"The deal is also expected to lead to further strategic collaborations between Glance, Reliance Retail, and Jio across devices, commerce, content, and gaming ecosystem," says the press release. The deal is subject to regulatory approvals.

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"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," says Naveen Tewari, founder and chief executive officer of InMobi Group.

Tewari is credited with creating two unicorns: InMobi, a mobile advertising platform, was one of the early Indian startups to become a unicorn, and Glance became a unicorn last year.

Jio's investment in Glance comes close on the heels of its $15 million investment in Two Platforms for a 25% stake in the company.

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— Gagandeep Kaur, contributing editor, special to Light Reading