InMobi, a provider of cloud-based mobile platforms for enterprise marketers, said on Tuesday that its content platform Glance has received $45 million in funding from Mithril Capital.
Glance, which was launched last year, has 50 million daily active users who spend approximately 22 minutes per day on its mobile-based platform. The content platform delivers artificial intelligence-driven, personalised content to screen zero (or the lock screens) of smartphones.
“Glance, the world’s first and fastest growing screen zero platform, is a powerful innovation to democratise content and commerce on the mobile Internet,” said Ajay Royan, managing general partner and co-founder of U.S.-based Mithril Capital. The growth stage investment firm has over $1.2 billion in committed capital.
“We share Glance’s global vision of breaking through the constraints of application architectures and linguistic markets to deliver rich, frictionless, and engaging experiences across a myriad of cultures and languages,” added Royan, who will now be on the board of Glance.
Every time a user wakes up their phone, their lock screen comes alive with new visual and interactive content that is personalised for them. Glance has partnered with all the leading Android phone makers in India to deliver a universal screen zero experience.
“This investment from Mithril will help us further accelerate our journey through continued innovation in content-format, personalisation and content discovery, and expand into new geographies,” said Naveen Tewari, founder and CEO, InMobi Group.
Glance plans to launch multiple new platforms, including Glance TV, a mobile-first, short form video platform; Glance Gaming - a destination for casual gamers; Glance Shopping, where content meets commerce; and Glance Nearby - a hyperlocal experiential platform. The company added that it would also use the funds to expand into Southeast Asia in the coming months.
“Glance is changing the landscape of content consumption to address the demands of the ‘attention economy’ we currently live in. By bringing discovery and consumption of personalised, short-form content to screen zero, Glance provides the immediacy and accessibility that consumers want,” added Tewari.
