Glance secures $200m investment from Jio Platforms

AI-driven lock-screen platform Glance has announced a $200m investment from Jio Platforms in its Series D round of funding. The proposed investment is aimed at accelerating Glance’s launch in several key international markets outside of Asia, including the US, Brazil, Mexico and Russia. The company 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. In addition to Jio Platforms, Glance is also backed by technology giant Google and Silicon Valley-based venture fund Mithril Capital.

Concurrent with the proposed investment, Glance has also entered into a business partnership arrangement with Reliance Retail Ventures (“Reliance Retail”), providing for Glance’s lock-screen platform to be integrated into the JioPhone Next range of smartphones. This is the latest in a series of strategic partnerships between Glance and global players in the mobile ecosystem. The deal is also expected to lead to further strategic collaborations between Glance, Reliance Retail and Jio across devices, commerce, content and the gaming ecosystem.

Glance’s lock-screen platform is currently present on more than 400m devices across markets in Asia. It delivers personalized, AI-driven content, live entertainment commerce and gaming on the lock screen.

“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,” said Jio Platforms Director, Akash Ambani. “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.”

Piyush Shah, Co-founder of InMobi Group and President and COO of Glance, added: “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.”