Glance builds personalized content and commerce experiences on users' lock screens, and today launched a generative AI shopping feature that suggests outfits on a user’s personalized avatar. The company is partnering with Google to use Gemini models and Vertex AI to deploy the experience and is experimenting in the U.S. via a new Glance AI app. Glance plans to roll the experience out to all users in the U.S. and India in the coming months. Users create an AI avatar by uploading a selfie and selecting gender, hair length, ethnicity and body type; Glance then shows outfit suggestions on the lock screen. At launch it aggregates results from about 400 ecommerce partners and takes a cut via affiliate links when purchases are completed. The startup has over 300 million active users across India, Japan and Indonesia, primarily on Android lock screens, and has piloted its solution in the U.S. with Motorola while beginning to surface content on smart TVs. Glance, founded in 2019, delivers media, news and casual games directly on Android handset lock screens and ships pre-installed on several popular smartphone models. The company says it has "presence" on about 400 million users and maintains tie-ups with nearly every top Android vendor in Asia, including Xiaomi and Samsung. A sizeable portion of its user base disables Glance within the first week of purchase and some retail store owners remove it, according to a Glance executive. Glance is Google-backed and is part of the InMobi Group. It plans to broaden its catalog of live content and commerce on the lock screen and will bring its technology to the JioPhone Next handset as part of the deal. The firm intends to deploy fresh capital to expand into markets outside Asia, including the USA, Brazil, Mexico and Russia. Glance serves news, media content and games on the lock screen of smartphones, replacing the otherwise empty lock screen with locally relevant content. It uses AI to offer personalized experiences and, after InMobi’s acquisition of Roposo, has introduced short-form video on the platform. Glance is part of the InMobi Group and ships pre-installed on several smartphone models through tie-ups with vendors including Xiaomi and Samsung. The service is present on more than 100 million smartphones and has amassed over 115 million daily active users. The company raised $145 million in a new financing round from Google and existing investor Mithril Partners. Glance plans to deploy the fresh capital to expand in the U.S. Glance is a lock‑screen content platform that shows media in local languages on Android lock screens through partnerships with handset makers such as Xiaomi, Samsung and Gionee. Launched in September last year, the service supports English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu and has amassed 50 million monthly active users in India, with users spending an average of 22 minutes per day. Glance does not show traditional ads and is not being monetized as of today; the team plans to explore monetization early next year. Product road map includes short‑form video (Glance TV), mini games (Glance Games), a location feature (Glance Nearby) and Glance Shopping to build commerce around content. The company is preparing to expand beyond India into Southeast Asian markets including Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, where it has begun to find users. Glance is a subsidiary of InMobi Group, which has been profitable for several years and had raised $320 million prior to this financing.

Total raised

$390M

Funding rounds

4

Latest round

Series D

Latest activity

Feb 2022