Glance deepens pact with Google to add GenAI content in new apps

By Sankalp Phartiyal 

Indian mobile-content provider Glance is deepening its ties with backer Google, seeking to tap the US internet giant’s expertise in generative artificial intelligence to build new apps. 

Glance will work with Google Cloud and use its tech such as Gemini AI and Imagen, a text-to-image model, to create content for customers who use its smartphone and TV screensavers, the companies said in a statement Wednesday. 

 

Glance InMobi Pte. delivers a curated screensaver for smart televisions and mobile devices, which shows users content such as news without them having to unlock their displays or open any apps. It says it has more than 300 million active users in countries including India, the US, Japan and Indonesia.

 

Bangalore-based Glance didn’t specify if the partnership involved a new round of funding from Google. Glance was set to raise as much as $250 million in a funding round led by the Alphabet Inc. unit, Bloomberg News reported previously.

 

The new pact broadens Google’s bet on India, the world’s most populous country, where it competes with homegrown and global rivals including Microsoft Corp., Meta Platforms Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. as they scout for new growth frontiers. Google’s Android is the South Asian country’s dominant mobile operating system, but competition from Apple Inc. is intensifying, thanks to an aspirational middle class who’re keen to buy pricey iPhones.

 

Glance’s largest holder is mobile-advertising firm InMobi Pte. Naveen Tewari, an alumnus of Harvard Business School, founded InMobi in 2007 with fellow engineering and business-school peers. InMobi won the backing of SoftBank Group Corp. and went on to become the first venture-backed Indian startup to reach unicorn status in 2011. Tewari then co-founded Glance in 2019.

 

The startup raised money from Google in late 2020. It won the backing of Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani in 2022 with a $200 million investment that valued the company at more than $1 billion.

 

Glance also said it is preparing to unveil a new generative AI-driven platform for its customers which will first be launched in the US.