• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, December 22, 2020

InMobi Group on Tuesday announced that Google and Mithril Capital have invested in its subsidiary, Glance, a lock-screen platform and Roposo, the company’s video-sharing social media platform. 

Glance, a subsidiary of InMobi Group and owner of Roposo, delivers AI-driven personalized content in multiple languages including English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Bahasa on the lock screen of Android smartphones.

Caesar Sengupta, vice president of Google, believes “too many Indians have trouble finding content to read or services they can use confidently, in their own language,” which significantly limits the value of the internet for them, particularly at a time like this when the internet is the lifeline of so many people.

The significant investment is important for several reasons. For starters, the growth of online service, including streaming video on and off Android devices, will require investments to build out the infrastructure in the country.

Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, whose roots are in India, recently pledged to invest $10 billion in the country during the next five to seven years through a mix of equity investments, partnerships, and operational, infrastructure and ecosystem investments. 

Glance plans to use the $145 million investment from Google and Mithril Capital to expand its technology team, launch new services on the platform, and drive expansion across Asia and the US. 

Today, Glance supports 115 million daily active users that on average spend 25 minutes per day in India and is on 75% of new mobile devices shipped in the country.

Roposo, a short-form video platform in India with more than 33 million monthly active users spend, on average, 20 minutes daily consuming content across multiple genres in more than 10 languages. The Roposo app has been downloaded more than 100 million times on the Google Play Store.

The trending content available on the platform runs the gambit across entertainment, sports, fashion, news, and other content categories in visual format. It’s consumed with a tap on the lock screen. It leverages its strategic partnership with Android smartphone brands to deliver a native user experience to consumers.