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Indian startup Look, which serves news, media content, and games on the lock screen of over 100 million smartphones, has a brand new investor: Google.
The 2-year-old Look, which is a part of promoting large InMobi Group, stated on Tuesday that it has raised $145 million in a brand new financing spherical from Google and present investor Mithril Companions. The brand new spherical values Look at over $1 billion, an individual aware of the matter stated, making the startup a unicorn.
Look makes use of AI to supply customized expertise to its customers. The service replaces the in any other case empty lock display screen with regionally related information, tales, and informal video games. Late final 12 months, InMobi acquired Roposo, a Gurgaon-headquartered startup, that has enabled it to introduce short-form movies on the platform. Google can be investing in Roposo, a startup that Look acquired final 12 months. Roposo is a brief video platform with over 33 million month-to-month lively customers. These customers spend about 20 minutes consuming content material throughout a number of genres in additional than 10 languages on the app on a regular basis.
Look ships pre-installed on a number of smartphone fashions. The subsidiary maintains tie-ups with practically each prime Android smartphone vendor together with Xiaomi, the highest participant in India, and Samsung. The service has amassed over 115 million every day lively customers.
“Look is a good instance of innovation fixing for mobile-first and mobile-only consumption, serving content material throughout lots of India’s native languages,” stated Caesar Sengupta, VP, Google, in an announcement. “Nonetheless too many Indians have bother discovering content material to learn or providers they’ll use confidently, in their very own language. And this considerably limits the worth of the web for them, significantly at a time like this when the web is the lifeline of so many individuals. This funding underlines our sturdy perception in working with India’s progressive startups and work in the direction of the shared objective of constructing a really inclusive digital financial system that may profit everybody.”
Naveen Tewari, founder and chief government of Look and InMobi Group, stated the funding will pave the way in which for “deeper partnership between Google and Look throughout product improvement, infrastructure, and world market growth.” The startup plans to deploy the recent capital to broaden within the U.S.
Funding in DailyHunt
Google stated on Tuesday that it’s also investing in VerSe Innovation, the father or mother agency of Indian startup DailyHunt. Throughout its apps together with DailyHunt and short-video platform Josh, DailyHunt claims to serve over 300 million customers information and leisure content material in 14 Indian languages. The startup stated it has accomplished a spherical of over $100 million from Google, Microsoft, and AlphaWave amongst different buyers and this new spherical values it at over $1 billion, making it a unicorn.
DailyHunt — which is co-run by Umang Bedi, former Fb India head — plans to deploy the recent capital to scale Josh app, the augmentation of native language content material choices, the event of content material creator ecosystem, innovation in AI and ML and the expansion of its actually “made-in-Bharat-for-Bharat short-video platform,” it stated.
Josh and Roposo are amongst over a dozen apps in India which might be making an attempt to fill the void New Delhi created after banning TikTok in late June within the nation.
Google is writing each these checks from India Digitization Fund that it unveiled this 12 months. Google has dedicated to take a position $10 billion in India over the course of subsequent few years. Previous to at present, the corporate invested $4.5 billion from this fund in Indian telecom giant Jio Platforms.
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