L Catterton Invests in InMobi Subsidiary Glance
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Consumer-focused private equity firm L Catterton has made a strategic investment in Glance, an artificial intelligence shopping agent run out of a subsidiary owned by tech company InMobi. Glance is currently accessible on more than 60 million devices in the U.S. Through an app and hardware partnerships with Samsung, Android TV and DirecTV.
Scott Dahnke, global chief executive officer of L Catterton, noted that the private equity firm has backed shifts in consumer behavior for nearly four decades. “Agentic commerce is fundamentally changing how consumers discover and shop for products, creating significant opportunities for brands that can make the journey more personal, intuitive and engaging,” Dahnke said. “Glance is uniquely positioned to capitalize on this evolution, combining a differentiated consumer proposition with broad distribution across the screens where people spend their time.”
Operating like a personal shopper, Glance remembers user preferences, scours the web for deals, offers virtual try-ons, and secures approval before completing purchases. “We have 10 million monthly active users in the U.S.,” said Naveen Tewari, founder and CEO of Glance and InMobi, noting that users average 120 shopping prompts a month and nearly 15 percent make a monthly purchase.
Screen distribution and checkout mechanics
Users on the service enter roughly 120 shopping prompts every month, with approximately 15 per cent completing a transaction within thirty days. Glance collects an affiliate cut from final sale totals. For an added fee, the company trains its underlying algorithms on individual brands to make sure those labels surface accurately during consumer queries.
Naveen Tewari, founder and chief executive of Glance and InMobi, said: “The model does not have a limitation like you and I to remember only a hundred brands. The model can actually remember a million brands. As different brands start to get trained on Glance, they get discovered for the right user at the right time. And especially brands that are smaller, that do really authentic work, but not at scale.”
“Users on the service enter roughly 120 shopping prompts every month, with approximately 15 per cent completing a transaction within thirty days.”
Hardware integrations give the system immediate visibility into living rooms and mobile screens. Shoppers watching connected television displays can use prompts to identify clothing worn by characters on screen, search for retail stock, and complete purchases on linked devices.
The private equity wager on agentic retail
L Catterton, which manages global consumer investments, is banking on algorithmic agents handling discovery rather than traditional online search boxes. Glance intends to allocate the new capital to accelerate model training runs and expand its distribution network beyond its initial television deployments.
By backing an InMobi venture, L Catterton wagers that consumer software can control retail discovery funnels in Western markets. Ad-tech operators spent a decade selling display space. Now they want direct conversion cuts from retailer inventories.
The structural risk for brand owners sits in recommendation control. When an algorithm decides which dress or shoe matches a television prompt, unpartnered labels risk exclusion unless they pay the platform to train its model on their catalog.
From lock-screens to commerce agents
Glance built its initial scale by delivering news, media and casual games to Android mobile lock-screens. Its parent InMobi used that installed base to expand abroad.
The commercial test will be whether Glance can replicate its US hardware conversion rates across its core device base, where average basket values run lower and marketplace apps dominate customer search habits.
Questions & Answers
Q.How does Glance generate revenue from shoppers and retail brands?
How does Glance generate revenue from shoppers and retail brands?
Glance collects an affiliate cut from final sale totals completed on the platform. It also charges brands an additional fee to train its underlying algorithms on their specific product catalogues, ensuring their labels surface accurately during consumer queries.
Q.How will Glance use the new capital from L Catterton?
How will Glance use the new capital from L Catterton?
Glance intends to allocate the investment to accelerate its algorithmic model training runs. The company also plans to use the financing to expand its distribution network beyond its initial television deployments with Samsung, Android TV and DirecTV.
Q.What commercial challenges does Glance face as it expands?
What commercial challenges does Glance face as it expands?
Glance must prove it can replicate its US hardware conversion rates across its core mobile device base, where average basket values run lower. It also faces markets where established marketplace applications already dominate everyday customer search habits.
Q.What risk does agentic shopping software pose for independent brands?
What risk does agentic shopping software pose for independent brands?
The structural risk centres on recommendation control when algorithms decide which items match user prompts. Unpartnered retail labels risk being excluded from customer discovery entirely unless they pay Glance an extra fee to train the model on their stock.
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