L Catterton backs AI shopping platform Glance in undisclosed deal
L Catterton, the $40 billion consumer-focused investment firm, has taken a strategic stake in Glance, an agentic AI shopping platform operated by InMobi subsidiary Glance InMobi Pte. Ltd. No deal terms were disclosed. The investment marks a notable alignment between one of the world's largest consumer-focused private equity firms and a platform that is attempting to shift product discovery away from keyword search and towards ambient, personalised recommendation.
Glance operates across smartphones, connected TVs and other digital screens, using what the company describes as agentic AI to surface products based on inferred consumer interests. The platform is already integrated with Samsung devices and DIRECTV in the United States, giving it distribution across a meaningful installed base before any additional US expansion funded by the new investment.
What the platform does
Rather than waiting for consumers to search, Glance's model delivers product suggestions within the lock screen and other ambient interfaces that users encounter throughout the day. The company positions this as "agentic commerce," a framing that places purchase intent generation earlier in the consumer journey than conventional search or social discovery. Glance is backed by a roster of existing investors including Google, Mithril Capital and Jio Platforms, which gives the platform access to both advertising infrastructure and mobile distribution in India, its largest existing market.
Naveen Tewari, founder and chief executive of InMobi and Glance, said the investment validates the company's "belief that the future of commerce will move beyond search toward agentic shopping." L Catterton Global CEO Scott Dahnke described Glance as "uniquely positioned" to capitalise on AI-driven changes in how consumers discover products, citing the platform's distribution across screens where people spend significant time.
L Catterton's stated focus for the proceeds is US market expansion, building on existing Samsung and DIRECTV partnerships.
Market context and competitive landscape
Agentic AI commerce is attracting significant venture and strategic capital in 2026. A growing cluster of startups and larger platforms are vying to insert AI-driven recommendation layers between brands and consumers, whether through conversational interfaces, visual search, or always-on ambient surfaces. Amazon continues to iterate its own AI-driven discovery tools within its owned ecosystem, while social commerce players including TikTok Shop and Pinterest have invested heavily in visual product matching. Glance's differentiation lies in its lock-screen-first, cross-device model, which does not require the consumer to open an app or initiate a search session.
For L Catterton, the investment extends a portfolio that has historically focused on consumer brands rather than the technology infrastructure around commerce. Taking a position in a distribution and discovery platform represents a strategic shift, giving the firm direct exposure to the AI-mediated consumer funnel rather than only to the brands that sell through it.
The deal also arrives at a moment when regulators in both the US and EU are sharpening scrutiny of personalisation technologies. The EU's Digital Services Act imposes transparency obligations on recommender systems used by large platforms, and any significant European expansion by Glance would bring those requirements into play. In the US, the Federal Trade Commission has signalled continued interest in algorithmic recommendation practices, particularly where they intersect with purchase behaviour and data collection across devices.
Glance did not disclose user numbers, revenue, or the size of the addressable device base covered by its Samsung and DIRECTV partnerships. Those metrics will be the key indicators of commercial traction as the company pursues US growth with L Catterton's backing.