Instant messaging apps can be found everywhere from Whatsapp to Line, which is gaining ground in China, to Viber and many more. One more such app chancing its arm in the market is Israeli company Glide, which provides instant video-messages to end-users. The company announced today that it has closed a $20 million Series B financing round led by Marker LLC, with participation from Two Sigma Ventures, Menlo Ventures and other existing investors. Marker partner Ohad Finkelstein has joined Glide’s Board of Directors. To date, Glide has raised $28.5 million.
Glide claims on its site to have 10 million users, although sources close to the subject say that only 1 million are active a relatively low number compared with rivals in the instant messaging market. Sources also say the company was worth $100 million before the latest financing.
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Glide was founded in 2012 by CEO Ari Roisman, Jonathan Caras and Adam Korbl and its product enables users to send and receive video messages.
“When first introduced to Glide, I was immediately impressed by the company’s unique video technology that enables extremely low latency video messaging, ” said Finkelstein. “We are very excited about Glide’s user growth and technical achievements thus far. We are even more excited by Glide’s potential to usher in a new era of asynchronous communications that is more expressive and satisfying than text messaging or email. We believe Glide’s unique approach to messaging has disruptive potential to change the way people all over the world communicate throughout their daily lives. Glide’s executives have been a delight to work with and we look forward to helping them grow over the long-term.”
Based in Jerusalem, Glide is opening offices in Silicon Valley and New York and Roisman is relocating to Palo Alto.
Some of the company’s previous investors include former CEO of ICQ and AOL IM Orey Gilliam and founder and former CEO of ooVoo Philippe Schwartz.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news – www.globes-online.com
