MAM
Glance smart lock screens launch in Japan with top carriers and Android brands
Mumbai: In today’s information-heavy world, deciding what to watch, read or experience on the smartphone can be exhausting for consumers. Searching, downloading multiple apps, switching between these apps and scrolling through endless feeds often tires the mind, leaving consumers drained. But what if there was a way to make it easier for consumers to enjoy the internet? What if the smartphone could be made smarter, simplifying the way consumers discover content and experiences on the internet?
Glance lock screen, one of the world’s leading smart lock screen platforms, is doing just that, changing how hundreds of millions of consumers across the world engage with the internet. For the first time ever, consumers of Japan’s biggest carriers and Android smartphone brands can experience this revolutionary smart lock screen platform as well.
Glance is an AI-driven platform that offers a wide range of experiences directly on the lock screens of Android smartphones. These lock screen experiences include instant games, live game streaming, news, sports, lifestyle, fashion, entertainment, shopping, and live content. These premium and beautiful experiences are delivered through Glance’s partnership with reputed publishers, content partners, and developers. Glance’s AI personalises these experiences, ensuring that consumers find content that is most relevant and important to them, each time they glance or look at their lock screen. They do this without needing to unlock their phones download multiple apps or spend time searching for content.
“With Glance we are unlocking the power of the lock screen, using AI to transform passive lock screens into smart lock screens,” says Glance Co-founder of InMobi Group and COO & president of Piyush Shah. “Consumers check their lock screen over 100 times a day but only use it for notifications, battery, and time. With Glance’s smart lock screen, they can stay on top of everything that interests them throughout the day. This could be a casual game that they love, latest score of a baseball game, the latest J-pop album launch, updates on their favourite celebrities and shows or news that matters to them – all without unlocking, downloading, or searching.” Shah adds, “We are truly honoured to launch in the Japanese market and hope to bring the best lock screen experience to consumers here.”
In Japan, Glance is already available to subscribers of SoftBank Corp using Xiaomi (Redmi Note 9T Redmi Note 10T, and 12T Pro) and Motorola (Moto G53y 5G) smartphones. In the upcoming quarters, it aims to expand its presence to other big carriers and Android smartphone brands in Japan. Globally, Glance is present on over 450 million Android smartphones, and is aiming to be on over one billion phones in the next two years. The platform has over 230 million active users, primarily in India and Indonesia, while it has recently launched in Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia.
Glance senior vice president & GM of strategic distribution partnerships Aditya Goyal said, “For carriers and smartphone brands, Glance is an opportunity to differentiate themselves and boost consumer engagement through a unique experience. The top six Android phone brands have integrated Glance on their smartphones in multiple markets globally and are using it to deliver personalized experiences for their consumers. We are excited to enable carriers and brands in Japan to provide this same innovative and captivating mobile experience to consumers here.”
Initially, Glance consumers in Japan will be able to discover news, trending content, and gaming on their lock screens. Content and experiences on Glance are powered by Japan’s biggest publishers, including Yahoo Japan Corporation (Partners of Yahoo! News), LINE Digital Frontier Corporation LINE Manga), dely Inc.（Kurashiru), Ikkyu Corporation (ikkyu.com), C Channel Corporation CHANNEL), SoftBank Corporation（Baseball LIVE, Basket LIVE), Mybest Inc.（mybest), AllAbout Inc (AllAbout)
For publishers such as these, Glance provides a new and exciting way to reach the right consumers at a large scale. Several other top publishers are expected to join the platform in the coming quarters.
Glance has established a strong team in Tokyo, led by Masato Ito, Head of Market Development Japan, demonstrating its commitment to the market. This team is expected to grow significantly in the coming quarters. The platform is also expanding its presence to other regions and aims to launch in the US soon. Glance is headquartered in Singapore and is funded by investors including Jio Platforms, Google, and Mithril Capital.
Brands
Tessolve lands a semiconductor veteran to drive its next big push
Ravi Kumar Chirugudu, who started his career at ISRO and has spent 35 years building chips and companies, joins the Bengaluru-based firm as president and chief operating officer
BENGALURU: Tessolve has never been shy about its ambitions. The Bengaluru-based engineering services firm already counts 18 of the world’s top 20 semiconductor companies among its clients, employs more than 3,500 engineers across 12 countries, and last year pocketed a $150m investment from TPG. Now it has hired the executive it believes can turn those assets into something bigger. Ravi Kumar Chirugudu, a 35-year semiconductor veteran who once built satellite payloads for ISRO and has since scaled engineering organisations across three continents, joins as president and chief operating officer, effective immediately.
THE MAN AND THE MANDATE
The appointment is, by any measure, a serious hire. Ravi Kumar Chirugudu comes to Tessolve after senior leadership stints at HCL Technologies, Altran and Wipro, where he managed large profit-and-loss portfolios and oversaw cross-regional teams. Over the course of his career, he has been instrumental in bringing more than 1,000 new products to market across the high-tech, energy and manufacturing verticals. Before the private sector claimed him, he began his working life as a scientist at the Indian Space Research Organisation, contributing to research and development in charge-coupled device technology and satellite payloads, a foundation that shaped everything that followed.
In his new role, he will lead Tessolve’s global growth strategy: expanding its engineering capabilities, deepening customer relationships and accelerating innovation across semiconductor and high-performance computing domains. The brief is broad, but the context is specific. Tessolve operates in the $550 billion global semiconductor market, and its recent moves, the acquisition of Germany’s Dream Chip Technologies and the TPG funding round, have sharpened both its reach and its expectations.
Srini Chinamilli, co-founder and chief executive of Tessolve, is characteristically direct about why Ravi Kumar Chirugudu was the choice:
“As we scale our global semiconductor and system engineering capabilities, Ravi’s appointment marks an important step forward. As global semiconductor demand continues to accelerate across industries, it is creating significant opportunities across the semiconductor lifecycle, from design, packaging, validation and systems integration. Ravi’s deep knowledge and leadership in this ecosystem brings the right mix of industry expertise, customer connect and execution capability, which will play a key role in strengthening our position as a trusted global engineering partner and reinforcing our market leadership.”
THE NEW ARRIVAL SPEAKS
Ravi Kumar Chirugudu, for his part, frames the move in terms of timing and culture, two factors that veteran executives tend to weigh as heavily as title or compensation:
“I am happy to join Tessolve at a time when the industry is rapidly evolving towards more complex, AI-driven systems. What stands out to me is its strong people-first culture and its commitment to bringing value to its customers. The strength of its global team, combined with its deep expertise in semiconductor innovation and next-generation product engineering, creates a solid foundation to build differentiated, scalable solutions. I look forward to working closely with the team to drive strategic growth and strengthen its role in shaping the global semiconductor ecosystem.”
The reference to AI-driven systems is not incidental. The semiconductor industry is in the midst of a structural reshaping, driven by the insatiable compute demands of artificial intelligence. For engineering services firms like Tessolve, which offers end-to-end capabilities from silicon design to packaged parts and invests in high-performance computing, high-speed interfaces, photonics and 5G, the moment is both an opportunity and a test. The company says it is well positioned to capture the next wave of industry growth. Ravi Kumar Chirugudu is now the person who has to prove it.
He came in from outer space, literally, and spent three decades learning how the semiconductor industry works from the inside out. Now Tessolve is betting that accumulated knowledge can help it cross the next frontier. In the $550 billion global chip market, the gap between ambition and execution is measured in engineering hours and leadership quality. Tessolve has just gone shopping for both.
