Israeli Video Messaging Startup Glide Raises $8M

May 26, 2016 | Israeli video-messaging startup Glide has raised an $8 million round of “bridge financing,” which was structured as convertible debt, the company’s CEO Ari Roisman told “Business Insider.” The investment came from a “syndicate of new strategic investors” with participation from all Series B investors – Menlo Ventures, Marker LLC, and Two Sigma Ventures. The Jerusalem-based startup also recently laid off 25% of employees in order to focus on smartwatches, “Business Insider” adds. Glide was founded in 2012 by Roisman, Jonathan Caras and Adam Korbl and has raised $36.5 million to date, including the latest financing. In 2013, the company launched the Glide app in 2013, which allows users to quickly send short video messages to friends, in a similar way to which text messages work. The free app has been downloaded “tens of millions” of times, resulting in “billions of messages” being sent.