Matt Berriman has ended his eight-year legal fight against Google over the collapse of Unlockd, the Sydney adtech startup that was weeks from an ASX listing when Google pulled the plug in early 2018.
The Ninth Circuit Federal Appeals Court rejected Unlockd's appeal in 2025. Berriman announced the end of the fight on LinkedIn this week. The startup is not coming back.
What happened
Unlockd launched in 2014 with a mobile rewards product: ads on Android lock screens in exchange for credits and discounts. The company raised more than $60m from investors including Lachlan Murdoch, hit 330,000 monthly users, and was valued at $200m ahead of a planned IPO.
Google banned Unlockd from the Play Store in early 2018, citing policy breaches. Unlockd argued the move was anticompetitive, especially after it emerged Google had invested in Glance, an Indian company with a similar model. The ban killed distribution and ad inventory access. Unlockd entered voluntary administration in June 2018.
Berriman launched US litigation in 2021 after details of Google's Glance investment surfaced. The appeals court sided with Google. Unlockd's liquidation trust is now winding down.
Why it matters for ANZ sales
This is what platform risk looks like when you are building on someone else's infrastructure. Unlockd had revenue, users, and institutional backing. Google flipped a switch and the business died.
For sales teams at startups that depend on Google, Meta, Apple, or AWS for distribution or core functionality, this is the reminder: your territory can disappear overnight if the platform owner decides you are a problem.
The other takeaway is legal gravity. Eight years of litigation and Google still won. Big Tech has deeper pockets and longer runways than any startup liquidation trust. If your go-to-market strategy assumes you can sue your way out of a platform dispute, rethink it.
Berriman has moved on to VC and mental health advocacy. Unlockd is a case study in what happens when platform dependency meets competitive threat.