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§ Private Profile · Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Mobile advertising platform providing contextual mobile advertising for marketers, advertisers, and publishers, focused on mobile and CTV surfaces.
InMobi has raised $527.1M across 7 funding rounds.
Key people at InMobi.
InMobi has raised $527.1M in total across 7 funding rounds.
InMobi, a mobile-first advertising platform enabling contextual mobile advertising for marketers, advertisers, and publishers, is based in Bengaluru, India. The company powers customer growth through audience engagement on mobile and CTV surfaces, serving the broader app economy. Its affiliated businesses, Glance and Roposo, offer lock screen experiences and live entertainment with shopping opportunities, respectively. InMobi employs approximately 2,500 people across 22 offices in 12 countries, and notably became the first Indian unicorn startup in 2011. The Glance platform, led by CEO Naveen Tewari, also raised $45 million to expand its offerings. The organization was founded in 2007 by Naveen Tewari, Mohit Saxena, Amit Gupta, and Abhay Singhal. Its business model centers on monetizes through its advertising platform serving advertisers and publishers.
Key people at InMobi.
InMobi has raised $527.1M in total across 7 funding rounds.
InMobi's investors include MaRS, Alpha Edison, Benchmark, Canvas Ventures, National Grid Partners, SoftBank, CapitalG, Decibel Partners, Offline Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Social Capital, Nils Johnson.
InMobi has raised $527.1M across 7 funding rounds. Most recently, it raised $100.0M Debt in September 2024.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 10, 2024 | $100M Debt Financing | MARS | — | Announced |
| Dec 1, 2014 | $5M Series U | — | Alpha Edison, Benchmark, Canvas Ventures, National Grid Partners | Announced |
| Sep 15, 2011 | $200M Venture Round | Softbank | — | Announced |
| Sep 1, 2011 | $200M Series C | Softbank | CapitalG, Decibel Partners, Offline Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Social Capital, Nils Johnson, Steve Chen | Announced |
| Jul 1, 2010 | $8M Series B | Kleiner Perkins, Sherpalo Ventures | CapitalG, Decibel Partners, Offline Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Social Capital, Nils Johnson, Steve Chen | Announced |
| Apr 16, 2008 | $7.1M Venture Round | — | — | Announced |
| Dec 1, 2007 | $7M Series A | — | CapitalG, Decibel Partners, Offline Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Social Capital, Nils Johnson, Steve Chen | Announced |
InMobi is a Bangalore-based adtech company founded in 2007 that builds a mobile-first advertising platform, including the InMobi Exchange, DSP, and consumer experiences like Glance and Roposo. It serves marketers, publishers, developers, brands, and retailers by enabling audience engagement, app monetization, and performance marketing through AI-driven tools and programmatic advertising[1][2][5]. The platform solves key challenges in mobile advertising—such as reaching users at scale, identity resolution, and fraud prevention—powering growth for clients across gaming, retail, and e-commerce while reaching over 400 million devices globally and aiming for a billion[1][5].
InMobi's growth momentum includes pivoting from SMS search to adtech, major funding rounds (e.g., $200M from SoftBank), acquisitions like AeRserv and Roposo, and launches like UnifID and InMobi Telco, establishing it as India's first adtech unicorn with operations in 20+ countries[1][2][3][5].
InMobi began as mKhoj in 2007, an SMS-based mobile search and monetization startup in Mumbai, India, founded by Naveen Tewari—a Harvard Business School alumnus with experience at McKinsey and Kleiner Perkins—alongside three cofounders including Abhay Singhal[1][2][3][4]. Tewari, intrigued by mobile internet's potential in emerging markets, launched mKhoj for feature phones in India and Indonesia but pivoted in 2009 to mobile advertising upon recognizing greater opportunities in adtech, rebranding to InMobi for global appeal[1][2][3].
Early traction came from expansion funding: $8M in 2010 from Sherpalo and Kleiner Perkins, followed by $200M from SoftBank in 2011, fueling global scaling to the US, Europe, Australia, and China, where it became a top mobile ad network[2]. Pivotal moments include MIT recognizing its disruptive tech, launching the first programmatic mobile ad exchange with Rubicon Project, and reaching 1 billion devices by 2015[1].
InMobi rides the mobile advertising and "Easternisation" trends, capitalizing on smartphone ubiquity in emerging markets like India, China, and APAC, where it competes with Google and Meta by focusing on independent, transparent programmatic tech[3][4][5]. Timing aligns with the shift from feature phones to smartphones (post-2007 launch) and rising demand for privacy-safe identity solutions amid regulations, bolstered by market forces like video/content explosion and creator economies via Glance/Roposo[1][5].
It influences the ecosystem as India's first adtech unicorn, trailblazing global success for Indian startups, fostering innovation in monetization (e.g., telco diversification), and reaching 400M+ devices to reshape user experiences in digital ads and commerce[3][5].
InMobi is poised to hit 1B devices via expansions like InMobi Swish and further AI integrations, targeting $1B+ revenue through Miip/DSP growth and consumer platforms amid live commerce and programmatic booms[1][4][5]. Trends like AI identity solutions, Eastern tech dominance, and mobile video will shape it, potentially evolving its influence through more acquisitions and hardware embeds to challenge Big Tech further—building on its pivot from mKhoj to global ad leader.
