InMobi Snags Largest Investment Ever

Mobile advertising company InMobi has received a $200 million investment from the Japanese Internet company Softbank in one of the largest investments ever in the mobile Internet market.

InMobi, which launched in 2007 in Bangalore, India now reaches over 340 million consumers in more than 165 countries, including the US. With more than 47 billion mobile ad impressions on its network, InMobi is strongest in Asia but is making significant inroads into Europe and the US markets.

The investment, will give InMobi more fire-power to take on Google, which bought AdMob, back in 2009 for $750 million, and Apple, which purchased Quattro Wireless in early 2010 for $275 million.

Masayoshi Son, chairman and chief executive of Softbank said: “I hope the partnership with InMobi, a fast-growing start-up with significant mobile expertise and an outstanding technology platform, will further accelerate the pace of development in the mobile internet space globally.”  “We believe this partnership will help Softbank become the number one internet company in Asia.”

Since our inception in the Asia-Pacific region in 2007, InMobi has grown to become the world’s largest independent ad network serving over 100 Billion mobile ads to date. We built our product in parts of the world where the mobile phone is not just a screen, it’s the only screen. After launching in the U.S. and Europe in early 2010, InMobi has more than doubled its global network from 7.5 Billion to 47.3 Billion impressions monthly. Backed by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) and Sherpalo Ventures, InMobi’s founders hail from global technology leaders such as Google, Amazon, Yahoo!, Akamai, Trilogy, Virgin Mobile, and AT&T

Today we are the world’s largest independent mobile advertising network. Offices are located in London, San Francisco Bay Area, Singapore, Tokyo, Bangalore, and Johannesburg.
Founder CEO – Naveen Tewari

Naveen is the founder of InMobi and the man in charge of it all. He has been responsible for the overall vision, strategy and execution of InMobi. His view of the growth of the mobile ecosystem and leveraging InMobi as a key tenet in developing that mobile ecosystem was the foundation stone on which InMobi was built.

Naveen obtained his Bachelors degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IIT) and has a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from Harvard Business School (HBS).

For Imobi, “It’s a clear validation of the scale of the industry that we are going after,” said Naveen Tewari, “The whole mobile internet industry is only just now starting to see the level of growth that it is going to have.”