Naveen Tewari, started his career at Silicon Valley. When he went back to his hometown in Bengaluru, India, he decided he needs to do something. The advertising world took his interest. He co-founded mKhoj at 2007. which later turn into InMobi.
Intially, the company provided an SMS-based services. Then in 2008, it pivoted to mobile advertising, along with Tewari’s interest in the rapidly growing internet. An ambition to expand into international market changed the label’s name to InMobi.
In its’ Series A, back in 2008, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers invested big in the company. The investment encouraged InMobi to take the first step outside India. Then three years later, Softbank joined as its investor with a total of $2,5 M.
Softbank’s investment opened InMobi’s way to enter an even wider market. Soon, it is available in more than 150 countries. And it is now one of Google’s biggest competitors.
InMobi joined hands with more than 30,000 app developer around the world. The platform it has helps consumers discovering new products and services. It also helps brands, developers and publishers to engage consumers to mobile advertising.
InMobi massive growth led to a series of acquisitions
Through a total of 6 funding rounds, the company has raised $320.6 M. The money also went to acquisitions of a few companies along its’ growth. The first company acquired is Sprout, a US-based mobile advertising solutions. InMobi renamed Sprout’s #html5 rich media advertising into InMobi Studio.
A year later in 2011, it acquired MMTG Labs. The San-Francisco firm operated Facebook apps marketplace Appbistro and AppGalleries. In the same year, it acquired Meatflow Solutions, a mobile app management and distribution company.
Its’ latest acquisition is on Los Angeles firm, Aerserv. The acquisition is to make the world’s largest programmatic video platform for mobile publishers.
CNBC’s 2019 Disruptor 50 Number 12
Recently, CNBC has just released its 2019 Disruptor 50 companies list. In the list, InMobi ranks at 12th place as one of the only five Asian companies. The other three are Didi Chuxing, Xiaohongshu, Yitu, and Grab.
It is not the company’s first year entering the list. Last year, it is also included in 2018 Disruptor 50, albeit with much lower rank than this year’s.