InMobi Pte, which provides mobile-advertising services globally, is planning to list in the U.S. by the end of the year, according to a person familiar with the plan, potentially the first among a slew of Indian startups targeting initial public offerings.
The Bengaluru-Based InMobi Started Off As mkhoj In Mumbai
After a brief stint as a consultant at McKinsey & Co., Harvard Business School alum Naveen Tewari, now 43, co-founded InMobi in 2007 with fellow engineering and business-school peers. In 2011, it became India’s first unicorn.
InMobi uses algorithms to send targeted ads to users’ phones in markets such as China, the United States, South Korea, Australia, and India. The company also assists marketers in the creation of advertisements and the monetization of website traffic, as well as delivering real-time campaign success reports.
InMobi, based in Bangalore, declared it operationally profitable in 2017 and announced in 2019 that it aimed to generate $1 billion in gross revenue that year. It competes with Facebook Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google in a digital-advertising market expected to reach $579 billion in 2021, according to a forecast by ad-agency network Dentsu.
India’s First Private Company To Reach Unicorn Status With Venture Funding
The tech start-up, India’s first private company to achieve unicorn status with venture capital, could begin the IPO process in a few weeks when its board of directors meets to discuss a listing. According to the individual, who asked not to be identified talking about a confidential matter. The offering may be as high as $1 billion, valuing InMobi at $12 billion to $15 billion, the person said
InMobi could become the first of India’s unicorns to list on a U.S. stock exchange, demonstrating the country’s move away from information technology and outsourcing services. On paper, the sale will be a windfall for InMobi’s largest backer, SoftBank Group Corp., which owns around 40% of the business.
According to the person, InMobi is about three months away from filing an S-1 declaration, a registration document with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, and plans to conduct an IPO roadshow after that. JPMorgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., and Citigroup Inc. are among the banks in talks to work on InMobi’s IPO, according to the source.
An InMobi spokesman declined to comment.
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