Indian-enterprise-fuelled inMobi, the global mobile advertising network leader, has received what is arguably one of the largest investments in the mobile internet arena: The Japan-based SoftBank has announced that it has invested $ 100 million (approximately JPY 7.7 billion) in inMobi and will be making an additional investment of USD100 million in April 2012, taking the total investment amount to USD 200 million.
InMobi Group started as a mobile advertising network in India in 2007. With its cutting-edge technology solutions to deliver targeted advertising across smartphones, tablets and conventional mobile handsets, InMobi Group reaches 340 million consumers through 47 billion monthly advertisement impressions. It has offices in Singapore, Bangalore, Tokyo, London, San Francisco and Nairobi. InMobi Group has become the No.1 ad network in Asia Pacific and Africa. After launching in the U.S., Europe and Japan in 2010, InMobi has attained significant leadership positions in each of these markets.
This partnership is expected to generate further synergies between InMobi Group and SOFTBANK, given the significant number of prominent Asian internet companies in SOFTBANK's investment portfolio.
“I am delighted at this opportunity to partner with InMobi Group, one the world's largest mobile advertising networks”, said Masayoshi Son, Chairman and CEO of SOFTBANK. “I hope the partnership with InMobi Group, a fast-growing startup 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 No.1 Internet Company in Asia and I look forward to working with the InMobi team.”
Naveen Tewari, Founder & CEO of InMobi, commented: “The size of the investment and quality of investor validate the enormous potential in mobile today and strengthens our role in helping the industry evolve. We have already established ourselves as a leader in mobile advertising on every continent. This is just the beginning. With a global leader like SOFTBANK behind us, we are now well positioned to fully capitalize on the opportunity before us through substantially increased product innovation, deeper market penetration, and acquisitions across the mobile ad value chain.”
Our earlier story on inMobi: http://www.indiatechonline.com/mobile-marketing-in-asiapac-99.php
September 16 2011