INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Naveen Tewari, Co-founder of InMobi LimitedInMobi Pte, which provides mobile-advertising services globally, is planning to list in the
United States 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 tech upstart, India's first private company to reach unicorn status with venture funding, could
kick off the IPO process in a few weeks, when its board is set to meet to consider a listing, said the person, who asked not to be
identified talking about a confidential matter
The offering size could be as large as $1 billion, valuing InMobi at $12 billion to $15 billion, the person said.A successful debut could
make InMobi the first of India's unicorns to directly list in a United States stock exchange, highlighting the country's shift beyond
information technology and outsourcing services
The sale would be a windfall, at least on paper, for InMobi's biggest backer SoftBank Group Corp., which owns about 40% of the
company.InMobi is about three months from filing an S-1 statement, a registration document submitted to the United States Securities and
Exchange Commission, and plans an IPO roadshow after that, said the person
Among the banks in talks to work on InMobi's listing are JPMorgan Chase - Co., Goldman Sachs Group Inc
and Citigroup Inc., said the person.An InMobi spokesman declined to comment.The pandemic has been a boon for ad-technology companies
including InMobi as it has accelerated a shift to mobile in gaming, video streaming and shopping
Advertisers have been quick to follow and capitalize on the trend.InMobi, which operates in markets including China, the United States ,
South Korea, Australia and India, uses algorithms to deliver targeted advertising to users' phones
The company also helps advertisers create ads and monetize site traffic, providing real-time reports on campaign performance.Harvard
Business School alum Naveen Tewari, now 43, co-founded InMobi in 2007 with fellow engineering and business-school peers after a brief stint
as a consultant at McKinsey - Co
It became India's first unicorn in 2011.Dozens of other Indian tech startups have reached $1 billion in valuation since
Of these, several including Walmart Inc.-owned online retailer Flipkart Online Services Pvt and food-delivery startup Zomato Pvt are said to
plan listings in India or the United States InMobi, based in Bangalore, said as far back as 2017 that it was operationally profitable and in
2019 stated that it was targeting $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.In December, Tewari's other startup Glance Digital Experience Pvt received $145 million from Google and Mithril Capital at
a valuation of more than $1 billion, making it his second unicorn
Glance, majority-owned by InMobi, was started less than two years ago.(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by
TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
