The Economic Times
Author : PEERZADA ABRAR & PANKAJ MISHRA
Location : BANGALORE
Article Date : 06/19/2014
Company in advanced discussions with two new investors to raise up to $300 million
Mobile advertising company InMobi is in advanced discussions with two new investors to raise up to $300 million in funding that could potentially value it between $1.5 billion to $2 billion, people familiar with the talks said. This will be the latest round of funding for the Bangalore-based that received investment of $200 million from Ja pan’s SoftBank in 2011, when it was valued at up to $ 1 billion.
Since then, InMobi has evolved to become a poster child of India’s fast-growing startup ecosystem that counts only a handful of companies valued a billion dollars like Flipkart and Just Dial. “The discussions are at a very advanced stage, and should be able to close in a few weeks; but it’s done until the money is in the bank,“ said a person directly familiar with the ongoing talks. “None of the existing investors are part of this currently,“ said the person.
Apart from SoftBank, the early investors in the company include Silicon Valley funds Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and India-born investor Ram Shriram’s Sherpalo Ventures. The current negotiations are mostly centred around the valuation that InMobi expects -about $ 2 billion -getting the money is not the problem according to the person who is privy to the talks.
Investors who have backed the company in the past are of the view that with Facebook and Google breathing down the necks of every independent mobile advertising network, a valuation of over $1.5 billion for InMobi would be “outlandish.“ “The question is what’s the runway for InMobi?“ said an executive at one of the firms that have invested in the company that was cofounded by IIT-Kan pur graduate Naveen Tewari in 2007.
In recent years, InMobi has emerged as a challenger to the massive online networks of Google and Facebook, and has even followed them in building an independent mobile ad network – an opportunity worth billions of dollars annually.
Tewari has wooed some of the world’s most prominent investors including Google board member Shriram and SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son not just for the capital needed to fight bigger rivals, but to also the raise the profile of his company. Manish Dugar, InMobi’s vice president of finance said “a number of global investors” have approached the company expressing their interest to invest and that discussions are progressing. “To remain ahead of competition and maintain relevance in the market, every company needs to take a few big bets from time to time.
We have a clear roadmap on where we want to be in 3-4 years’ time and the quantum of resources required,” he said. InMobi needs big money to compete with the likes of Google and Facebook – the two companies who virtually own most of the world’s online advertising spend.
