Careers at InMobi

Mission

InMobi’s mission is to enable consumers and businesses to make smarter decisions.

History

Naveen Tewari, an entrepreneur in India, was intrigued with the mobile Internet. Consequently, he started mKhoj, an SMS-based search platform. However, Tewari’s interest shifted more towards advertising, so in 2007 he transformed mKhoj into a mobile advertising firm for developers, brands, and publishers. Following this move, the company’s name was changed to InMobi, deemed a better fit for a global audience. Its core product is Miip, the InMobi Discovery Platform. It enables companies to promote and monetize their apps.

InMobi initially limited its services to Asia. However, in 2010 it raised $8 million in funding from Sherpalo Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. This investment inspired confidence in the firm and encouraged it to market itself globally. It began expanding to the U.S., Australia, and several countries in Europe. A $200 million round of funding from Softbank the following year enabled InMobi to scale rapidly in these markets.

China has been a particular bright spot. The company launched there in 2011, but now claims to be one of the largest mobile ad networks in the country. It serves 30,000 applications and witnesses 400 million impresses a day there. Globally-speaking, InMobi’s reach now extends to 700 million smartphone owners worldwide. Its growth has been fostered further through multiple acquisitions made between 2011 and 2013, with acquired firms including Metaflow Solutions and Overlay Media.

Benefits at InMobi

Business model of InMobi

Customer Segments

InMobi has a segmented business model, with customer groups having slightly different needs. Its three customer segments are as follows:

  • Developers: The company enables developers to embed Miip in their apps so they can promote and monetize them. The platform includes gaming, social, news, and entertainment features.
  • Retailers: The company enables retailers to creatively promote their stores in apps so that consumers can discover, share, and buy their products. Clients include JustFab, Zulily, and Joyus.
  • Brands: The company enables brands to understand consumer perceptions of their message by using Miip’s sentiment analysis feature to obtain powerful insights.

Value Proposition

InMobi offers three primary value propositions: design, customization, and brand/status.

The company’s Miip platform designs an experience for consumers that integrates seamlessly with a client’s app. It highlights products that complement the application and user context, creating strong user engagement.

The platform analyzes trends in consumer usage of the app, enabling it to customize recommendations for retailers’ products and services.

The company’s popularity has led to it having a strong brand. It bills itself as the largest independent advertising network in the world, reaching more than a billion people in 200 countries, who access 100 billion shopping sessions per month. Other impressive statistics include the following:

  • It serves 30,000 publishers that include brand-safe and premium inventory
  • It has observed 2.6 billion app downloads on its platform
  • It generates 138 billion monthly advertising impressions
  • It has defined 20,000 audience segments, enabling highly specific targeting

InMobi was also selected as one of the 50 most disruptive companies in the world by MIT Technology Review.

Channels

InMobi’s main channel is its website, through which it invites potential customers to sign up for its services. The company also offers free phone consultations and promotes its offering through events such as conferences.

Customer Relationships

InMobi’s customer relationship is primarily of a self-service, automated nature. Customers utilize the service through the main platform while having limited interaction with employees.

The company’s website includes an “Insights and Downloads” section providing guidance that includes videos, white papers, webinars, and presentations.

Key Activities

InMobi’s business model entails maintaining and enhancing its InMobi Discovery Platform for developers, retailers, and brands.

Key Partners

InMobi operates the Mobile Tracking & Attribution Partner (MTAP) Program. It works with independent mobile attribution platforms to expand capabilities for advertisers and offer them top solutions for attribution. Advertisers are given the ability to access advanced features such as negative targeting and retargeting.

The program also facilitates conversion discrepancy resolution and quicker troubleshooting for them. Specific partners include TUNE, Kochava, AppsFlyer, TalkingData, Apsalar, adjust, and AdMaster.

Key Resources

InMobi’s main resource is its proprietary software platform, which connects more than 30,000 publishers with over a billion mobile users.  It also depends on its human resources, namely its engineering, sales/marketing, and customer service staff.

As a relatively new startup, it relies heavily on investors, and has raised $220.6 million from five companies as of September 2015.

Cost Structure

InMobi has a cost-driven structure, aiming to minimize expenses through significant automation. Its biggest cost driver is likely research and development, as it invests heavily in technology. Other major drivers are in the areas of sales/marketing and customer support/operations.

Revenue Streams

InMobi appears to have one revenue stream: the fees it charges developers, retailers, and brands for use of its platform. No information is available regarding pricing.

Our team

Naveen Tewari,
Founder and CEO

info: Naveen earned a Bachelor’s degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He has supported and/or personally invested in over 30 startups, including SlideRule, NestAway, Mettl, Moneysights, and Razorpay.

Abhay Singhal,
Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer

info: Abhay earned a Bachelor’s degree at Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. During college he co-founded a startup called TeN. He oversees sales and global revenue strategies at InMobi as part of its effort to ensure future growth.

Amit Gupta,
Co-Founder and President, North America

info: Amit earned a Bachelor‘s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. After graduating he founded a startup called Analyticsworks. He leads InMobi’s growth efforts in North America.

Mohit Saxena,
Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer

info: Mohit earned a Bachelor‘s degree in Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee. He previously managed technology operations at Virgin Mobile. He supervises application management, infrastructure, and IT.