EXCLUSIVE: InMobi eyes $10 billion valuation in 2025 India IPO

Adtech startup InMobi is eyeing a valuation of about $10 billion in an initial public offering it is planning for next year, two sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. 

The firm plans to list in India, the sources said, requesting anonymity as the deliberations are private. InMobi is profitable and plans to shift its domicile from Singapore to India in the coming months, the sources added.

An IPO in India at a valuation of $10 billion would make this one of the biggest listings by a local software startup. The majority of startups to list in India in recent years have sought valuations below $5 billion. Paytm, which listed at a $20 billion valuation in 2021, has seen its market cap fall to $3.5 billion since. 

InMobi is planning to list at the group level, which includes its advertising arm as well as investments and ownership in Glance, a unicorn startup that operates an Android lockscreen platform, the sources added. InMobi expects to generate an annual revenue of more than $700 million by the end of March, one of the sources said.

Google, an existing backer of Glance, is engaging with InMobi to lead a new funding round of more than $200 million in Glance, according to one of the sources. A funding round could close within weeks.

An InMobi spokesperson declined to comment on Wednesday.

InMobi, founded in 2007, was the first Indian startup to become a unicorn, but the firm has had its share of ups and downs as it initially struggled to secure its foothold in the digital advertising space, dominated by Google and Meta. 

InMobi operates a comprehensive advertising platform that integrates demand-side and supply-side technologies with a large ad exchange. It serves tens of thousands of app partnerships across 50 countries. The firm today counts Mastercard, Samsung, Vodafone, Ford, Kellogg’s, L’Oréal Paris, Nokia, Kia, KFC, Dell and Coca-Cola among its clients.

InMobi has raised less than $300 million to date, and counts SoftBank among its backers. SoftBank once wrote off its investment in the startup. 

In the past decade, it has expanded its advertising business and built a consumer business, which it leverages for Glance.

Glance brings news, information on local events, sports, media content and games directly to the lockscreen of Android smartphones. The app is installed on more than 450 million smartphones and is active on about 300 million of them. Glance recently started a pilot in the U.S., TechCrunch reported.

The firm plans to soon launch a revamped version of Glance that will incorporate generative AI to bring personalized feeds and experiences to users. One feature will allow users to see themselves in clothes from different brands, according to internal demos reviewed by TechCrunch. 

Glance doesn’t collect personal data on users. InMobi is betting that generative AI will help the app adapt to user preferences and offer experiences that will hook them to the platform and drive commerce. 

InMobi is planning to roll out similar generative AI offerings in its advertising business to enable the creation and insertions of native advertisements into a wide range of content, according to the demos.