InMobi became India’s first unicorn after reaching a $1 billion valuation in 2011.
InMobi was founded in 2007 by Naveen Tewari, Abhay Singhal, Amit Gupta and Mohit Saxena. The company initially operated under the name mKhoj and focused on mobile search and advertising in emerging markets.
It changed its name to InMobi as it developed a global mobile-advertising platform. A funding round led by SoftBank in 2011 valued the company at more than $1 billion, making it the first Indian startup widely recognized as a unicorn.
The term unicorn refers to a privately held startup valued at at least $1 billion. InMobi is sometimes confused with Flipkart because Flipkart became one of India’s best-known high-value startups and later reached much larger valuations. InMobi’s distinction is its earlier 2011 milestone and its mobile-advertising focus.