Tech giants like Apple and Google have a new rival in the mobile ad segment: A startup founded by Naveen Tewari only in 2007 that has grown to become a mammoth mobile ad network in less than ten years, Voice & Data reported. 

Before it grew to become a multinational corporation, InMobi faced the same challenges that other startups experienced. The company, which was first known as mKhoj, was first formed as an SMS-based search platform with $500,000 in initial funding from Mumbai Angels, the report said.

The company saw an opportunity in mobile advertising and focused in that area. Using funds received from global venture capital firms, mKhoj changed its business model and got rebranded to InMobi. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers gave InMobi $8 million while Sherpalo Ventures invested $7 million which the company used to get more talented people on board. In 2011, the company also secured $200 million funding from Softbank which helped the firm rapidly scale in different markets, the report said.

Proceeds of those funding rounds also allowed InMobi to create different platforms that contributed to the value chain of its ad business. It also enabled the firm to make acquisitions to complete gaps. Now, the company has operations in the UK and Europe. It is also present in the US, Australia, Taiwan, France, Italy, Russia, Germany and China. Although InMobi was only rolled out in China in 2011, it is already one of the biggest mobile ad networks in the country, the report said.

InMobi has 25 offices around the world and boasts of nearly 691 million users in over 165 countries. It intends to reach one billion users in two years. Its global workforce consists of 350 data scientists, engineers and analysts. InMobi has been brought to the global technology scene because of the innovation it has done in the ad space and its ability to take on the heavyweights of the industry like Apple and Google, the report said.