Entrepreneur Story of Naveen Tewari – InMobi

How does a boy who grew up on a college campus in Kanpur end up building India’s first venture-backed unicorn? The answer sits inside Naveen Tewari’s story, and it is far less smooth than the headlines make it sound.

He started with a product that failed, shared a flat with his co-founders, and kept adjusting until the business finally worked. This Naveen Tewari biography walks you through his early years, the InMobi success story, his second company Glance, and what is actually known about Naveen Tewari net worth.

Early Life and Education

Naveen Tewari was born on 14 December 1977 in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. His father, Dr. Sachinand Tewari, was a professor at IIT Kanpur, so Naveen grew up surrounded by the campus and the people who worked there. Reports say his family hoped he would take up a PhD and an academic career.

He chose engineering first. Tewari earned his B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Kanpur in 2000, and the campus gave him more than a degree. It is where he met Abhay Singhal and Amit Gupta, two friends who later joined him in starting InMobi.

From McKinsey to Harvard Business School

After college, Tewari joined McKinsey & Company and stayed from 2000 to 2003. Consulting trained him to break large business problems into small, workable pieces. In 2004 he moved to Charles River Ventures as an associate, a role that put him close to early-stage companies and the investors who back them.

In 2005 he went to Harvard Business School for his MBA and received the Dean’s Award there. During those years he also started a US-based nonprofit, the India School Fund, which raises money to set up schools in rural India. He still chairs it.

How InMobi Started

The mKhoj Flop

In 2007, Tewari and his friends began their entrepreneurial run in Mumbai, sharing an apartment and pitching investors with slide decks. According to Bharat Stories, they became known as the “Boys with PowerPoint.” Their first product was mKhoj, an SMS-based search engine. It failed almost as soon as it launched.

The Pivot That Worked

Instead of packing up, the team dropped the search idea and moved into mobile advertising, renaming the company InMobi. The base shifted from Mumbai to Bangalore, and investors including Kleiner Perkins and Sherpalo Ventures came on board.

Different reports list slightly different sets of co-founders, but Tewari, Mohit Saxena and Abhay Singhal appear in almost every list, and Piyush Shah is often named alongside them.

The InMobi Success Story

The turning point came in 2011, when SoftBank invested about $200 million and pushed InMobi’s valuation past $1 billion. That made it India’s first venture-backed unicorn, years before the word became common in Indian startup circles.

Today InMobi runs mobile display ads, native ads and app install campaigns for brands and publishers across more than 165 countries. It is headquartered in Singapore with a large presence in San Francisco, and its Indian roots run through Bengaluru. Reported figures for FY23 show revenue of around $281 million and net income of around $41 million.

The road had bumps too. In 2016, InMobi settled with the US Federal Trade Commission over claims that its ad software tracked users’ locations without proper permission, and it paid close to $1 million. SoftBank reportedly wrote off its stake the same year. Both were setbacks, yet the company kept building. Tewari said in 2019 that InMobi had been profitable for several years.

Glance: Building a Second Unicorn

In 2019, Tewari launched Glance, a service that puts news, entertainment and other content on the lock screen of Android phones. InMobi worked with phone makers such as Xiaomi and Samsung to build it into their devices.

Glance raised $45 million from Mithril Capital that year, and later in 2019 it bought the short-video app Roposo. By 2020 Glance had crossed a $1 billion valuation, and InMobi’s own profile of Tewari calls him the first Indian entrepreneur to create two unicorns.

By late 2025 his focus had moved to generative AI and shopping. Glance put around $200 million into an AI shopping agent, and its app lets shoppers see products on themselves using a selfie. The work was even turned into a Harvard Business School case study.

The 2025 SoftBank Buyback and IPO Plans

In late 2025, reports said Tewari and his co-founders bought back roughly 25 to 30 percent of InMobi from SoftBank, cutting SoftBank’s holding from around 35 percent to under 8 percent. The deal was reportedly funded by about $350 million in debt, and the InMobi founders now hold close to 60 percent together.

SoftBank got back roughly what it put in during 2011, which closed a long chapter for both sides. Media reports from July 2026 say InMobi has hired four banks for a possible IPO worth about $1 billion. Nothing is final until a listing actually happens, so treat that as a plan, not a promise.

Naveen Tewari Net Worth

There is no official figure for Naveen Tewari net worth. InMobi is a private company, and Tewari has not published his personal wealth. Several profile sites put it near ₹1,668 crore, but that estimate dates back to around 2019 and no public ranking confirms it.

What you can say with confidence is that he and his co-founders together control about 60 percent of InMobi, so a future listing would shape his wealth far more than old estimates do. Until then, treat every number you see online as a rough guess.

Awards and Recognition

IIT Kanpur gave Tewari its Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2013. Forbes India named him Outstanding Startup Entrepreneur at its Leadership Awards in 2021, and the Uttar Pradesh government honoured him with the UP Gaurav Samman in 2023-24. Outside his own companies, he has served on Paytm’s board and backed startups such as Nestaway.

What You Can Learn from Naveen Tewari

Three things stand out. First, the mKhoj flop didn’t end the company, because the team treated it as information and moved to mobile ads. If you are building something of your own, that habit of changing direction quickly matters more than the first idea. Second, Tewari picked a market before it was obvious.

Mobile advertising in 2007 looked small, and by 2011 it had attracted a billion-dollar bet. Third, he didn’t stop after one win. Glance shows that a founder can start again inside a successful company and still be taken seriously.

From an outside view, the buyback is the most interesting part. Owning more of your company gives you control, but it also comes with debt that reportedly carries a 13 to 14 percent interest rate. How that plays out will be the next big test.

FAQs

Who is the founder of InMobi?

Naveen Tewari founded InMobi in 2007 with co-founders that include Mohit Saxena, Abhay Singhal and Amit Gupta. He continues to serve as its CEO.

What was InMobi called before?

It began as mKhoj, an SMS search engine, before the team shifted to mobile advertising and took the InMobi name.

Where did Naveen Tewari study?

He completed a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering at IIT Kanpur in 2000 and later earned an MBA from Harvard Business School.

What is Naveen Tewari’s net worth?

No verified figure exists. Some websites mention about ₹1,668 crore, but that number is old and unconfirmed.

What is Glance?

Glance is a platform owned by InMobi that began in 2019 as a lock-screen content service on Android phones. More recently it has moved into AI-led shopping.

Is InMobi planning an IPO?

Media reports say it has picked bankers for a possible listing, but the company has not completed one yet.