Exclusive: “InMobi emerging as third biggest marketing platform globally”: InMobi Founder-CEO Naveen Tewari

InMobi, one of India's unicorns has been in the news recently for all the wrong reasons.

In a major setback, the mobile advertising startup was slapped with a $950,000 fine by a US regulatory body for tracking consumers’ locations without their consent. It has also been subject to scrutiny of late over funding, the exit of senior executives and talks of an initial public offering.

All of this comes at a time when InMobi was reported to be struggling to chart out a sustainable business model that can adapt to the changes in the online and mobile advertising space.

In an exclusive interview to Business Insider, InMobi Founder-CEO Naveen Tewari clears the air around what’s been going internally.

How difficult is it gain market-share in a world dominated by tech's big daddies Google and Facebook?
Those are big companies with big market share. Companies like InMobi are the only ones that can take market-share away from Google and Facebook. Every one of our customers is willing to look beyond conventional platforms, and have a third pillar. They won’t consider us if we are not technologically at par, if not more advanced than those guys.

Over the next 12-18 months, I see InMobi emerging as the third biggest marketing platform globally.

What about the exit of senior executives?
We’re extremely clear about where we’re headed. That’s why our attrition is extremely low.

We offer new opportunities to young talent. I don’t consider my competition to be companies, but entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship is the freedom to take your own decisions, and that’s what we offer.

We have had 44 startups come out of InMobi, and 25 odd people have joined us back. No one does that if they aren’t sure of the company and its culture.

You’ve spoken about the lack of product talent in India.
That was 7-8 years back. Currently we don’t have issues in hiring or retaining talent.

In fact, we don’t subscribe to flying people in to solve internal problems. That’s the wrong model. They come in with an inflated sense of how India works. That comes from a position of what it’s like in Silicon Valley.

You have seen the lack of feasibility of that model pan out in every company that tried it. Every one of those people left in a year. That’s why our leadership is essentially home-grown.

Are you looking to raise more money, and are you struggling?
The second one is easy. The answer is no. We don’t need further capital. We’re pretty well set in terms of our financials.

There’s a practical answer to the first question. Our corpus team explores strategic partnerships all the time. It’s their job. Some of these have investments linked to it. These are done once every 2-3 years. Before deciding on one, you need to explore 50 more opportunities. People should not confuse the role of looking for these partnerships actively with anything else.

Our business works on a 40% gross margin and that too at a very large scale.

Nine years on, InMobi is looking to be profitable this fiscal. What will contribute most to fuel further growth?
From a market perspective, the two major markets will be US and China. From a client perspective, performance advertising will clearly lead the way. It’s been a big factor, and will continue to remain a significant one. Commerce advertising is also set to explode as commerce companies do well.

Video is not a big driver till date. However, it’s starting to take off.

Where does India figure in terms of market size?
India has a smaller share in InMobi’s business today. It’s a strategic opportunity we’re invested in, just like we did for China 4 years ago. We were positive of China’s growth, and we are currently market leaders there in the digital advertising space.

Given India is only 2-3 years behind China, it’s a market with massive strategic opportunities for us. Mobile advertising’s share in India has been low. We think starting next year, that’ll change drastically and grow 50-60% YoY.

You reportedly downed shutters on the animated-discovery commerce part of Miip. Why’s that?
We haven’t closed down anything. It’s only a trajectory to get to that position. Honestly, that was always a part of that trajectory.

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