NT
Kanpur, UP
InMobi
Naveen Tewari
Harvard MBA who chose Kanpur-to-Bengaluru over Wall Street. Built India's first unicorn by betting mobile would eat desktop — before iPhone went mainstream.
Mobile-firstLong betsQuiet ambition
Struggles
First product mKhoj failed. Years of skepticism from US ad networks about an Indian challenger.
Family
Married to Anu. Two children. Quiet operator who avoids the spotlight despite scale.
The full story
From day one to today.
The journey
Milestones, not magic.
2007
Founded mKhoj — SMS-based search for feature phones — from a Bengaluru garage.
2008
Pivoted to mobile advertising; rebranded InMobi.
2011
Became India's first unicorn after SoftBank's $200M investment.
2015
Launched Glance — lock-screen content platform — now a separate unicorn.
Wins
- Built InMobi into a defining brand from Kanpur, UP.
Setbacks
- First product mKhoj failed. Years of skepticism from US ad networks about an Indian challenger.
News, interviews & references
Read, watch, dig deeper.
Live links — open the latest articles, interviews and profiles about Naveen Tewari across the web.
Next journey
Sanjeev Bikhchandani — Naukri.com / Info Edge