India

Naveen Tewari

InMobi · Kanpur, UP

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

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Company

InMobi

Journey

Moves that mattered.

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.

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.

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The full story

Naveen Tewari, in 1 chapters.

Ch 01
The story
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.

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