India-based mobile advertising company InMobi raised $200m of series C funding earlier this week from Japan-based internet and telecommunications conglomerate Softbank. The investment will be made in two tranches of $100m, the first coming this month with the second scheduled for April 2012.
Prior to Softbank’s involvement, venture capital firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sherpalo Ventures funded InMobi’s series A and B rounds. InMobi raised $7.1m in January 2008, followed by $8m in its July 2010 series B round.
InMobi claims to currently be the largest mobile advertising network in the world and has offices on five continents. As well as the cash injection, the deal will grant InMobi opportunities to work with Softbank’s own range of Asia-based internet companies.
Masayoshi Son, chief executive of Softbank, said: "The partnership with InMobi, a fast-growing startup with significant mobile expertise and an outstanding technology platform, will further accelerate the pace of development in the mobile internet space globally. We believe this partnership will help Softbank become the number one internet company in Asia."
The capital will enable InMobi to expand its activities towards product innovation and further its acquisitions across the mobile advertising field. InMobi made its first such move last month, acquiring the US-based mobile advertising coding platform Sprout.