India-based mobile advertising network InMobi has raised $5m from Japan-based telecommunications corporation SoftBank, the Economic Times has reported, citing three people familiar with the matter.
InMobi received $200m in series C funding from Softbank from 2011. SoftBank, which owns roughly one-third of InMobi, is reportedly promising another $25m if new investors come on board.
Manish Dugar, director of InMobi’s finance and legal division, told ET Soft-Bank had invested the money in August, and that the amount was “significantly higher” than $5m.
Dugar added that SoftBank has pledged to make a pro-rata investment if any other investors commit cash to InMobi, in order to maintain its stake size.
Established in 2007, InMobi has developed a mobile searching engine that reaches 872 million devices worldwide, and its advertising can be found in banners, videos and native advertising. It is reportedly aiming to go public in the next two years.
Prior to SoftBank’s initial investment, InMobi had secured $15.1 m from venture capital firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Ram Shriram’s Sherpalo Ventures across two rounds in 2008 and 2010.