12. InMobi

Unlocked content at a glance

Founders: Naveen Tewari (CEO), Abhay Singhal, Piyush Shah, Amit Gupta, Mohit Saxena
Launched: 2007
Headquarters: Singapore
Funding: $250 million
Valuation: N/A
Key technologies:
Artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, deep neural networks/deep learning, machine learning
Industry:
Advertising, advertising platforms, mobile

George Kavallines | CNBC

InMobi, the adtech platform from India that is the country's first unicorn, is now making it even easier for users to eye content. In August it launched Glance, bite-size content that shows up right on the lock screen of a mobile phone. No need to unlock the phone; just hit the button to bring the screen to life and that's where news, videos and single-player games appear, lasting anywhere from 10 seconds to 2 minutes.

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InMobi co-founder and CEO Naveen Tewari calls Glance "micro-moments of consumption." Glance comes pre-installed on some models of Samsung, Xiaomi, Gionee and Vivo phones, which together comprise 65% of all new smartphones sold in India. So far, the company says Glance has more than 26 million active users.

Once your phone is unlocked, that's where inMobi really shines. If a mobile ad pops up when you're using your favorite app, inMobi specializes in making them less intrusive and more user-friendly. It does this by taking information such as location and app interests to deliver ads that better align with a user's interests.

The company was started in India in 2007 and today is one of the world's largest independent mobile advertising platforms for mobile marketers. The company has partnerships with more than 30,000 apps and claims that is has reached more than 1.5 billion devices worldwide. Earlier this year, it teamed up with Microsoft and Sprint to launch TruFactor, a service that helps companies better understand the digital and physical environments of the consumer.

InMobi, which says it is profitable, has raised $320 million in funding from SoftBank Capital and Kleiner Perkins Caufield, among others, and is valued at $1 billion.

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