Private equity firm True North has acquired a 2-3% minority stake in adtech unicorn InMobi for an estimated $50-60 million, as the Bengaluru-based company gears up for a $1 billion initial public offering in India. The deal, structured mostly through secondary share purchases, gives early InMobi investors a partial exit ahead of the listing.
The transaction was primarily a secondary sale, with early backers selling part of their holdings to True North, alongside a small primary component. InMobi was founded in 2007 by Naveen Tewari, Piyush Shah, Mohit Saxena and Abhay Singhal, and has since built a portfolio spanning mobile advertising and monetisation, the Glance AI-powered lockscreen app, and social commerce platform Roposo. The company has raised more than $774 million to date from marquee investors including SoftBank, Sherpalo Ventures and Kleiner Perkins.
Why Is InMobi Pursuing A $1 Billion IPO Now?
InMobi is redomiciling from Singapore to India ahead of its public listing, targeting a valuation in the $6-10 billion range. The company has lined up JPMorgan Chase, Jefferies, Kotak Mahindra Capital and Axis Capital as merchant bankers for the offering. The move mirrors a broader trend of Indian-origin tech unicorns relocating their holding structures back home to list on domestic exchanges, driven by favourable valuations and regulatory tailwinds for new-age tech stocks in India.
InMobi’s cofounders have also been consolidating control ahead of the IPO. In June 2025, they invested roughly $3.7 million and subsequently repurchased 25-30% of SoftBank’s stake, reducing the Japanese investor’s exposure and tidying up the cap table before the True North deal.
What Does This Deal Mean For India’s Adtech And Startup Ecosystem?
The True North-InMobi transaction lands in the same week Indian startups raised $203.4 million across 21 deals, a 3.4x jump from the previous week’s $58.9 million, with AI leading sector funding at $89.3 million across five companies. It signals that private equity investors are increasingly comfortable taking sizeable minority positions in pre-IPO Indian tech companies, particularly in adtech and digital media, where InMobi has long been considered one of the country’s most mature exits-in-waiting.
For India’s broader adtech industry, a successful InMobi listing would be a bellwether. It would validate the market’s appetite for ad-tech and mobile monetisation businesses at a time when global ad spend is shifting rapidly toward AI-driven targeting and programmatic formats, an area InMobi has been investing in through Glance and its social commerce arm.
Industry Reaction And Expert Commentary
Market watchers tracking India’s new-age tech stocks noted a mixed backdrop for the announcement: of 65 tracked listed tech companies, 37 ended the week down between 0.01% and 35%, pulling the combined market capitalisation of the cohort from $170.2 billion to $166.6 billion. Against that volatility, private equity interest in a pre-IPO adtech leader like InMobi stands out as a vote of confidence from investors willing to look past short-term stock swings toward a structural growth story.
Analysts tracking the secondaries market say deals like True North’s stake purchase are becoming a preferred route for late-stage Indian startups to manage investor liquidity without diluting the company or rushing a premature public listing.
What Happens Next?
InMobi’s redomiciliation process and IPO preparations are expected to continue through the rest of 2026, with the formal draft red herring prospectus filing likely once the Singapore-to-India shift is complete. Investors and founders alike will be watching whether the $6-10 billion valuation range holds up amid the current volatility in listed new-age tech stocks. True North’s entry as a minority shareholder adds another institutional voice to the InMobi cap table as the company finalises its banker roster and listing timeline.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much did True North pay for its stake in InMobi?
True North acquired approximately 2-3% of InMobi for an estimated $50-60 million, mostly through secondary purchases from early investors.
When is InMobi planning its IPO?
InMobi is redomiciling from Singapore to India and targeting a $1 billion IPO at a valuation of roughly $6-10 billion, with JPMorgan Chase, Jefferies, Kotak Mahindra Capital and Axis Capital as merchant bankers.
Who founded InMobi and what does the company do?
InMobi was founded in 2007 by Naveen Tewari, Piyush Shah, Mohit Saxena and Abhay Singhal. It operates mobile advertising and monetisation services, the Glance lockscreen app, and social commerce platform Roposo.
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