InMobi To Invest $100 Million In Data Management Arm TruFactor
SoftBank-backed InMobi had acquired TruFactor in October 2018.
InMobi said it will invest around $100 million over the next three years in its newly launched data management subsidiary, TruFactor
The Softbank-backed advertising tech startup will provide security, privacy, governance and compliance services to telecom services providers, its Founder and Chief Executive Officer Naveen Tewari told BloombergQuint. “After telecom operators, the firm is looking to provide its services to retail and banking sector.”
Tewari, without divulging more details, said the company has already seen interest from clients in North America and Asia.
TruFactor has been built on the capabilities of Pinsight Media that InMobi acquired from telecom company Sprint in October 2018. "We got Pinsight to manage data, security, governance and compliance for us and make it robust. And we realised the same issue is being faced by telecom operators and other enterprises are also looking for robust platform to manage their data in the most secure manner and take care of all privacy concerns of the customers,” Tewari said.
The 100-people team with offices in the U.S., Singapore and Bengaluru, will be headed by Piyush Shah, co-founder and president (marketing and data cloud) at InMobi, and president of TruFactor.
InMobi, which became the Indian unicorns in 2011, achieved profitability in the year ended March 2016. Tewari said the firm is growing at 40 percent year-on-year without sacrificing on profitability, with the U.S. accounting for 50 percent of its revenue, followed by China, India, Indonesia and Australia. He is expecting 600 enterprise clients this year.
The company is looking to touch about $700-800 million in revenue for the current financial year, one of the people privy to the development told BloombergQuint.
Scouting Acquisitions
InMobi has been on a buying spree. Last year, the company made two acquisitions. In January 2018, it acquired U.S.-based mobile video ad start-up AerServ for $90 million. In October, it acquired Pinsight Media, the mobile data and advertising subsidiary of Sprint in all-stock deal.
The firm is seeking more acquisitions as it looks to expand its business beyond advertisement. “We are very active in the market and are looking for companies in the areas related to the core of our marketing and advertisement business. You will see some announcements in the coming three to six months.”
The advertising tech company, which raised $200 million in 2011 from SoftBank, competes with giants like Facebook and Google in the mobile internet ad spending market. The company, Tewari said, is not looking for fresh investment and has enough profits to deploy back into the business.
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