SoftBank Invests $200 Million in InMobi
Ka-ching! SoftBank invested $200 million in InMobi, the world’s largest independent mobile ad network, joining existing investors Kleiner, Perkins Caufield & Byers, and Sherpalo Ventures.
InMobi has offices in London, San Francisco, Bangalore, Tokyo, Nairobi, and Singapore
, serving over 165 countries and 340 million consumers, generating a whopping 47 billion mobile ad impressions per month.
カチャーン！ソフトバンクは世界最大のモバイル広告ネットワークで独立企業のInMobi（インモビ）に２億ドルを出資し、既存の投資家クライナー・パーキンス・コーフィールド・アンド・バイヤーズとSherpalo(シャーパロ・ベンチャーズ）に仲間入りをした。
InMobiはロンドン、サンフランシスコ、バンガロール、東京、ナイロビ及びシンガポールに事務所を構え、165ヶ国を超える3億4000万の消費者にサービスを提供しており、月間470億という巨大なモバイル広告インプレッション数を誇っている。
The mobile ad network has attracted a lot of attention in recent months. First with its helpful market research report on the mobile industry, and second with its recent acquisition of U.S-based Sprout for its HTML5 rich-media mobile ads platform. With $200 million in the bank, we can very well expect InMobi to go through an aggressive expansion plan. But exactly how is something we all are interested to find out. Stay tuned.
Check out the full press release we received, below:
"SINGAPORE, SAN MATEO – 15 September, 2011 – InMobi, the world’s largest independent mobile ad network, and SOFTBANK Corp, completed a $200 million investment, early this week. The funding will take place in two tranches- $100 million in September 2011 followed by an equivalent tranche in April 2012.
Softbank joins existing investors Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sherpalo Ventures in helping InMobi become a global leader in the mobile advertising industry. The $200 million investment, one of the largest to date in the mobile internet space , will help the company create value across the mobile ecosystem globally through world-class advertising, mobile payments using SmartPay™, and HTML5 rich media production and distribution using the recently acquired Sprout™ platform.
訳注：トレードマークの(TM)の部分ですが、この文字は上付きです。上付きにできませんでしたので(TM)にしました。すいません。
Naveen Tewari, Founder & CEO of InMobi, commented: “The size of the investment and quality of investor validate the enormous potential in mobile today and strengthen our role in helping the industry evolve. We have already established ourselves as a leader in mobile advertising on every continent. This is just the beginning. With a global leader like Softbank behind us, we are now well positioned to fully capitalize on the opportunity before us through substantially increased product innovation, deeper market penetration, and acquisitions across the mobile ad value chain.”
“I am delighted at this opportunity to partner with InMobi, one the world’s largest mobile ad networks”, said Masayoshi Son, Chairman and CEO of Softbank. “I hope 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 No. 1 Internet company in Asia and I look forward to working with the InMobi team.”
This partnership will provide Softbank and InMobi with opportunities to further explore global scale collaboration in the fast growing mobile ad market. It is also expected to generate further synergies between InMobi and Softbank, given the significant number of prominent Asian Internet companies in Softbank’s investment portfolio.
John Doerr, Managing Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, said: “InMobi is a rapidly growing company in one of the most explosive technology sectors. InMobi delivers extraordinary value to publishers and advertisers globally. They are a leader in the mobile advertising revolution.”
クライナー・パーキンス・コーフィールド・アンド・バイヤーズの業務執行者ジョン・ドーア氏は、「InMobiは、最も変化の激しいハイテク部門の１つで急速に成長している企業だ。InMobiは世界のパブリッシャーや広告主に素晴らしい価値を提供している。モバイル広告革命の先導者だ。」と語った。
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byersの業務執行社員John Doerrはこう話す。「InMobiは最も急激に成長している技術分野において急発展を遂げている企業である。InMobiは世界的に出版者や広告主に対して莫大な価値をもたらす。彼らはモバイル広告革命の先導者なのだ」
Ram Shriram, Founder of Sherpalo Ventures added: “InMobi joins a select set of companies globally that have achieved massive scale in a short period of time. This investment is a strong validation of the mobile opportunity across the globe and InMobi’s ability to exploit to its full potential. Mobile and Smart Phones are changing the world for consumers, businesses, advertisers and publishers.”
ミスがありました。
２００万ドルでなく２億ドルですね。
失礼いたしました。