What triggered the idea?

InMobi was started as MKhoj in 2007 with Mumbai Angels backing

it. CEO and founder, Naveen Tiwari realized that the mobile
industry was on the verge of an explosion and saw this as a great
opportunity. They began with reverse market strategy. The
business model used SMS based search to solve local information
problem and worked on SMS based monetization as revenue. But
this did not work out and they decided to move to mobile
advertising. In this, they took a challenging path, instead of
entering the crowded markets of America and Europe, they
targeted emerging markets in Asia and Africa.

Funding
Till date, InMobi has received 6 rounds of funding with 6 investors.
Major investors are Softbank Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield &
Byers, Sharpelo Ventures, Plaris Partners, Mumbai Angels and
Tenenbaum Capital Partners..InMobi received $220.6 million
funded by Mumbai Angels. In July 2010, it received 20 million
funding from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. In September
2011, it received a $200 million funding from Softbank. In 2014, it
got an additional $5 million in funding from Softbank.

Challenges faced
It has been 6 years since InMobi entered the market. Now it has
become one of the most successful mobile advertising
organizations. But its journey was not at all easy. Since starting, it
has faced a lot of hindrances. One of the biggest challenges that
InMobi faced was at the time when it started as a SMS based
search platform. It had lackluster and could not cope up with the
challenges faced. Hence, it had to move to another sphere, which
was mobile advertising. It was a small and young organization
with little processes. The management found it tough to run a

global operation with 25 offices, keeping one culture, one system

and clear communication with everyone. One more challenge
come from the fact that people had great expectations from
Silicon Valley and thought every new technology and innovation
would come from that side. In those circumstances, InMobi had to
keep pace with its competitors and prove itself to be no less.
At present, although it has become very successful, but it has to
maintain the pace of innovation and technology that wants to
incorporate video and media. It is spread in 125 countries
presently. Hence, another challenge faced is the diversities of all
these markets. It needs to understand the need and demand that
varies from place to place. Just entering the market does not give
any results; it has to understand its customers and partners that
what and how much value they can provide. Understanding of the
market is very necessary so as to give the proper insights to the
partners.

Structure of InMobi
1. Flat structure: InMobi has a hybrid flat structure, which is a
mixture of functional and divisional structures. At the
topmost position is the CEO of the company. The whole
organization is then divided into various divisions as
technology, operations, finance, marketing and many others.
These divisions are self-contained and functions that are
important to each product are decentralized to these units.
2. Organic: InMobi has organic type organization where there is
no hierarchy. There is proper and open horizontal
communication and information sharing. Collaborative
teamwork persists. There are quite few rules. Employees
have a lot of freedom and ownership. Disruptive HR
practices prevail. This organization emphasizes on
collaborative teamwork rather than hierarchy.
3. Structural Dimensions: Formalization is low as there are no
written procedures, codes of conduct, job descriptions,

regulations and policy manuals. Low specialization. There is

not much and strict division of roles, i.e., employees perform
a wide range of tasks in their jobs. There is not low hierarchy
of authority, so there is wide span of control. Low
centralization and high professionalism.
4. Vertical Information Sharing: There is not much vertical
information sharing as there is no hierarchy prevalent. No
formal rules and regulations are regulated.
5. Horizontal Information Sharing: Product managers provide
horizontal integration among the various divisions and act as
the full-time integrators in the organization. There is high
communication and coordination across organizational
departments. This helps in achieving unity of effort and
objectives. But there are no cross-functional teams.
6. International Presence: InMobi is increasing its international
expansion. It has a centralized product development at
Bangalore. It minimizes customization and has a
decentralized marketing and sales strategy across the globe.

Organize resources
System culture process how they aligned
How recruitment
Cuture what they want and incentive