SoftBank-funded “AI+ mobile advertising” company InMobi seeks personal loans to provide ammunition for market expansion

The Zhitong Finance App learned that some media quoted information revealed by people familiar with the matter that InMobi Group, an Indian “AI+ mobile advertising” company funded by SoftBank Group Corp. (SoftBank Group Corp.), which is headed by legendary investor Sun Zheng, is preparing for its planned initial public offering (IPO) in the Indian stock market and is seeking private loan funding of up to 350 million US dollars.

People familiar with the matter said that part of the loan proceeds will be used to buy back some of the shares held by SoftBank and other equity holders in the company. The remaining capital will be used for InMobi's capital expansion and market share expansion needs prior to its IPO in the Indian market, including major strategic acquisitions, the people familiar with the matter added.

According to these people familiar with the matter, negotiations on personal loans are still ongoing, and plans are still likely to change. An InMobi representative declined to comment.

Demand for private debt from Indian companies has surged in recent years, partly driven by infrastructure promotion led by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but also as new companies seek to continue to expand their business coverage in the growing Indian market. According to an EY (EY) research report, in the first half of 2025, the Indian private credit market reached approximately US$9 billion in transactions, representing a significant increase of 53% over the same period last year.

According to Startup India's statistics, India is also home to the world's third-largest startup ecosystem, maintaining a steady growth rate of at least 12% of private credit demand per year. For example, the founder of Indian office space startup Table Space raised about 2 billion rupees (about US$22.7 million) through private credit in June to buy a portion of the company's shares before the company plans to go public.

What kind of startup is InMobi?

According to the company's official website, InMobi was founded in 2007 in Mumbai, India and is headquartered in Singapore; after receiving large-scale investment from SoftBank, it reached the status of a startup “unicorn” in 2011. Other institutional investors or large investors in the startup include Kleiner Perkins and Sherpalo Ventures.

InMobi is a mobile advertising and marketing technology (that is, focus on AdTech/MarTech) company. Its business covers both advertisers and media: 1) Advertiser side (DSP/marketing cloud): provides mobile DSP and marketing tools that use AI and machine learning to optimize performance metrics such as bid and retention/life cycle value (LTV). 2) Media side (SSP/Exchange/Monetization): Monetization, advertising SDK, identity solutions and compliance CMP for apps and mobile sites, operating our own InMobi Exchange.

InMobi is also the parent company of India's Android lock screen content app Glance, a mobile lock screen content/AI e-commerce platform. It has received investment from Google's venture capital division; Glance includes Roposo, one of India's most popular short video platforms. Glance mainly exists in the form of a dynamic lock screen. When you light up the screen, you will see the latest push content, such as various wallpapers, important news, short videos, etc. It will also display collaborative advertising content.

Masayoshi Sun's “AI Ambition”

Sun Zhengyi, the 67-year-old founder of SoftBank, hopes that SoftBank can play a central role in the wave of AI spreading globally, just as Alibaba had earlier invested in the Chinese Internet wave. The core of this promotion is through ARM, a leader in chip design, where SoftBank holds 90% of its shares, and the 500 billion US dollar “Stargate” (Stargate) hyperscale data center developed in the US by OpenAI, Oracle, and MGX, an Abu Dhabi technology investment fund.

As part of its multi-pronged foray into the AI field, SoftBank plans to invest as much as $30 billion in OpenAI and has signed a $6.5 billion agreement to acquire well-known chip designer Ampere Computing Holdings. Sun Zhengyi is also lobbying leaders in the chip industry chain such as TSMC to participate in the construction of the largest AI manufacturing center in history worth 1 trillion US dollars in Arizona.

InMobi is a platform company that focuses on advertising and mobile content/e-commerce, but it is also a small piece of the puzzle in SoftBank's AI blueprint. Unlike ARM, which focuses on the AI infrastructure field of high-performance server CPUs in AI data centers, InMobi is an AI-enabled application layer that uses AI large models/generative AI for application layers such as advertising, personalized internet experience, and e-commerce transformation. InMobi is increasing the layout of AI applications, using AI to improve advertising and e-commerce conversion effects. For example, it invests about 200 million US dollars in Glance AI and generative AI advertising technology stacks to improve its commercial efficiency and AI valuation narrative.

The UBS analyst team anticipates that one of the most powerful monetization paths of artificial intelligence technology is “AI+ digital advertising”, an increasingly mature business model, such as the generative AI application ecosystem to greatly improve ad delivery efficiency (Meta Advantage+ reduces labor costs by 30% and greatly improves the efficiency of the entire digital advertising chain), interactive advertising (an efficient interaction model between advertisers and digital advertising platforms driven by AI chatbots), and the AI real-time bidding system created by TTD Kokai boosts long-tail advertising Main ROAS (return on advertising investment) 15%.