Abhay Singhal

Co-Founder, InMobi; CEO, InMobi Advertising; Angel Investor at glance

Reviewed Updated May 1, 2026

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Location San Francisco Bay Area
Check Size Angel checks; participates in syndicated seed/pre-seed rounds, often alongside other InMobi co-founders
Last Verified Investment InMobi (Corporate Minority (cofounder buy-in, INR 7.3 Cr)) — Jul 5, 2025
Social @abhaysinghal LinkedIn
Stage Focus
seed pre-seed angel
Sector Focus
fintech SaaS adtech B2B edtech consumer-internet

Background

Abhay Singhal is a Co-Founder of InMobi and CEO of InMobi Advertising, the global mobile advertising platform of InMobi Group, headquartered in Singapore with major operations in Bengaluru and the San Francisco Bay Area 12. He is based in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he leads InMobi’s global advertising business 12.

Singhal earned his B.Tech. in Electrical Engineering from IIT Kanpur in 2001 3. IIT Kanpur conferred its Distinguished Alumnus Award on him in 2013 for excellence in entrepreneurship 3.

In 2007, Singhal co-founded mKhoj — an SMS-based mobile search startup — out of Bangalore with IIT Kanpur classmates Naveen Tewari and Amit Gupta and IIT Roorkee alumnus Mohit Saxena, with an initial $500K from Mumbai Angels 4. After the original SMS product failed to gain traction, the founders pivoted to mobile advertising and rebranded as InMobi in 2008, raising a Series A from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Ram Shriram’s Sherpalo Ventures, followed by SoftBank’s two-tranche $200M investment in 2011-2012 that minted India’s first unicorn 45. Singhal has held multiple executive roles at InMobi including Chief Revenue Officer and Head of Human Resources before becoming CEO of InMobi Advertising; he has also been credited with driving InMobi’s North American business 12.

InMobi spun out Glance — an AI-powered lock-screen content platform — and Singhal joined Glance’s board on February 19, 2019 6. Glance became InMobi Group’s second unicorn in 2020 7. In 2018, Singhal was named to the Economic Times 40-Under-Forty list of India’s most influential young business leaders 12.

In December 2025, SoftBank agreed to sell most of its InMobi stake back to the company in a roughly $250M buyback ahead of a planned IPO 8. Earlier in the year, on July 5, 2025, InMobi’s board allotted INR 32 Cr (approximately $3.7M) of compulsorily convertible preference shares to its four cofounders and Singapore-based Vatera Pte. Ltd. — Singhal subscribed for INR 7.3 Cr, alongside Naveen Tewari (INR 14.5 Cr), Piyush Shah (INR 5.8 Cr), Mohit Saxena (INR 0.6 Cr), and Vatera (INR 3.8 Cr) 9.

Stated Thesis

Singhal has not published a formal investment thesis. He is primarily an operator-angel; aggregator profiles list him as a Bengaluru/Bay Area angel investor with seven to nine portfolio companies in fintech, B2B/SaaS, and edtech 106.

Speaking on entrepreneurship in February 2023, he framed founder selection around long-term commitment and capital discipline: “Entrepreneurs need to play for a very long time. They must decide that this is how I am going to live my life forever.” 11 He has also publicly cautioned that “what you tell the investors versus what you use the money for may not be the same,” underscoring his preference for founders with a clear capital plan before raising 11.

Inferred Thesis

This analysis is based on 3 verified angel investments where Singhal’s participation is confirmed by a primary or contemporaneous press source (Razorpay, Factors.AI, Bright Money), plus the July 2025 cofounder-led InMobi corporate-minority subscription 1213149. Tracxn lists 9 portfolio companies and CB Insights lists 5 disclosed investments for him 615. Percentages below should be read as directional given the small verified sample.

Sector distribution (3 verified angel investments): Fintech is the dominant sector — Razorpay (payments) and Bright Money (consumer debt management) are 2 of 3 (67%). Enterprise/SaaS — Factors.AI (B2B marketing analytics) — is 1 of 3 (33%). Across the wider list reported in aggregator profiles (Goldcast, Flurn, TrulyMadly, Stones2Milestones, Wooplr), the bias remains heavily B2B SaaS and consumer-internet 610.

Stage distribution: Seed and pre-seed exclusively for the verified angel deals (Razorpay 2014 seed; Factors.AI 2021 seed). The one Series A entry (Bright Money, September 2021) is a follow-on syndicate position rather than a new lead 13.

Geographic focus: Mixed India/cross-border. Razorpay and Factors.AI are India-founded, India-operating 1214. Bright Money is US-incorporated with Indian founders and US headquarters 13. Goldcast is US-headquartered (Boston) with Indian-origin founders 16. Singhal’s Bay Area location appears to give him slightly broader cross-border exposure than his Bengaluru-based InMobi co-founders.

Co-investor patterns: Singhal’s most consistent co-investor pattern is the InMobi co-founder syndicate — Naveen Tewari, Amit Gupta, Mohit Saxena, and Piyush Shah. Razorpay’s 2014 seed bundled three of the four named InMobi founders (Singhal, Tewari, Gupta) with Snapdeal’s Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, FreeCharge’s Kunal Shah, Justin Kan (Twitch/YC), Ram Shriram (Sherpalo), Jeff Huber (GoogleX), Bill Gajda (Visa), and Punit Soni (Flipkart) 12. Factors.AI’s August 2021 seed was the strongest InMobi-syndicate signal — all five InMobi co-founders (Singhal, Tewari, Saxena, Gupta, Shah) plus Girish Mathrubootham (Freshworks), Krish Subramanian and Rajaraman Santhanam (Chargebee co-founders), and Ramakant Sharma (LivSpace) 14. The July 2025 InMobi corporate-minority subscription was again an InMobi-cofounder cluster (all four named cofounders plus Vatera) 9.

Founder profile patterns: Network-driven sourcing. The verified deals are concentrated in the Indian operator-angel network (the InMobi cluster, Snapdeal, FreeCharge/Cred, Flipkart) rather than independent thesis-driven sourcing. Wooplr’s later shutdown is the only documented portfolio loss 10.

Notable patterns vs. stated framing: Singhal’s public commentary emphasizes long-horizon founder commitment and capital discipline 11. The verified portfolio is consistent with that framing — small angel checks, no concentrated fund, and follow-on participation in a Sequoia-led Bright Money Series A rather than leading new rounds himself 13.

Notable winners: Razorpay is the marquee unicorn outcome from the 2014 seed 612. Bright Money raised a $62M Series B in 2023 (Peak XV) 13.

Portfolio

Company Year Stage Source
Razorpay 2014 Seed (one of 33 angels) 12
Factors.AI 2021-08-30 Seed ($2M round) 14
Bright Money 2021-09-16 Series A ($31M, follow-on) 13
InMobi 2025-07-05 Corporate Minority (INR 7.3 Cr cofounder subscription) 9

This table represents 4 verified entries against a wider portfolio of 5-9 disclosed investments listed on CB Insights and Tracxn (which name additional positions including Goldcast, Flurn, TrulyMadly, Stones2Milestones, and the now-shut Wooplr) 61510. Specific contemporaneous round-level citations linking Singhal personally to Goldcast, Flurn, and Stones2Milestones were not located within the time budget for this profile.

In Their Own Words

“Entrepreneurship is a rollercoaster ride you live everyday. Each day is filled with misery and pain, but also enthusiasm and truly living the dream. And you get addicted to it all.” — Abhay Singhal, LinkedIn post, July 2023 17

“Entrepreneurs need to play for a very long time. They must decide that this is how I am going to live my life forever.” — Abhay Singhal, Business Today, February 22, 2023 11

“Before raising capital, entrepreneurs should talk about what they would be doing with the capital. Whether they would be spending hundreds of dollars on marketing and advertising or in hiring tens and thousands of people in building global businesses?” — Abhay Singhal, Business Today, February 22, 2023 11

“What you tell the investors versus what you use the money for may not be the same.” — Abhay Singhal on capital discipline, Business Today, February 22, 2023 11

“Whenever we raise capital our responsibilities go up. Moreover, investors who are investing $200 million or $300 million are a lot more demanding and they seek enormous accountability.” — Abhay Singhal on the cost of large rounds, Business Today, February 22, 2023 11

“12 months ago, CEOs were struggling to hire and retain talent. Human resource conferences went through the roof.” — Abhay Singhal on the swing from “great resignations” to “great layoffs”, Business Today, February 22, 2023 11

What Founders Say

No independently sourced founder testimonials found. Singhal has been publicly identified as an angel in rounds for Razorpay, Factors.AI, and Bright Money 121314, but specific first-person quotes from those founders (e.g., Harshil Mathur or Shashank Kumar of Razorpay; Praveen Das or Srikrishnan Ganesan of Factors.AI; Petko Plachkov of Bright Money) describing the working relationship with Singhal personally were not located in the time budget for this profile.

Connections

  • Co-Founder, InMobi — Co-founded InMobi (then mKhoj) in 2007 with Naveen Tewari, Amit Gupta, and Mohit Saxena 4
  • CEO, InMobi Advertising — Leads InMobi’s global mobile advertising platform; previously Chief Revenue Officer and Head of Human Resources at InMobi 12
  • Board member, Glance (since February 19, 2019) — Joined the board of InMobi’s AI-powered lock-screen content subsidiary, which became InMobi Group’s second unicorn in 2020 67
  • Board member, InMobi (since November 28, 2017) 6
  • InMobi co-founder syndicate — Most consistent co-investor pattern: Razorpay 2014 seed and Factors.AI 2021 seed bundled Singhal with one or more of his InMobi co-founders Naveen Tewari, Amit Gupta, Mohit Saxena, and Piyush Shah; the July 2025 InMobi corporate-minority subscription pulled in all four 12149
  • Razorpay 2014 seed angel network — Co-invested with Snapdeal founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, FreeCharge founders Kunal Shah and Sandeep Tandon, Justin Kan (YC/Twitch), Ram Shriram (Sherpalo), Jeff Huber (GoogleX), Bill Gajda (Visa), and Punit Soni (Flipkart) 12
  • Factors.AI 2021 seed angel network — Co-invested with Girish Mathrubootham (Freshworks), Krish Subramanian and Rajaraman Santhanam (Chargebee co-founders), and Ramakant Sharma (LivSpace) 14
  • IIT Kanpur alumni network — B.Tech. Electrical Engineering 2001; Distinguished Alumnus Award 2013 3

Sources

  1. InMobi, “Abhay Singhal | Co-Founder, InMobi | CEO, InMobi Advertising” leadership page, accessed May 2026. https://www.inmobi.com/company/leadership/abhay-singhal↩↩↩↩↩

  2. Glance, “Abhay Singhal” leadership page, accessed May 2026. https://glance.com/us/about-us/leadership/abhay-singhal↩↩↩↩↩

  3. IIT Kanpur, “Mr Abhay Singhal” Distinguished Alumni profile, accessed May 2026. https://www.iitk.ac.in/dora/profile/Mr-Abhay-Singhal↩↩↩

  4. Wikipedia, “InMobi,” accessed May 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/InMobi↩↩↩

  5. Fortune, “India’s first-ever unicorn is planning for a 2021 U.S. IPO,” March 31, 2021. https://fortune.com/2021/03/31/inmobi-ipo-us-valuation-india-first-unicorn-naveen-tewari/↩

  6. Tracxn, “Abhay Singhal - portfolio, founded companies and board memberships,” accessed May 2026. https://tracxn.com/d/people/abhay-singhal/__-CYRtRuLk0zDcJq56ExItsBvKDEABPcmbXqDe4M2KSw↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  7. PRNewswire (India), “Twin-unicorn founder Naveen Tewari awarded Uttar Pradesh Gaurav Samman; recognized for elevating Indian start-up sector to global prominence,” January 2024. https://www.prnewswire.com/in/news-releases/twin-unicorn-founder-naveen-tewari-awarded-uttar-pradesh-gaurav-samman-recognized-for-elevating-indian-start-up-sector-to-global-prominence-302044310.html↩↩

  8. Bloomberg, “SoftBank Cuts InMobi Stake in $250 Million Buyback Deal,” December 4, 2025. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-12-04/softbank-cuts-inmobi-stake-in-250-million-buyback-deal↩

  9. Inc42, “Exclusive: IPO-Bound InMobi Bags INR 32 Cr From Cofounders,” July 5, 2025. https://inc42.com/buzz/exclusive-ipo-bound-inmobi-bags-inr-32-cr-from-cofounders/↩↩↩↩↩

  10. Inc42 DataLabs, “About Abhay Singhal,” accessed May 2026. https://inc42.com/person/abhay-singhal/↩↩↩↩

  11. Business Today, “‘From great resignations to great layoffs’: InMobi’s Abhay Singhal explains what’s changed in 12 months,” February 22, 2023. https://www.businesstoday.in/entrepreneurship/story/from-great-resignations-to-great-layoffs-inmobis-abhay-singhal-explains-whats-changed-in-12-months-371153-2023-02-22↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  12. Razorpay Blog, “Funding Announcement (Series A and Seed),” October 27, 2015. https://razorpay.com/blog/series-a-funding-2/↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  13. Crunchbase, “Series A - Bright Money - 2021-09-16,” accessed May 2026. https://www.crunchbase.com/funding_round/bright-money-series-a–f9683675↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  14. The SaaS News, “Factors.AI Raises $2 Million in Seed Round,” August 2021. https://www.thesaasnews.com/news/factors-ai-raises-2-million-in-seed-round↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  15. CB Insights, “Abhay Singhal Portfolio Investments, Funds, Exits,” accessed May 2026. https://www.cbinsights.com/investor/abhay-singhal↩↩

  16. Tracxn, “Goldcast - Funding Rounds & List of Investors,” accessed May 2026. https://tracxn.com/d/companies/goldcast/__LMwPykrGPSD-v0A77SuhZBWOJCFvPTeBrG1dLEv4POM/funding-and-investors↩

  17. Abhay Singhal, LinkedIn post: “Entrepreneurship is a rollercoaster ride you live everyday…”, July 2023. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/abhay-singhal-inmobi_entrepreneurship-is-a-rollercoaster-ride-activity-7090599583453511680-MVuo↩