Naveen Tewari

Founder & CEO, InMobi Group (InMobi & Glance) at inmobi

Reviewed Updated Apr 27, 2026

This profile is AI-generated. If you spot an error, please help us fix it by sharing a URL to the correct information.

Location Bengaluru, India
Check Size Angel checks; ~$600K reported on his earliest deal (Moneysights); typically participates in syndicated seed/pre-seed rounds
Last Verified Investment Bright Money (Series A) — Sep 16, 2021
Social @NaveenTewari LinkedIn
Stage Focus
seed pre-seed angel
Sector Focus
fintech consumer-internet SaaS edtech mobile AI marketplaces

Background

Naveen Tewari is the Founder & CEO of the InMobi Group, parent of mobile advertising company InMobi and AI-driven consumer platform Glance, both headquartered in Bengaluru, India 12. He is best known for building InMobi into India’s first unicorn in 2011 and Glance into a second unicorn in 2020, making him among the first Indian entrepreneurs to found two billion-dollar companies 134.

Tewari grew up in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh and earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from IIT Kanpur (Class of 2001) 52. After roughly three years as a business analyst at McKinsey & Company developing market-entry strategy for a large Indian conglomerate’s telecom push, he attended Harvard Business School, where he received the Dean’s Award — HBS’s highest student honor — for exceptional leadership and graduated in the Class of 2005 1526. Following HBS, he joined Charles River Ventures (CRV), where he worked on the firm’s India investment strategy in software and communications 15.

In 2007, Tewari co-founded mKhoj — an SMS-based mobile search startup — out of a Bangalore residential apartment with Mohit Saxena, Amit Gupta, and Abhay Singhal, raising an initial $500,000 from Mumbai Angels 7. After the original 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 Sherpalo Ventures (Ram Shriram), followed by SoftBank’s two-tranche $200M investment in 2011-2012 that minted India’s first unicorn 74. As of FY23, InMobi reported $281M in revenue and $41M in net income, with SoftBank holding roughly 40% of the company 74. Tewari co-founded Glance in April 2019 8.

Outside the InMobi Group, Tewari co-founded iSPIRT — the Indian Software Product Industry Round Table — a think tank focused on Indian product entrepreneurship policy 29. He founded and chairs India School Fund, a U.S.-based nonprofit that funds rural schools in India 22. He served on the Paytm board from 2015 to 2017 102. He received IIT Kanpur’s Distinguished Alumnus Award (2013), the Pathbreaker of the Year Award from PM Narendra Modi (2013), Forbes India’s Outstanding Start-Up Award (2014), Fortune’s 40 Under 40 (2015), and Uttar Pradesh’s first-ever Gaurav Samman civilian honor on January 24, 2024 23.

Stated Thesis

Tewari is primarily an operator, not a thesis-driven institutional investor, and has not published a formal investment thesis. In a Business Today profile of corporate executives turned angels, he was described as preferring “disruptive ideas” and as someone who “typically makes decisions within one to two days maximum” 11. He told Business Today: “We all go to school and then we go to college…Investing in start-ups answers the ‘how do I go back to our school’ issue?” 11. He has also said publicly that he does not consider himself an active angel because of his InMobi commitments 11.

His earliest angel investment was emotional rather than strategic: he invested approximately $600,000 in Moneysights, founded by InMobi’s first product manager and sales manager when they left to start their own venture 11.

Inferred Thesis

This analysis is based on 9 verified angel investments where Tewari’s participation is confirmed by a primary or contemporaneous press source. Tewari himself has been publicly described as having backed roughly 20-30 startups; CB Insights lists 14 disclosed investments and Tracxn lists 30 111213. Percentages below should be read as directional given the small verified sample and the operator-angel nature of his activity.

Sector distribution (9 verified investments): Indian consumer/marketplace and on-demand services dominate — NestAway (rentals), Zimmber (home services), Bombay Canteen (restaurant), Piggy Ride (kids transport), and Klub (D2C revenue financing) account for 5 of 9 (56%). Fintech is the next clearest theme — Razorpay (payments) and Bright Money (debt management) are 2 of 9 (22%). Enterprise/SaaS — Mettl (online assessment) and Factors.AI (B2B AI) — accounts for 2 of 9 (22%). Across all named investments (verified plus the wider list reported in interviews), the bias is overwhelmingly Indian-founder, Indian-market, with Klub (Singapore-HQ but India-focused) and Bright Money (US-incorporated, Indian founders) as the cross-border exceptions 1415.

Stage distribution: Almost exclusively seed and pre-seed. All 9 verified investments are seed or pre-seed angel rounds, typically with Tewari as one of many syndicate angels rather than a lead. The one Series A entry (Bright Money, Sep 2021) is a follow-on rather than a new lead 12. This is consistent with his self-description as a fast-decision angel rather than an institutional fund manager 11.

Geographic focus: India-centric. All 9 verified portfolio companies are India-founded or India-operating, headquartered in Bengaluru (Razorpay, Mettl, Yulu mentioned in interviews), Mumbai (Bombay Canteen, Zimmber), Gurugram (NestAway), or Singapore-with-India-focus (Klub) 1415166. There is no verified evidence of investments in non-Indian-founder companies.

Co-investor patterns: Tewari frequently co-invests with the other InMobi co-founders — Amit Gupta, Mohit Saxena, Abhay Singhal, and Piyush Shah — making the InMobi founder syndicate the most consistent feature of his angel activity. The Razorpay seed (2014) bundled all three named InMobi founders (Tewari, Gupta, Singhal) with Snapdeal’s Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, FreeCharge’s Kunal Shah, Justin Kan (Twitch/YC), Ram Shriram (Sherpalo), Jeff Huber (Google), and Bill Gajda (Visa) 17. The Klub pre-seed (Jan 2020) again paired Tewari with Piyush Shah of InMobi alongside Kunal Shah, Rajesh Yabaji (Blackbuck), Ramakant Sharma (Livspace), and Amit Gupta of Yulu 15. Factors.AI seed (Aug 2021) repeated the InMobi founder cluster (all four — Tewari, Singhal, Saxena, Gupta — plus Piyush Shah) with Girish Mathrubootham (Freshworks) and the Chargebee co-founders 18. The pattern is unmistakable: Tewari’s network is the Indian operator-founder elite, anchored by his own InMobi co-founders.

Founder profile patterns: Repeat exposure to ex-InMobi alumni (Moneysights was founded by InMobi’s first product manager and sales manager) and frequent participation in rounds where other prominent Indian operators are also angel-investing, suggesting a network-driven rather than thesis-driven sourcing model 111518.

Notable patterns vs. stated approach: Tewari has publicly framed angel investing as a way to “go back to school” — i.e., learning rather than financial return 11. The verified portfolio is consistent with that framing: small checks across ~30 companies, no concentrated fund, no formal thesis page, and the most recent verified angel deployment (Bright Money Series A, Sep 2021) suggests his angel activity has slowed as InMobi/Glance scale 12.

Notable exit: Razorpay (now valued multi-billion dollars) is his marquee unicorn outcome from the 2014 seed 1217. Mettl was acquired by Mercer for ~Rs 300 Cr in 2018, providing an exit on his August 2010 seed check of $80,000 from a small founder/angel syndicate 6. NestAway exited in 2023 (acquired by Aurum PropTech) 13. Zimmber was acquired by Quikr in May 2017 in an all-stock deal valued at ~$10M 19. Indus OS exited in May 2021 (acquired by PhonePe) 13.

Portfolio

Company Year Stage Source
Moneysights ~2010 Angel (~$600K) 11
Mettl 2010-08 Seed (founder/angel syndicate, $80K) 6
Razorpay 2014 Seed (one of 33 angels) 17
NestAway 2015-03-13 Seed (alongside IDG Ventures India) 14
Zimmber 2015-06 Seed ($400K total round) 19
Springboard (formerly SlideRule) 2015 Seed ($1.7M total round) 20
Bombay Canteen ~2015 Angel (restaurant) 11
Piggy Ride 2019-11 Seed (Rs 7.5 Cr round) 21
Klub 2020-01-14 Pre-seed ($2M round) 15
Factors.AI 2021-08 Seed ($2M round) 18
Bright Money 2021-09-16 Series A (follow-on) 12

This table represents 11 of a wider portfolio of roughly 20-30 startups described in interviews and aggregator profiles 111213. CB Insights lists 14 disclosed investments (most behind paywall); Tracxn lists 30 with 12 exits including Mettl, NestAway, Zimmber, and Indus OS 1213. Yulu, Indus OS, Flurn, and Tushky have all been mentioned in interviews and aggregator profiles as Tewari investments but specific contemporaneous round-level citations linking him to those rounds were not located within the time budget for this profile 131122.

In Their Own Words

“Always have a co-founder because you know in these journeys there are a lot of low moments. Actually, most of them are low moments and the co-founder’s job is not to really go ahead and hit you on strategy. It’s far more important for a co-founder to bring you out of these moments that you are constantly in, and vice-versa.” — Naveen Tewari, Seed to Scale podcast (Accel) 16

“It was not until Harvard Business School that the idea of creation began to crystallise.” — Naveen Tewari, South Park Commons profile 23

“They weren’t smarter than me. They had the same fears, the same doubts. But they acted anyway.” — Naveen Tewari on his HBS classmates, South Park Commons profile 23

“You stay long enough in the game, and things start breaking your way.” — Naveen Tewari, South Park Commons profile 23

“You don’t need clarity to build. You need conviction.” — Naveen Tewari, South Park Commons profile 23

“We don’t have a performance management system. No leave policy. No timesheets. Just trust.” — Naveen Tewari on InMobi’s culture, South Park Commons profile 23

“India won’t lead in AI infrastructure — it’s too capital-intensive. But we will excel in AI applications.” — Naveen Tewari, South Park Commons profile 23

“The cost of building a startup has dropped drastically. You no longer need 500 people; 5 to 10 are enough.” — Naveen Tewari, South Park Commons profile 23

“We all go to school and then we go to college…Investing in start-ups answers the ‘how do I go back to our school’ issue?” — Naveen Tewari on why he angel-invests, Business Today 11

“As a proud native of Kanpur, receiving Uttar Pradesh’s highest civilian honour is an unimaginable source of pride for me.” — Naveen Tewari accepting the Uttar Pradesh Gaurav Samman, January 24, 2024 3

What Founders Say

No independently sourced founder testimonials found. Tewari has been publicly identified as an angel in rounds for Mettl, NestAway, Razorpay, Zimmber, Klub, Factors.AI, Piggy Ride, Bright Money, Springboard, and Bombay Canteen 1114151718619202112, but specific first-person quotes from those founders (e.g., Harshil Mathur or Shashank Kumar of Razorpay; Amarendra Sahu of NestAway; Ketan Kapoor of Mettl; Anurakt Jain or Ishita Verma of Klub) describing the working relationship with Tewari were not located in the time budget for this profile.

Connections

  • Founder, InMobi Group — Co-founded InMobi (then mKhoj) in 2007 with Mohit Saxena, Amit Gupta, and Abhay Singhal; co-founded Glance in 2019 78
  • InMobi co-founder syndicate — Most frequent co-investor pattern: angel rounds in Razorpay (2014), Klub (2020), and Factors.AI (2021) all bundled Tewari with one or more of his InMobi co-founders Amit Gupta, Mohit Saxena, Abhay Singhal, and Piyush Shah 151718
  • Former Paytm board director (2015-2017) — Appointed alongside Ruchi Sanghvi and Neeraj Arora in June 2015; departed by 2017 10
  • iSPIRT co-founder — Co-founded the Indian Software Product Industry Round Table think tank, working with NASSCOM on policy for Indian product startups 29
  • India School Fund — Founder and Chairman of the U.S.-based nonprofit funding rural Indian schools 22
  • 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, early Google investor), Jeff Huber (GoogleX), Bill Gajda (Visa), and Punit Soni (Flipkart) 17
  • Prior employer: McKinsey & Company (2000-2003) — Business analyst working on telecom go-to-market strategy 15
  • Prior employer: Charles River Ventures (CRV) — Worked on India investment strategy in software/communications post-HBS 15
  • IIT Kanpur alumni network — Mechanical engineering BT 2001; Distinguished Alumnus Award 2013 52
  • Harvard Business School alumni network — MBA Class of 2005; Dean’s Award recipient 26

Sources

  1. InMobi, “Naveen Tewari | Founder & Chief Executive Officer | InMobi” leadership page, accessed April 2026. https://www.inmobi.com/company/leadership/naveen-tewari↩↩↩↩↩↩

  2. Glance, “Naveen Tewari” leadership page, accessed April 2026. https://glance.com/us/about-us/leadership/naveen-tewari↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  3. 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↩↩↩

  4. 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/↩↩↩

  5. IIT Kanpur, “Mr. Naveen Tewari” Distinguished Alumni profile, accessed April 2026. https://www.iitk.ac.in/dora/profile/naveen-tewari↩↩↩↩↩↩

  6. StartupTalky, “Naveen Tewari: The Man Behind the First Unicorn and Future Mobile Innovation,” accessed April 2026. https://startuptalky.com/naveen-tewari-success-story/↩↩↩↩↩↩

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

  8. The Org, “Naveen Tewari - Co-Founder at Glance,” accessed April 2026. https://theorg.com/org/glance/org-chart/naveen-tewari↩↩

  9. Business Standard, “Software product firms join hands to form new ‘think tank,’” February 4, 2013. https://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/software-product-firms-join-hands-to-form-new-think-tank-113020400140_1.html↩↩

  10. Exchange4media, “Paytm appoints Ruchi Sanghvi, Neeraj Arora, Naveen Tewari to the board,” June 2015. https://www.exchange4media.com/media-others-news/paytm-appoints-ruchi-sanghvineeraj-aroranaveen-tewari-to-the-board-60518.html↩↩

  11. Business Today, “How next-gen entrepreneurs are increasingly turning angel investors for start-ups,” accessed April 2026. https://www.businesstoday.in/magazine/cover-story/corporates-entrepreneurs-become-angel-investors-for-start-ups/story/217147.html↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  12. CB Insights, “Naveen Tewari Portfolio Investments, Naveen Tewari Funds, Naveen Tewari Exits,” accessed April 2026. https://www.cbinsights.com/investor/naveen-tewari↩↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  13. Tracxn, “Naveen Tewari - 2025 Portfolio, Founded Companies & Board Memberships,” accessed April 2026. https://tracxn.com/d/people/naveen-tewari/__-CYRtRuLk0zDcJq56ExItrfRNwCeVLYy70Umc29APRo↩↩↩↩↩↩

  14. Chiratae Ventures (formerly IDG Ventures India), “IDG Ventures India, Naveen Tewari & Angel Investors invest in home rentals portal Nestaway Technologies,” March 13, 2015. https://www.chiratae.com/idg-ventures-india-naveen-tewari-angel-investors-invest-in-home-rentals-portal-nestaway-technolog/↩↩↩↩

  15. Inc42, “Sequoia Surge Startup Klub Raises $2 Mn Pre-Seed Funding,” January 2020. https://inc42.com/buzz/sequoia-surge-startup-klub-raises-2-mn-pre-seed-funding/↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  16. SeedToScale (Accel), “Naveen Tewari,” accessed April 2026. https://www.seedtoscale.com/people/naveen-tewari↩↩

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

  18. 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↩↩↩↩↩

  19. Inc42, “Quikr Acquires On Demand Home Service Platform Zimmber,” May 2017. https://inc42.com/buzz/quikr-acquire-zimmber/↩↩↩

  20. StartupBeat, “Edtech startup SlideRule rebrands to Springboard; raises $1.7M to help address shortage of technical talent in today’s workforce,” 2015. https://startupbeat.com/edtech-startup-sliderule-rebrands-springboard-raises-1-7m-help-address-shortage-technical-talent-todays-workforce/20558/↩↩

  21. Entrackr, “Transport service for kids PiggyRide bags Rs 7.5 Cr in seed round,” November 2019. https://entrackr.com/2019/11/piggyride-bags-rs-7-5-cr-fund/↩↩

  22. Investor’s Globe, “Naveen Tewari - Indian Angel Investor,” accessed April 2026. https://www.investorsglobe.com/investors/apac/naveen-tewari/↩

  23. South Park Commons Blog, “The Man Behind India’s First Unicorn | Naveen Tewari of InMobi,” accessed April 2026. https://blog.southparkcommons.com/p/the-man-behind-indias-first-unicorn-543↩↩↩↩↩↩↩