Naveen Sachchidanand Tewari
Naveen Sachchidanand Tewari | |
---|---|
Born | Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India |
Education | B.Tech (Mechanical Engineering), IIT Kanpur MBA, Harvard Business School |
Alma mater | Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur Harvard Business School |
Occupation | Entrepreneur |
Known for | Founder of InMobi Co-founder of Glance Co-founder of iSPIRT |
Naveen Sachchidanand Tewari is an entrepreneur known for founding InMobi, a technology company based in India,[1] and co-founding Glance, a Bangalore-based software company[2] that operates the short-video content platform Roposo. He is also a co-founder of iSPIRT, a think tank for the Indian software products industry and was a board member at Paytm.[3] The government of Uttar Pradesh has awarded him the highest state civilian award, the Uttar Pradesh Gaurav Samman.[4] In 2013, he was honored with the Distinguished Alumnus Award by Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur and received two awards including Pathbreaker of the Year and Future Leaders from prime minister of India Narendra Modi.[5] He was also named among the India's top 30 startup founders by Tech in Asia.[6]
Biography
[edit]Tewari was born in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh. His grandmother, the late Krishna Tewari, taught algebra at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT Kanpur) in the 1960s, while his father taught electrical engineering there in the 1980s.[7] Both his aunt and father-in-law also earned their PhDs from IIT-K.[8] His wife is an engineer.[9] Tewari developed an interest in sports and wanted to pursue a career in sports. However, he ended up becoming a mechanical engineer. Tewari joined McKinsey & Company as a business analyst in 2000.[10] During his tenure, he worked on a project for Mukesh Ambani, who later launched Reliance Jio Infocomm in 2015 after an initial soft launch in 2012. Tewari played a key role in developing the go-to-market strategy for a large Indian conglomerate's entry into the telecom sector. Tewari quit his job to pursue his MBA at Harvard Business School, where he received the Dean's Award for leadership. He then joined Charles River Ventures (CRV), a venture capital firm focusing on early-stage investments in software and communications.[11]
The idea for mKhoj came to him during his time at CRV. He secured a $500,000 investment from Sasha Mirchandani and teamed up with his friends Abhay Singhal, Amit Gupta, and Mohit Saxena to launch mKhoj in 2007, an SMS-based search and monetization business in Mumbai.[12] It later got rebranded as InMobi.[13] In 2011, the company was reported as the first Indian unicorn startup, valued at one billion dollars after Softbank invested $200 million.[14] In 2019, Tewari co-founded Glance with Abhay Singhal, Mohit Saxena, and Piyush Shah, a Bangalore-based software firm.[13][15] It achieved a unicorn status in 2020 when it raised a $145 million funding round.[16][2]
References
[edit]- ^ Mitra, Kushan (2011-11-01). "Naveen Tewari's InMobi is on a direct collision course with Google". Business Today. Retrieved 2024-06-23.
- ^ a b Mani, Veena (2023-02-22). "'Failed spectacularly once, but continued to innovate'". The Times of India. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 2024-06-23.
- ^ Singh, Vishal (2015-06-24). "Paytm Makes High-Profile Appointments; Brings Facebook's Ruchi Sanghvi, Neeraj Arora & Naveen Tewari On Board". Inc42 Media. Retrieved 2024-06-23.
- ^ "U.P. govt to confer Gaurav Samman on Lucknow scientist, Kanpur entrepreneur". Hindustan Times. 2024-01-23. Retrieved 2024-06-23.
- ^ "Naveen Tewari". IIT Kanpur. Retrieved 2024-06-23.
- ^ "Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem". Tech in Asia. Retrieved 2024-06-23.
- ^ Balachandran, Manu. "FILA 2021 Outstanding Startup Entrepreneur: Naveen Tewari, The Unicorn Maker". Forbes India. Retrieved 2024-06-23.
- ^ Shekhar, Divya (2016-08-23). "Team sports is the best for bonding, believes InMobi founder Naveen Tewari". The Economic Times. ISSN 0013-0389. Retrieved 2024-06-23.
- ^ "Women Behind Top Businessmen In India, From Rahul Sharma-Asin To Vijay Shekhar Sharma-Mridula". BollywoodShaadis. 2023-08-20. Retrieved 2024-06-23.
- ^ "Bits to Billions | Naveen Tewari's 15 year startup marathon: From IIT Kanpur to building two unicorns- InMobi & Glance". Money Control.
- ^ D'Monte, Leslie (2019-08-26). "Naveen Tewari: Riding the unicorn". Mint. Retrieved 2024-06-23.
- ^ Staff, Entrepreneur (2019-11-27). "5 Things That helped Naveen Tewari of InMobi Succeed". Entrepreneur India. Retrieved 2024-06-23.
- ^ a b Ghosh, Debojyoti (2021-01-05). "Naveen Tewari: The wizard of two unicorns". Fortune. Retrieved 2024-06-23.
- ^ Chawla, Ayushmann (2024-01-17). "Meet IIT graduate, left job in the US to start India's first billion dollar startup, he is…". Daily News and Analysis. Retrieved 2024-06-22.
- ^ "InMobi Wants To Glue Your Attention To Your Lock Screen". Forbes India. Retrieved 2024-06-23.
- ^ Balachandran, Manu. "FILA 2021 Outstanding Startup Entrepreneur: Naveen Tewari, The Unicorn Maker". Fortune. Retrieved 2024-06-23.