MUMBAI: As part of its strategy to aggressively tap the mobile advertising space in India, Bangalore-based mobile advertising network InMobi has embarked upon its expansion plans. For this, the firm has appointed Sandeep Deshpande as the country general manager India and Vishal Nongbet as business head of brands.

InMobi has also opened up offices at New Delhi and Mumbai.

In his new role at InMobi Deshpande will be responsible for InMobi‘s business operations and growth in India.

InMobi is banking high on the opportunities available in the Indian market. With an increased penetration of smartphones across age groups and social strata, the mobile ad impressions too are witnessing an upsurge and the advertiser community is accepting this innovation. With the current mobile advertising market in India touching $25 million, it is expected to hit $60-80 million by 2014.

Deshpande has over two decades of experience in launching and growing new businesses. Prior to joining InMobi, he spent nearly a decade in the Internet industry, working for organisations like Yahoo, Alibaba.com and Rediff.com. He was instrumental in launching and growing Yahoo! search marketing, its small business and local search during his stint as general manager.

Deshpande also played a role in setting up Alibaba’s fully owned subsidiary in India during 2010-11 and building the Alibaba brand among SMEs in the local market.

Nongbet brings 13 years of varied experience in lifestyle and youth product marketing, largely in the fields of consumer goods and media and entertainment. A graduate from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, he started his career with Pepsi, followed by Times Music. He then moved to Kodak where he was instrumental in growing their digital businesses into a $30 million business after which he served as head of marketing and alliances at Mumbai Mantra, the filmproduction and distribution start-up of the Mahindra group. He then took on the role of marketing head at SMSGupshup, the mobile marketing start-up.

InMobi founder and CEO Naveen Tewari said, “With their unique blend of experience in technology, expertise in e-commerce and brand marketing capabilities, we are confident that both Sandeep and Vishal will play an important role in identifying new business opportunities and further expanding our operations in India.”

Deshpande said, “I do hope that my experience in setting up new business and in online marketing will help me take InMobi to new heights.”