MUMBAI: Mobile advertising firm InMobi said on Wednesday it is partnering APUS, a Chinese start-up that customises Android software, in an alliance that InMobi expects will help it reach 500 million new users in China and other countries by 2016.

InMobi competes with Google and Facebook in the $100 billion global mobile advertising market, and is one of the few Indian start-ups to make a profit.

It already reaches 1.4 billion devices and turned profitable in the three months to December. With the partnership, APUS will earn revenues through advertisements on its apps that run on InMobi’s platform.