Airship (company)

Airship
Company typePrivate Corporation
Founded2009; 17 years ago (2009)
FounderSteven Osborn, Scott Kveton, Adam Lowry, Michael Richardson
Headquarters
San Francisco, California
ProductsAdvertisements, Analytics
Websitewww.airship.com
Not to be confused with airships or lighter-than-air aircraft.

Airship (software company), formerly Urban Airship, is a San Francisco, California-based company that offers mobile customer experience and messaging services. The company is best known for its push notification technology that enables businesses to deliver targeted messages to mobile app users.[1] In addition to push notifications, the company's software supports messaging across multiple digital channels, including SMS and in-app communications, as well as tools for analytics, experimentation, and automation.[2]

As of November 2020, Airship has offices in Portland, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, New York City, London, Paris, New Delhi, Munich, and Singapore.[3]

History

In 2009, Urban Airship was founded by Steven Osborn, Scott Kveton, Adam Lowry, and Michael Richardson. The company received $1.1 million in Series A funding in February 2010,[4] and then received $5.4 million in Series B funding in November of the same year.[5] On November 5, 2011 Airship received $15.1 million in Series C funding from Salesforce.com, Intel, and Verizon, among others.[6]

On February 6, 2013 the company announced additional funding of $25 million from Foundry Group, Intel Capital, True Ventures and Verizon.[7] In October 2014 the company announced another $12.1 million in Series D funding from existing investors.[8] In February 2015 the company picked up an additional $9 million in venture funding, bringing total funding to $67.6 million.[9] In June 2018 the company completed an F round of funding at $25 million led by Foundry Group.[10]

In July 2014, Scott Kveton stepped down as CEO. In October of that same year Brett Caine was hired as CEO. Caine was previously the president of Citrix Online.[11] In November 2016, Airship launched two messaging APIs Open Channels and Open Profiles.[12] In September 2018, Airship released beta SDK for iOS.[13]

In June 2019, the company rebranded as Airship (formally being Urban Airship).[14]

In 2025, Airship was included in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Multichannel Marketing Hubs.[15]

Acquisitions

Airship acquired SimpleGeo on October 31, 2011 for a reported $3.5 million.[16] SimpleGeo developed toolsets allowing developers to more easily create location aware mobile applications and had partnered with Airship to combine software and services shortly before their acquisition. Airship discontinued SimpleGeo services on March 31, 2012.[17]

In December 2012, Airship acquired Tello, another True Ventures-backed startup. Airship acquired Tello in an all-stock deal in order to integrate PassTools, Tello's Apple Passbook management product, into its current offering.[18]

The company purchased SMS commerce company, ReplyBuy in September 2020 for an undisclosed amount.[19]

In August 2019, Airship acquired Apptimize, a user experience testing company based in San Francisco, California.[20]

References

  1. ^ Kincaid, Jason (2010-08-11). "Urban Airship Brings Easy Push Notifications To Android". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2026-02-13.
  2. ^ Soper, Taylor (2018-06-21). "Mobile marketing startup Urban Airship raises $25M, reaches 2 trillion messages delivered". GeekWire. Retrieved 2026-02-24.
  3. ^ "Contact Us". Airship. Retrieved 2020-11-28.
  4. ^ "Urban Airship Announces Series A Round Led by True Ventures". Fierce Wireless.
  5. ^ "Urban Airship Closes $5.4 Million Funding Round To Help Power Mobile Apps". Tech Crunch. 3 November 2010.
  6. ^ Rogoway, Mike (November 15, 2011). "Intel backs Urban Airship, establishes $100 million fund for mobile investment". The Oregonian. Retrieved November 15, 2011.
  7. ^ Fried, Ina (February 6, 2015). "Urban Airship Nabs $25 Million in Additional Funding". All Things D. Retrieved February 6, 2013.
  8. ^ Soper, Taylor (October 22, 2014). "Urban Airship raises $12.1M, looks to help more developers market mobile apps". GeekWire. Retrieved October 22, 2014.
  9. ^ Soper, Taylor (February 20, 2015). "Mobile startup Urban Airship lands $9 million, names new execs". GeekWire. Retrieved February 20, 2015.
  10. ^ "Urban Airship raises another $25M". TechCrunch. 21 June 2018. Retrieved 2019-03-22.
  11. ^ Rogoway, Mike (October 9, 2014). "Urban Airship hires CEO: former Citrix Online president Brett Caine". The Oregonian. Retrieved October 9, 2014.
  12. ^ "Urban Airship launches two messaging APIs, support for Apple News notifications". VentureBeat. 2016-11-02. Retrieved 2018-06-06.
  13. ^ "Urban Airship Releases Beta iOS SDK with New App Notification Practices". ProgrammableWeb. 2018-09-15. Retrieved 2018-09-25.
  14. ^ Miles, Stephanie (2019-04-17). "Urban Airship Rebrands as Airship, Offers Broad Suite of Mobile Customer Engagement Solutions | Street Fight". streetfightmag.com. Retrieved 2024-06-07.
  15. ^ Brosnan, Audrey; Zervas, Tia (22 September 2025). "Magic Quadrant for Multichannel Marketing Hubs". Gartner.
  16. ^ "Urban Airship acquired SimpleGeo (confirmed)". Venture Beat. 31 October 2011.
  17. ^ "Urban Airship To Shutter SimpleGeo Services In March, With Factual Picking Up The Slack". TechCrunch. 13 January 2012.
  18. ^ "Urban Airship Acquires Tello For Apple Passbook Tools". Forbes.
  19. ^ "Airship acquires SMS commerce company ReplyBuy". TechCrunch. 24 September 2020. Retrieved 2020-09-25.
  20. ^ Levy, Nat (August 27, 2019). "Mobile marketing startup Airship acquires Apptimize to bolster customer experience testing". GeekWire. Retrieved June 7, 2024.
allikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airship_(company)