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Airship (company)

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For other uses, see Airship (disambiguation).
Airship
TypePrivate Corporation
Founded2009; 17 years ago (2009)
FounderSteven Osborn, Scott Kveton, Adam Lowry, Michael Richardson
Headquarters
San Francisco, California
ProductsAdvertisements, Analytics
Websitewww.airship.com

Airship (software company), formerly Urban Airship, is a San Francisco, California-based company founded in Portland, Oregon, that offers mobile customer experience and messaging services.[1] The company is best known for its push notification technology that enables businesses to deliver targeted messages to mobile app users.[2] 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.[3]

As of November 2020, Airship has offices in Portland, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, New York City, London, Paris, New Delhi, Munich, and Singapore.[4]

History

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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,[5] and then received $5.4 million in Series B funding in November of the same year.[6] On November 5, 2011, Airship received $15.1 million in Series C funding from Salesforce.com, Intel, and Verizon, among others.[7]

On February 6, 2013, the company announced additional funding of $25 million from Foundry Group, Intel Capital, True Ventures and Verizon.[8] In October 2014, Airship announced another $12.1 million in Series D funding from existing investors.[9] In February 2015, the company picked up an additional $9 million in venture funding, bringing total funding to $67.6 million.[10] In September 2015, the company released Urban Airship Connect, a platform for collecting data from mobile apps and sharing it with other business systems.[11] In June 2018, Airship completed an F round of funding at $25 million led by Foundry Group.[12]

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.[13] In November 2016, Airship launched two messaging APIs Open Channels and Open Profiles.[14]

In March 2018, Airship released interactive and automated in-app messages.[15] In June 2018, the company completed an F round of funding at $25 million led by Foundry Group.[16] In August 2018, Urban Airship introduced Boost, a service for delivering mobile notifications with reduced latency. During the 2018 FIFA World Cup final, the company reported a peak delivery rate of 400,000 notifications per second. Onefootball, a sports news platform, utilized the service to send more than five billion notifications during the tournament.[17] In September of the same year, Airship released beta SDK for iOS.[18]

In June 2019, the company rebranded as Airship (formally being Urban Airship).[19]

In 2025, Airship was included in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Multichannel Marketing Hubs.[20]

Acquisitions

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Airship acquired SimpleGeo on October 31, 2011 for a reported $3.5 million.[21] Airship discontinued SimpleGeo services on March 31, 2012.[22]

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.[23]

The company purchased SMS commerce company, ReplyBuy in September 2020 for an undisclosed amount.[24]

In January 2019, Airship acquired Accenage, a larger mobile customer relationship management provider based in Paris.[25] In August 2019, Airship acquired Apptimize, a user experience testing company based in San Francisco, California.[26]

In 2022, Airship acquired Gummicube, an app store optimization company, adding Apple App Store and Google Play search data to its platform.[27]

References

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  1. ^ "Business Registry Detail". Oregon Secretary of State – Business Registry. State of Oregon. Retrieved May 1, 2026.
  2. ^ Kincaid, Jason (2010-08-11). "Urban Airship Brings Easy Push Notifications To Android". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2026-02-13.
  3. ^ Soper, Taylor (2018-06-21). "Mobile marketing startup Urban Airship raises $25M, reaches 2 trillion messages delivered". GeekWire. Retrieved 2026-02-24.
  4. ^ "Contact Us". Airship. Retrieved 2020-11-28.
  5. ^ "Urban Airship Announces Series A Round Led by True Ventures". Fierce Wireless.
  6. ^ "Urban Airship Closes $5.4 Million Funding Round To Help Power Mobile Apps". Tech Crunch. 3 November 2010.
  7. ^ Rogoway, Mike (November 15, 2011). "Intel backs Urban Airship, establishes $100 million fund for mobile investment". The Oregonian. Retrieved November 15, 2011.
  8. ^ Fried, Ina (February 6, 2015). "Urban Airship Nabs $25 Million in Additional Funding". All Things D. Retrieved February 6, 2013.
  9. ^ Soper, Taylor (October 22, 2014). "Urban Airship raises $12.1M, looks to help more developers market mobile apps". GeekWire. Retrieved October 22, 2014.
  10. ^ Soper, Taylor (February 20, 2015). "Mobile startup Urban Airship lands $9 million, names new execs". GeekWire. Retrieved February 20, 2015.
  11. ^ Lardinois, Frederic (2015-09-29). "Urban Airship Goes Beyond Push Notifications, Announces New Data Streaming Service For Marketers And Data Teams". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2026-04-03.
  12. ^ "Urban Airship raises another $25M". TechCrunch. 21 June 2018. Retrieved 2019-03-22.
  13. ^ Rogoway, Mike (October 9, 2014). "Urban Airship hires CEO: former Citrix Online president Brett Caine". The Oregonian. Retrieved October 9, 2014.
  14. ^ "Urban Airship launches two messaging APIs, support for Apple News notifications". VentureBeat. 2016-11-02. Retrieved 2018-06-06.
  15. ^ Ha, Anthony (2018-03-09). "Urban Airship announces new features for automated messaging". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2026-03-06.
  16. ^ Ha, Anthony (June 21, 2018). "Urban Airship raises another $25M". TechCrunch. Retrieved May 1, 2026.
  17. ^ Schlosser, Kurt (August 22, 2018). "Urban Airship's big 'Boost' during World Cup helped get 5 billion notifications to soccer fans". GeekWire. Retrieved May 1, 2026.
  18. ^ "Urban Airship Releases Beta iOS SDK with New App Notification Practices". ProgrammableWeb. 2018-09-15. Retrieved 2018-09-25.
  19. ^ 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.
  20. ^ Brosnan, Audrey; Zervas, Tia (22 September 2025). "Magic Quadrant for Multichannel Marketing Hubs". Gartner.
  21. ^ "Urban Airship acquired SimpleGeo (confirmed)". Venture Beat. 31 October 2011.
  22. ^ "Urban Airship To Shutter SimpleGeo Services In March, With Factual Picking Up The Slack". TechCrunch. 13 January 2012.
  23. ^ "Urban Airship Acquires Tello For Apple Passbook Tools". Forbes.
  24. ^ "Airship acquires SMS commerce company ReplyBuy". TechCrunch. 24 September 2020. Retrieved 2020-09-25.
  25. ^ Soper, Taylor (Jan 16, 2019). "Urban Airship acquires Accengage to expand mobile marketing footprint in Europe". GeekWire. Retrieved May 1, 2026.
  26. ^ Levy, Nat (August 27, 2019). "Mobile marketing startup Airship acquires Apptimize to bolster customer experience testing". GeekWire. Retrieved June 7, 2024.
  27. ^ Schiff, Allison (2022-06-01). "Airship Gets Into App Store Optimization With The Acquisition Of Gummicube". AdExchanger. Retrieved 2026-04-10.
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