Airship (company) explained

Airship
Type:Private Corporation
Founder:Steven Osborn, Scott Kveton, Adam Lowry, Michael Richardson
Location City:Portland, Oregon
Products:Advertisements, Analytics
Homepage:www.airship.com

Airship (formerly Urban Airship) is a Portland, Oregon-based company that offers marketing and branding services to its clients. Its services enable businesses to create personalized messages that can be delivered to customers through various channels, such as push notifications and SMS messaging. In addition to messaging services, Airship provides its clients with customer analytics services to help them better understand their customers' behavior and preferences.

, Airship has offices in Portland, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, New York City, London, Paris, New Delhi, Munich, and Singapore.[1]

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,[2] and then received $5.4 million in Series B funding in November of the same year.[3] On November 5, 2011 Airship received $15.1 million in Series C funding from Salesforce.com, Intel, and Verizon, among others.[4]

On February 6, 2013 the company announced additional funding of $25 million from Foundry Group, Intel Capital, True Ventures and Verizon.[5] In October 2014 the company announced another $12.1 million in Series D funding from existing investors.[6] In February 2015 the company picked up an additional $9 million in venture funding, bringing total funding to $67.6 million.[7] In June 2018 the company completed an F round of funding at $25 million led by Foundry Group.[8]

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.[9] In November 2016, Airship launched two messaging APIs Open Channels and Open Profiles.[10] In September 2018, Airship released beta SDK for iOS.[11]

In June 2019, the company rebranded as Airship (formally being Urban Airship)[12]

Acquisitions

Airship acquired SimpleGeo on October 31, 2011 for a reported $3.5 million.[13] 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.[14]

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.[15]

The company purchased SMS commerce company, ReplyBuy in September 2020 for an undisclosed amount.[16]

In August 2019, Airship acquired Apptimize, a user experience testing company based in San Francisco, California.[17]

Notes and References

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