Airship (company)
| File:Airship (company) Logo.svg | |
| Company type | Private Corporation |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2009 |
| Founder | Steven Osborn, Scott Kveton, Adam Lowry, Michael Richardson |
| Headquarters | |
| Products | Advertisements, Analytics |
| Website | www.airship.com |
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Airship—previously known as Urban Airship—is a marketing and branding firm headquartered in Portland, Oregon. The company offers businesses the ability to send tailored communications through platforms such as push notifications and SMS messaging, supported by customer analytics tools that provide insights into consumer patterns.
As of , Airship maintains offices in Portland, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, New York City, London, Paris, New Delhi, Munich, and Singapore.
History
Established in 2009 by Steven Osborn, Scott Kveton, Adam Lowry, and Michael Richardson, Airship secured $1.1 million during its Series A round in February 2010 and followed with $5.4 million in Series B financing by November that year. On November 5, 2011, the company raised $15.1 million in Series C funding from investors including Salesforce.com, Intel, and Verizon.
Additional funding rounds included $25 million in February 2013 from Foundry Group, Intel Capital, True Ventures, and Verizon; $12.1 million in Series D financing in October 2014; and a further $9 million in venture capital by February 2015—cumulatively totaling $67.6 million. A $25 million Series F round led by Foundry Group was completed in June 2018.
Leadership transitions saw Scott Kveton resign as CEO in July 2014, with Brett Caine—formerly president of Citrix Online—taking over the role in October of the same year. In November 2016, Airship introduced messaging APIs named Open Channels and Open Profiles. The company launched a beta version of its iOS SDK in September 2018.
In June 2019, the organization rebranded from Urban Airship to Airship while broadening its portfolio of mobile customer engagement products.
Acquisitions
On October 31, 2011, Airship purchased SimpleGeo for approximately $3.5 million. SimpleGeo offered developer tools for building location-based mobile applications and had collaborated with Airship prior to the acquisition. SimpleGeo’s services were discontinued on March 31, 2012.
In December 2012, Airship acquired Tello—a startup backed by True Ventures—in an all-stock transaction to incorporate Tello’s Apple Passbook management solution, PassTools, into its platform.
Airship expanded its product offerings further by acquiring Apptimize, a San Francisco-based user experience testing firm, in August 2019.
The most recent acquisition occurred in September 2020 when Airship obtained SMS commerce provider ReplyBuy for an undisclosed sum to enhance its mobile commerce capabilities.