Urban Airship

Urban Airship
Private startup
Founded 2009
Founder Steven Osborn, Scott Kveton, Adam Lowry, Michael Richardson
Headquarters Portland, OR, USA
Products Push Notifications, Rich Push, Push Composer, Reports, In-Apps Purchase, Subscriptions [1]
Slogan "Powering Modern Mobile"
Website www.urbanairship.com

Urban Airship is an American mobile technology company. It provides tools and services designed for mobile application developers to easily enhance their applications with audience engagement services, such as push notifications and integrated rich text notifications and in-app pages.[2] The company is headquartered in Portland, Oregon.

Products

Urban Airship primarily provides app developers the ability to easily add features such as creation and delivery of enhanced push notifications and a digital wallet, as well as reporting on the use of those features back to app developers. The company offers these services on Android, iOS, Windows 8, and BlackBerry.,[3] and has recently announced that it now provides native support for the Amazon Fire Phone,[4] and the enhanced notification features that are introduced in the iOS 8 Operating System.[5]

History

In 2009, Urban Airship was founded by Steven Osborn, Scott Kveton (long-time CEO), Adam Lowry, and Michael Richardson. The company received $1.1 million in Series A funding in February 2010,[6] and then received $5.4 million in Series B funding in November of the same year.[7] On November 5, 2011 Urban Airship received $15.1 million in Series C funding from Salesforce.com, Intel, and Verizon, among others.[8]

In 2011, Urban Airship acquired SimpleGeo on October 31, 2011 in an all-stock deal reportedly worth $3,000,000.[9] SimpleGeo developed toolsets allowing developers to more easily create location aware mobile applications and had partnered with Urban Airship for an integrated solution shortly before their acquisition. Urban Airship discontinued SimpleGeo services on March 31, 2012.[10][11]

In December 2012, Urban Airship acquired Tello, another True Ventures-backed startup. Urban Airship acquired Tello in an all-stock deal in order to integrate PassTools, Tello's Apple Passbook management product, into its current offering.[12]

Kveton's Departure

In July 2014, Scott Kveton stepped down as CEO amid allegations of sexual assault from a former girlfriend that had been published in The Oregonian newspaper.[13] In a memo to Urban Airship employees, Kveton said he had already been considering leaving the company but that his legal troubles accelerated his decision.[14] Shortly following his departure, Urban Airship's CFO, Mike Temple, was named interim CEO.[15]

References

  1. ↑ "urbanairship.com/products". Urban Airship.
  2. ↑ Empson, Rip (Apr 3, 2012). "A Brave New Push: Urban Airship Brings Location, Context Targeting To Mobile Notifications". Techcrunch.com.
  3. ↑ Rogoway, Mike (November 6, 2011). "Urban Airship raises $15.1 million amid rising prospects for Portland startups". Oregonlive.com.
  4. ↑ Mayton, Tim (Jun 27, 2014). "Urban Airship Unveils Push and In-App Messaging for Amazon’s Fire Phone".
  5. ↑ Harris, Richard (Jun 5, 2014). "Urban Airship to Offer Upcoming Support for iOS 8 Interactive Notifications and Widgets".
  6. ↑ "Urban Airship Announces Series A Round Led by True Ventures". Fierce Wireless.
  7. ↑ "Urban Airship Closes $5.4 Million Funding Round To Help Power Mobile Apps". Tech Crunch.
  8. ↑ Rogoway, Mike (November 15, 2011). "Intel backs Urban Airship, establishes $100 million fund for mobile investment". The Oregonian. Retrieved November 15, 2011.
  9. ↑ "Urban Airship acquired SimpleGeo (confirmed)". Venture Beat.
  10. ↑ "Urban Airship To Shutter SimpleGeo Services In March, With Factual Picking Up The Slack". TechCrunch.
  11. ↑ "Update on our plan to integrate location and context services into our push messaging platform".
  12. ↑ "Urban Airship Acquires Tello For Apple Passbook Tools". Forbes.
  13. ↑ "Urban Airship CEO Steps Down Amid Sexual Assault Allegations". TechCrunch. 2014-07-09. Retrieved 2014-07-22.
  14. ↑ "Knowing when the time has come". Urban Airship Blog. 2014-07-08. Retrieved 2014-07-22.
  15. ↑ Fried, Ina (Jul 8, 2014). "Urban Airship CEO Takes "Extended Leave of Absence" Amid Sexual Assault Allegations".

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Urban Airship.