Urban Airship

Pioneer and established leader in mobile push notifications and app experience management, now competing as a full-stack mobile customer engagement platform under the Airship brand

Urban Airship was founded in 2009 in Portland, Oregon, as one of the earliest and most influential mobile engagement platforms. The company built its reputation by pioneering push notification infrastructure at scale, helping brands reach mobile users at the right moment with personalized, contextually relevant messages. Its platform expanded over time to encompass in-app messaging, mobile wallet (Apple Wallet and Google Pay passes), SMS, email, and a broader customer engagement suite that positioned it as a full-stack mobile marketing automation provider. At its peak, Urban Airship served thousands of enterprise customers across retail, media, travel, and financial services, processing billions of messages per month. The company raised over $77 million in venture funding and became a recognized leader in the mobile marketing space, competing with the likes of Braze, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, and Leanplum. Its deep technical expertise in mobile SDKs, real-time data pipelines, and cross-channel orchestration gave it a strong foothold with large enterprise brands seeking sophisticated mobile engagement capabilities. In 2019, the company rebranded to Airship, reflecting its evolution beyond push notifications into a broader customer experience platform. Marlin Equity Partners acquired the company, providing private equity backing to fuel continued product development and go-to-market expansion. Today the platform — operating under the Airship brand — continues to serve enterprise clients globally, offering a unified suite for app experience management, no-code native app experiences, and real-time customer engagement across mobile and digital channels.