Urban Airship Raises $25 Million to Accelerate Global Leadership in Mobile Engagement and Relationship-Building Solutions

PORTLAND, OR--(Marketwire - Feb 6, 2013) - Urban Airship, the global leader in mobile push messaging that builds relationships with connected consumers, today announced that it has secured $25 million in funding from August Capital, as well as existing investors Foundry Group, Intel Capital, True Ventures and Verizon. August Capital led the financing with its co-founder John Johnston joining Urban Airship's Board of Directors. The investment brings the total raised by Urban Airship to $46.6 million, and follows on the heels of the company's acquisition of Tello, Inc.'s PassTools.

The funding will enable Urban Airship to arm more marketers with the highly targeted, context-aware solutions necessary to earn mobile customer loyalty, accelerating its business in three main areas: rapid advancements in its high-performance and location push messaging platforms; capitalizing on digital wallet and Apple® Passbook® opportunities; and driving rapid international expansion. In 2012, Urban Airship grew revenues more than 400 percent, doubled its staff, won major industry accolades including the Mobile Marketing Association's Global Enabling Technology Company of the Year and CTIA's Best Emerging Mobile Marketing & Advertising Solution, and acquired its second company to enable mobile marketers to engage consumers with or without an app.

"The pace of smartphone and tablet adoption is faster than any other technology, and Urban Airship has proven its ability to offer the largest organizations in the world the type of precision-targeting necessary to reach mobile consumers in relevant and meaningful ways," said John Johnston, co-founder and partner, August Capital. "We're thrilled to be getting on-board the Airship, and are extremely enthusiastic for the team's vision for the future."

Gartner estimates that the 45 billion app downloads in 2012 -- double that of 2011 -- will be nearly seven-fold in 2016 (Predicts 2013: Businesses Will Take Consumer Apps to the Next Level, 11/23/2012). Effective use of push messaging has been shown to double app user retention and quadruple engagement levels, making this new communications channel a critical and increasingly primary method of mobile customer engagement. Urban Airship's solutions make it easy to add customer- and location-targeted push messaging to apps across all major mobile operating systems, and now empower brands to engage consumers with or without an app through PassTools' streamlined creation and management of Apple Passbook passes.

"As the mobile relationship imperative moves from early adopters to the wide majority, we are in a fortunate position to be the platform of choice that brands and other technology vendors alike turn to for the ability to speak to mobile users in a way that's personally relevant to them," said Scott Kveton, co-founder and CEO, Urban Airship. "We achieved massive growth in 2012, quadrupling both push volumes and revenue, and this infusion will allow us to set a new pace of innovation in helping brands achieve their goals."

About Urban Airship
Urban Airship enables brands to build relationships with their always-connected customers through services that streamline delivering highly targeted, cross-platform mobile push messages and Apple Passbook passes. Billions of push messages and tens of thousands of passes are delivered each month, sparking exceptional consumer experiences, driving app engagement and increasing customer loyalty and lifetime value for leading brands such as CBS Interactive, ESPN, Groupon, shopkick, Walgreens, Warner Bros. and Waze. The company's solutions handle the end-to-end process of high-performance push messaging, location-targeted messaging and Passbook pass management. For more information, visit www.urbanairship.com and follow us on Twitter @urbanairship.