Gummicube Inc., which helps companies market their apps on Apple's App Store and Google Play, has been acquired by a rival company.
Airship Group Inc. purchased the San Jose startup in a deal the companies announced Wednesday. The Portland company offers a service that helps companies send messages and alerts to their app users to keep them engaged and increase revenue. Airship and Gummicube see their services as complementary.
"Together with Airship, we're solving a more complete problem for our shared customers," Dave Bell, Gummicube's CEO and co-founder, told the Business Journal.
The companies declined to disclose the financial terms of their deal. Post-merger, Bell and co-founder Anh Nguyen will become Gummicube's co-general managers.
Bell wasn't necessarily focused on selling his company. Founded in 2009, Gummicube had raised less than $1 million combined in venture funding in a pair of seed rounds in 2014 and 2015, according to PitchBook Data.
After Gummicube doubled its revenue between 2020 and 2021, Bell and his co-founder, Anh Nguyen, felt like the company was ready to evolve its business. The obvious next step was to help its clients attract and retain customers after those customers download the clients' apps. To evolve Gummicube business, Bell and Nguyne figured they needed to either raise some new funding or team up with another company, and were open to either scenario.
After meeting Airship CEO Brett Caine and his team, they figured they'd found a good match.
"They already had a lot of the products that we thought our customers needed," Bell said.
For Airship, acquiring Gummicube allows it to help app developers one step earlier in the marketing process, reaching their potential customers even before they've downloaded an app, Caine told the Business Journal.
Gummicube has about 80 employees, most of whom work remotely. Airship, which has raised $100 million to date, according to PitchBook, has no plans to restructure the company or cut its staff, Caine said. Instead it plans to add to Gummicube's workforce, he said.
"We run the company with an eye toward responsible growth," he said. "A big part of making this acquisition is to not just bring the team over, but to invest in growth in the team." Caine said.
Airship plans to retain a presence in the South Bay, but it's not clear yet whether it will keep Gummicube's office, located at 50 E. St. John St., after the lease there expires, Airship spokesman Corey Gault said. The company does plan to open its San Francisco office to Gummicube workers, Gault said.
Regardless, both companies intend to continue their remote-first work policies, Bell said.
"As people have had the flexibility to work from home and go in as they need to, I think productivity has increased and happiness has increased," he said.
