Social media marketing technology player looks to shore up its market position with its seventh acquisition in 18 months, following a US$1bn market valuation and $46m cash injection
US-based social media management player, Sprinklr, has made its seventh acquisition in 18 months, purchasing text analytics vendor, NewBrand, to up the ante on social and customer engagement data insights across its platform.
NewBrand provides location-specific text analytics software which looks at unstructured big data around social and customer engagement. In a statement, Sprinklr said the new capabilities will allow its clients to unearth a deeper layer of customer insight across more than 20 social channels.
As part of the deal, NewBrand’s Washington DC headquarters and 40 staff will become Sprinklr’s 11th global office. NewBrand’s clients include Hyatt, Kohl’s, Subway and Marriott. The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
“We’ve built Sprinklr to be a complete social operating system,” said Sprinklr founder and CEO, Ragy Thomas. “Adding NewBrand’s industry context and predictive analytics will allow us to continue to build a ‘brain’ that allows customer-facing teams to create more relevant and valuable experiences that simply cannot be achieved by existing engagement and analytics point solutions.”
Sprinkler has been on the acquisition rampage since 2014, picking up a host of emerging players and potential rivals in the social media marketing technology as it shores up its position as a dominant player in managing earned, owned and paid social engagement. This consolidation also illustrates the rapid changes and maturity of the social media marketing and management landscape.
Spinklr’s most recent purchase was Brazilian social management vendor, Scup, in May. Other acquisitions were online community management platforms, Get Satisfaction and Pluck; social marketing solutions vendor, Dachis Group, social advertising vendor, TBG Digital; and social media tools maker, Branderati.
The latest acquisition comes just a couple of months after Spinklr raised US$46 million in funding and was valued at more than $1 billion. At the time, Sprinklr Thomas claimed the valuation was “conservative”, and based on a “very conservative multiple of our recurring annual revenue”.
Spinklr was founded in 2009 and according to CrunchBase, had already generated US$123.5 million in funding around five rounds from three investors at the start of this year. It also now has more than 500 staff. Customers include GM, Intel, Virgin America, Accenture and Microsoft.
Alongside its acquisitions spree, Sprinklr launched its new-look Sprinklr Experience Cloud in March, an infrastructure platform aimed at connecting all of a brand’s social touchpoints and digital properties, and allowing them to integrate and manage all customer engagement across social channels, websites and commerce.
The vendor also recently established a joint venture in Japan in April in partnership with local investors Piped Bits, Recruit Strategic Partners and Suneight Investments.
While Sprinklr has not yet launched an Australian office, the company has indicated that it plans to.
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