Who Owns Yext?
Yext is the flagship product and brand of Yext Inc., the publicly traded company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker YEXT. Founded in 2006 and headquartered in New York City, Yext operates a digital presence platform used by multi-location brands to manage listings, reviews, local pages, and AI-era search visibility. Fiscal 2026 revenue was $446.6 million.
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Who Owns Yext?
- Parent Company: Yext, Inc.
- Ownership Type: Brand division
- Company Type: Publicly Traded
- Stock Ticker: NYSE: YEXT
| Brand | Parent Company | Ownership Type |
|---|---|---|
| Yext | Yext, Inc. | Brand division |
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History of Yext
- Founded: 2006
- Founders: Howard Lerman, Brian Distelburger, Brent Metz
Howard Lerman, Brian Distelburger, and Brent Metz founded Yext in 2006 in New York City, initially as a pay-per-call advertising technology business under the name LocalEdge. The company pivoted to its defining product in 2011 with PowerListings, a tool that let businesses manage their location data across a network of online directories and search sites.
The insight behind the product was that location data was fragmented across dozens of directories, GPS providers, and early voice assistants, and businesses had no centralized way to control how they appeared. Yext built a network of publisher integrations that let enterprise customers update listings at scale, a model that took hold as multi-location brands struggled with the problem.
The company raised venture capital through the 2010s, achieving unicorn status before its April 2017 IPO on the NYSE. Yext expanded its product to add Pages for local search landing pages, Reviews for reputation management, and Search for building site-search experiences, consolidating under the digital presence platform positioning it uses today.
Growth slowed after the IPO and the stock spent years below its debut price, drawing activist investor attention and a 2022 leadership change to CEO Michael Walrath. The 2024 acquisition of Hearsay Systems, a compliance-focused client engagement platform for financial services, added a vertical product line and contributed to renewed growth. Fiscal 2026, ended January 31, 2026, produced revenue of $446.6 million, up 6.1 percent, with the company reporting its strongest profitability metrics in its public history.
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About Yext, Inc.
What does Yext own?
Yext owns its digital presence platform including listings, pages, reviews, search, and the Scout analytics product, plus Hearsay by Yext for social media management and compliant client engagement. It operates as a single-brand software company.
Is Yext publicly traded?
Yes. Yext trades on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker YEXT, having gone public in April 2017. No single shareholder controls the company.
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Who founded Yext?
Howard Lerman, Tom Dixon, and Brent Metz founded Yext in 2006 in New York City. Lerman served as CEO until 2022, when chairman Michael Walrath succeeded him.
Where is Yext headquartered?
Yext is headquartered in New York City, with offices supporting its global operations in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.
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How many customers does Yext have?
Approximately 5,000 enterprise customers use the Yext platform as of fiscal 2026, concentrated in multi-location industries including retail, healthcare, financial services, and hospitality.
Who owns Yext?
Yext is a widely held public company. Institutional investors own most shares, with founder Howard Lerman and CEO Michael Walrath holding significant individual positions.
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- Founded: 2006
- Headquarters: New York, New York, USA
- Company Type: Publicly Traded
- Stock: NYSE: YEXT
- Revenue: $446.6 million (FY2026, ended January 31, 2026)
- Employees: Approximately 1,100 to 1,300
Where Is Yext Made / Based?
- Headquarters: New York, New York, USA
Yext Categories & Tags
Yext Recalls & Controversies
Yext has a relatively clean public record compared to peers in consumer technology. Its controversies have been commercial and governance related rather than product or safety issues.
The company faced activist investor pressure in the years before the 2022 leadership change, with shareholders pressing for strategic review amid sustained underperformance of the stock since the 2017 IPO. That pressure contributed to the management transition and a broader restructuring that reduced headcount and refocused the product roadmap.
The 2024 acquisition of Hearsay Systems drew some criticism that Yext was buying growth rather than generating it organically, though the deal proved accretive to revenue and contributed to the fiscal 2026 performance. No regulatory, antitrust, or legal controversies have attached to the company in its public history.
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Yext Ownership: Pros & Cons
Advantages
- +Single-class share structure and no controlling shareholder keeps governance transparent
- +Category-defining position in digital presence management with a deep publisher network
- +Enterprise customer base provides sticky, high-value subscriptions with strong retention
- +Newly achieved profitability and positive free cash flow validate the restructuring strategy
- +AI answer engine visibility is a genuinely new market the platform is positioned to address
Considerations
- -Stock remains well below its 2017 IPO price, reflecting years of underperformance
- -Growth depends heavily on the Hearsay acquisition and on proving the AI visibility thesis
- -Competition from broader martech platforms and from free Google Business Profile tools is real
- -The market for traditional listings management faces pressure as search behavior shifts to AI
- -Public market skepticism has kept valuation depressed despite improving fundamentals
Frequently Asked Questions About Yext
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Sources & Further Reading
Competitors to Yext
No direct competitors found in the same category. This could be because Yextoperates in a unique market segment or we're still building our competitor database.
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Yext, Inc. Stock Information
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