Sprout Social, Inc.

What does Sprout Social own?
Sprout Social owns its social media management platform and the modules built from its acquisitions: Listening, Influencer Marketing, Employee Advocacy, and NewsWhip media monitoring.

Is Sprout Social publicly traded?
Yes. Sprout Social trades on NASDAQ under the ticker SPT. It went public in December 2019.

Who founded Sprout Social?
Justyn Howard, Aaron Rankin, Gilbert Lara, and Peter Soung founded the company on April 21, 2010, in Chicago. Howard is now executive chairman and Rankin is CTO.

Where is Sprout Social headquartered?
Sprout Social is headquartered at 131 South Dearborn Street in Chicago, Illinois, with additional offices and teams in Seattle, Dublin, and Warsaw.

How many brands does Sprout Social own?
Sprout Social operates under one master brand. Its acquired products have been folded into the platform as modules rather than maintained as separate brands.

Who owns Sprout Social?
Sprout Social is owned by its public shareholders, with institutional investors including NEA-affiliated funds among the largest holders. No single investor or founder holds voting control.

Sprout Social was founded in Chicago on April 21, 2010, by Justyn Howard, Aaron Rankin, Gilbert Lara, and Peter Soung. The founders came out of Chicago's software scene, where Howard had worked in enterprise sales at learning management vendor Learn.com. They built the first version of the platform to solve a problem they saw in that work: businesses had no coherent way to manage the fast-multiplying social channels their customers used.

The company raised early funding from Lightbank, the Chicago venture fund founded by Groupon's backers, and from New Enterprise Associates. It grew steadily through the 2010s, distinguishing itself on interface design and an early bet on a unified social inbox that treated social networks as customer service channels, not just broadcast media.

Sprout Social went public on NASDAQ in December 2019, raising about $145 million and trading under the ticker SPT. The IPO made it one of relatively few Chicago SaaS companies to reach the public markets. Post-listing growth accelerated: revenue rose from $103 million in 2019 to $458 million in 2025, roughly quadrupling in six years.

The company made several acquisitions to extend its platform, including social analytics firm Simply Measured in 2017, employee advocacy tool Bambu in 2021, AI listening provider Repustate in 2023, influencer marketing platform Tagger Media in 2023, and NewsWhip for media monitoring in 2024. Each was folded into the core platform rather than kept standalone.

Leadership transitioned in 2024. Howard, CEO since founding, moved to executive chairman in October and handed the role to Ryan Barretto, who had run go-to-market as president. Co-founder Aaron Rankin remains CTO and a director. In February 2026 the company guided toward a 30 percent Rule of 40 target by the fourth quarter of 2027, signaling a shift from growth-at-all-costs toward profitable expansion.

Sprout Social has been repeatedly recognized as a top workplace. It was named a Fortune Best Workplace in Chicago in 2025 and a US News and World Report Best Place to Work for 2025 to 2026, and it appears regularly on Built In and Glassdoor employer rankings. G2, the software review platform, has ranked Sprout among the top products in social media management for consecutive years based on user reviews.

Sprout Social has a clean regulatory record with no significant controversies of public record. Its principal business criticisms are ordinary for its category: periodic price increases, feature gating between tiers, and dependence on platform APIs whose terms are set by Meta, X, and TikTok. The company has not disclosed a material security breach or faced regulatory penalties.