Sprinklr, the New York-based social media management firm that helps companies deal with their ever-expanding number of accounts on Facebook and Twitter en masse, is hoping to file for an IPO in about seven months or so, a source tells Business Insider.
Sprinklr has flown mostly under the radar until recently. Its business is somewhat difficult to describe, but "social media CRM at enterprise scale" might be one label you could put on it.
Basically, large companies like Virgin might sell hundreds of different products in dozens of different companies. If each product in each company needs a Twitter and a Facebook account to talk to customers, then that requires thousands of different social media accounts that all need to be managed centrally. Sprinkr sits on top of that mess and simplifies the whole thing. Sprinklr's clients have included DuPont, GM, Virgin America, Cisco, and Dell.
Yesterday Sprinklr announced it had received a new investment round of $40 million, bringing its total funding to $68 million. Not included in that announcement, however, was a key piece of info: CEO Ragy Thomas wants to take his company public once it has reached sufficient scale. Thomas declined comment when Business Insider contacted him.
Sprinklr was No.15 in Business Insider's ranking of hottest adtech IPO candidates. It has 300 employees. Its revenues are a closely guarded secret.
Sprinklr also acquired Dachis Group recently for an undisclosed sum. One issue Thomas will need to sort out before an IPO filing occurs: What to do with its relationship with Simon Mansell's TBG Digital. TBG, a major buyer of Facebook ads, is essentially functioning as Sprinklr's ad buying arm right now.
Here's our speculation: Sprinklr will buy TBG and wrap it into the company the way Twitter did with MoPub. We're not saying that's going to happen; just that it's an obvious option for Sprinklr.
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