Ragy Thomas founded Sprinklr in 2009. Then, the New York startup garnered a reputation for its social media tools, which helped companies communicate with their customers on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
In 2016, Thomas was ready to grow the company into something bigger and better, with a new focus on customer experience. This resulted in Sprinklr’s unicorn valuation. Though, this move also caused a mass exodus by both customers and employees. "We had a dark year," Thomas told Forbes.
In 2017, Sprinklr expanded its platform and introduced a suite of digital solutions for each of its major customer-facing departments, including marketing, advertising, research, and engagement. Since then, Sprinklr has acquired several companies. In 2016 the firm acquired Twitter expert Little Bird and in 2019 it bought social advertising firm Nanigans. In 2016, Sprinklr also raised $105 million in a funding round led by Temasek Holdings.
Now, the company has announced a new funding round, where it raised $200 million, bringing its total valuation to $2.7 billion. The round was led by private equity firm Hellman & Friedman which also invested $300 million in buying back secondary shares. Meanwhile the company also announced $150 million in convertible securities from Sixth Street Growth.
This year Sprinklr also announced new AI capabilities for the World Health Organization (WHO) Health Alert interactive service on Facebook Messenger. The new offering allows WHO to use AI to automatically reply to commonly asked questions to increase the speed of delivery and accuracy of crucial COVID-19 facts. The pro-bono collaboration was rolled out in August.
The WHO Health Alert service AI-powered bot is part of Sprinklr’s new Citizen Experience Management Platform. Sprinklr Citizen Experience Management helps organizations make informed decisions, combat misinformation, and ensure that citizens get the facts they need.
Thomas is now feeling more confident about the company’s pivot to customer experience. “We think it’s a $100 billion opportunity and our large public competitors have validated that and continue to do so in the customer experience management space,” he said. These large competitors span the likes of Salesforce, Adobe, Oracle, and IBM.
Today, Sprinklr has 1,000 clients, many who spend millions of dollars per year. With 1,900 employees across 25 offices globally, the company hopes to add another 500 jobs over the next 12 months.
