Sprout Social acquires Tagger Media for $140 million

Social media management software Sprout Social announced recently that it has acquired influencer marketing and social intelligence platform Tagger Media, for $140 million. With the acquisition, Sprout Social aims to establish itself as the leader in the social media software market. 

Tagger Media, which was founded in 2015 by Tech & Media pioneer Peter Kennedy, has a unified SaaS solution that enables brands and agencies to discover influencers, plan and manage campaigns, analyze competitor strategies, report on trends and measure ROI. 

“We started Tagger because we saw extraordinary potential in the creator economy and knew there was an opportunity to build disruptive and innovative software for brands,” said Pete Kennedy. “We’re delighted to execute together on a shared vision to define this rapidly emerging market.”

“We believe Sprout’s incredible brand recognition, well-refined go-to-market strategy and industry-leading software will enable us to further accelerate the opportunities for our employees and the value we deliver to our customers,” said Dave Dickman, Tagger’s CEO. “We’re motivated to establish ourselves as the category winner in influencer marketing.”

Founded in 2010 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, Sprout Social offers a social media management and analytics software which is currently used by over 30,000 brands. With the acquisition of Tagger Media, the company enters into the influencer marketing space which is estimated currently at a record $21.1 billion globally. 

“As influencer marketing has changed the way brands build awareness and connection, our customers are increasingly demanding to break the workflow silos between core social media strategies,” said Justyn Howard, Sprout Social’s CEO and Co-Founder. “By bringing Tagger’s influencer marketing software into Sprout’s suite of solutions, we have the opportunity to deliver the next generation of social insights to our customers to fuel business strategy and measure the full ROI of holistic social investments. Tagger and Sprout have a shared mission for building powerful and intuitive software and we’re excited to bring our industry-leading products and teams together.”

The acquisition was funded with a combination of cash from Sprout Social’s balance sheet and Sprout’s newly established revolving credit facility.