Khoros, LLC

Spredfast was founded in 2008 by a group of software engineers and social marketing experts based in Austin, Texas. Spredfast grew quickly as a startup, raising almost $140 million in funding from 2008-2016.[2]

In 2012, Spredfast launched their first annual user conference, Smart Social Summit, with the goal of helping social media marketers learn from peers and industry leaders. The 2012 event was located in Austin, but due to its popularity, Spredfast held additional Smart Social Summits in New York and London in subsequent years. Speakers at these events have included Michelle Obama, Arianna Huffington, and Trevor Noah.[3][4]

In April 2014, Spredfast acquired Mass Relevance, a social curation company whose technology aggregates and filters tweets to be displayed on broadcast TV.[5] In August 2015, Spredfast acquired data-focused social marketing company Shoutlet.[6]

Before announcing its merger with Lithium in 2018, Spredfast had more than 500 employees and more than 650 customers in 84 countries.[7]

Lithium was founded in 2001 by a group including Dennis Fong, Lyle Fong, Michel Thouati, Kirk Yokomizo, John Joh, Nader Alizadeh, Michael Yang, and Matt Ayres. From the time of its founding to the time of its acquisition in 2017, Lithium secured over $150 million in funding through multiple rounds of investment.[8]

In late 2008, Lithium completed a detailed analysis of a decade's worth of proprietary data that represents billions of interactions and millions of users across dozens of communities. This research helped Lithium contribute to a new standard for measuring online community health – the Community Health Index.[9]

On May 11, 2010, Lithium acquired social media monitoring (SMM) provider Scout Labs, whose service allows brands to engage with their customers beyond the community and monitor, map, and measure customer conversations on the social web.[10]

In October 2012, Lithium acquired the Austin-based company Social Dynamx, which provided cloud-based software that allows large call centers to manage their social customer service.[11] Lithium renamed the former Social Dynamx product "Lithium Social Web" and integrated it with its core Lithium Communities product.

On March 27, 2014: Lithium Technologies acquired Klout, a software that rates users’ influence on social media. The higher a user’s “Klout Score,” the more influential they were on social media. Lithium closed the service on May 25, 2018.[12]

In June 2015, Microsoft and Lithium signed a strategic alliance agreement to integrate Lithium social media and community data into Microsoft Dynamics.[13]

In May 2017, Lithium announced that it had been acquired by Vista Equity Partners, an Austin-based private equity firm focused on software, data, and technology-enabled businesses.[14] In October 2018, Vista Equity Partners acquired Spredfast and announced that it would be merged with Lithium Technologies.[15]

On March 5, 2019, Spredfast and Lithium formally announced their new name: Khoros, the Greek word for chorus, reflecting the new company’s goal of being a truth-teller, source of wisdom, and melody-maker in a dissonant world.

In August 2019, Khoros announced that Jack Blaha would take over as chief executive officer. Blaha was formerly CEO at Lone Wolf Technologies, another company in the Vista Equity Partners portfolio.

On September 23, 2019, Khoros opened its new office in Northwest Austin.

Khoros offers three main solutions to its customers: Marketing, Care, and Communities. Each Khoros product falls under one of the three. In addition to these software products, Khoros also has a Strategic Services division, composed of strategy experts who provide Khoros customers with various digital marketing services.

Khoros Marketing enables businesses with software to simplify their social marketing operations. The marketing solution contains three products — Social Marketing, Intelligence, and Experiences — that feature publishing, labeling, risk management, hashtag research, and content management capabilities, among others.

Khoros Care is a platform that helps businesses manage customer service across a variety of digital channels. Khoros Care encompasses four products including Messaging, Chatbot, Response, and Modern Chat.

Khoros Communities are digital engagement platforms that allow fans of a brand to interact with one another — and with the brand — on the brand’s website. Features include user roles and ranks, analytics and reporting, gamification, and integration with other technologies.

Khoros offers customers the option of hiring Strategic Services to support their digital marketing efforts across the Marketing, Care, and Communities products. Khoros Strategic Services focuses on content strategy and creation, organic social media management, analytics and reporting, pay-per-click advertising, and other digital marketing services.

• 2020 — recognized as “Top Rated” software by TrustRadius in five categories (Social Media Marketing, Social Media Management, Social Media Analytics, Social Media Customer Service, Community Platforms).[16]
• 2020 — awarded Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service (Customer Service Training Team of the Year - External - Technology Industries, Innovation in Customer Service - Computer Industries, Customer Service Training or Coaching Program of the Year - Technology Industries, Best Use of Customer Insight).[17]
• 2020 — recognized in Built In Austin’s Best Places to Work list (#1 Best Place to Work, #3 Best Perks and Benefits, #33 Best Paying Companies).[18]

• 2015 — won an Emmy award in Technology & Engineering for work on campaigns such as President Barack Obama's Twitter Town Hall Meeting.[19]

• 2016 — named by analyst firm IDC as a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Online Communities 2016 Vendor Assessment.[20]
• 2014, 2015, 2016 — named by Gartner as a Visionary in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for the CRM Customer Engagement Center.[21][22]
• 2016 — awarded Elite status on the 2016 CRM Watchlist, alongside Microsoft and Salesforce.[23]
• 2016 — named to the Forbes Cloud 100, a list of leading up-and-comers in the field selected by Forbes and list partners Bessemer Venture Partners and Salesforce Ventures.[24][25]
• 2015 — won the WebAward for Best Computer: Software Website.[26]
• 2014 — won a Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Award as one of the best companies to work for in the world that year.[27]
• 2012 — named by The Wall Street Journal as one of the top 50 venture-capital-backed companies in the world.[28]