Khoros

Austin, TX, USA Software Acquired

Khoros is a US-based customer engagement software company offering an enterprise platform spanning online community management, social media marketing and management, digital customer care (contact center), and content management. The company was formed in 2019 through the merger of Lithium Technologies (founded 2001) and Spredfast (founded 2008), both portfolio companies of Vista Equity Partners. Khoros' platform is used by global enterprise brands and agencies to manage branded online communities, peer-to-peer support, social listening, social publishing, and AI-augmented customer service. The company is headquartered in Austin, Texas. In May 2025, Vista Equity Partners sold Khoros to IgniteTech (an Austin-based AI-focused enterprise software holding led by CEO Eric Vaughan), ending Vista's roughly eight-year ownership of the underlying assets.

Acquired

Khoros has been acquired

Acquired by Vista Equity Partners July 28, 2017 Undisclosed

This company is no longer available on our private secondary market.

Overview

Company data and valuation marks are estimates and may be incomplete, stale, erroneous, or revised.

Founded

2019

Employees

500–1,000

Total Funding

$152M

1 rounds

Funding

Total raised $152M across 1 rounds

Funding data and valuation marks are estimates and may be incomplete, stale, erroneous, or revised.

Last updated 06-25-2026

Latest Round

Type

private_equity_buyout

Date

May 30, 2017

Amount

Undisclosed (Vista Equity Partners acquires Lithium Technologies)

Valuation

Lead Investors

Vista Equity Partners

Leadership

  • Eric Vaughan

    CEO (via IgniteTech)

  • Michael Puhala

    Chief Community Evangelist

Competitors

Competitor list is illustrative and may be incomplete, stale, or erroneous.

  • Sprinklr

    Publicly traded (NYSE: CXM) unified customer experience management platform spanning social media management, listening, marketing, advertising, research, care, and engagement; Khoros' most direct enterprise competitor across communities, social, and digital care.

  • Sprout Social

    Publicly traded (NASDAQ: SPT) social media management and customer engagement SaaS; overlaps strongly with Khoros' social publishing, analytics, and engagement modules.

  • Hootsuite

    Privately held social media management platform; competes with Khoros on social publishing, scheduling, listening, and analytics for mid-market and enterprise teams.

  • Salesforce (Service Cloud / Experience Cloud)

    Publicly traded (NYSE: CRM) enterprise software giant whose Service Cloud (digital care) and Experience Cloud (branded communities) directly compete with Khoros Care and Khoros Communities, especially for accounts already on Salesforce CRM.

  • Higher Logic (incl. Vanilla Forums)

    Privately held community management platform serving associations and B2B enterprises; competes head-to-head with Khoros Communities for branded online community deployments.

  • Verint Systems (Verint Community)

    Publicly traded (NASDAQ: VRNT) customer engagement and workforce-engagement provider whose Community product (formerly Telligent) competes with Khoros Communities in enterprise CX deployments.

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Data collected with AI, which can make mistakes. Please double-check this information.